Why use a content management system (CMS)?

Until content management software became available, businesses built their websites on static pages and uploaded them to servers for delivery to visitors of their websites. Many continue to do this and it’s not bad for a site with one editor and little new content or change. But there are some compelling reasons you should consider CMS.

Here are some of the reasons CMS should be used:

  1. Multiple editors: If you need to give website editing access to several people, there’s no better solution than a content management system. It’s the best way to provide limited, focused access to the areas of your site that need to be updated without opening up the entire site for unintended or unsanctioned changes. New content will always conform to the look and feel of the site as the theme handles what it looks like.
  2. Themes: Rather than creating new pages from scratch, a CMS allows you to rely on templates you can reuse to create as many pages as necessary with the correct layout and functionality on each one. This enables your site to maintain a consistent look as it grows.
  3. Control: A true content management system designed for multiple content contributors doesn’t stop at content creation and publishing. It allows you to customize and implement an editorial process or workflow to ensure all content is reviewed and approved by the right people prior to going live.
  4. Focus: By separating your website content from its design, your content management system allows your marketing team to focus on producing more content to drive website traffic, improve SEO, and convert customers. Removing design and technical skills from the process makes it more efficient.
  5. Global changes: Through the use of templates, reusable files and assets, and various features, a content management system makes it easy to make changes across your entire website without having to update each individual page. Whether it’s a phone number, your logo, or a header image, you can update or change them globally when using a CMS.
  6. Ease of use: Making the management and upkeep of your website a coding-free non-technical task helps you get updates live faster, and also opens your site to more content from a larger group of contributors.
  7. Security: A content management system doesn’t just protect your website from overly enthusiastic content editors. Installed as an application behind your firewall, a decoupled CMS can also ensure that your site is more secure and can’t be easily exploited by hackers.
  8. Analytics: If you’re still uploading static pages, you might not have a good way to collect data on content performance and effectiveness. Measuring the impact of your content is critical to making it a business driver, and CMS should enable you to track performance, or easily integrate third party tools to help you do so.

A content management system is not required for running a website, but it makes that job infinitely easier, and the time spent running the site more productive. If your website is critical to growing demand and sales for your business, implementing a CMS can help you effectively scale your website and digital marketing efforts.

About the Author: Jonathan Handler