Efficient website design is all about managing content. It’s about making sure your web site has the right content (text, photos, graphics) at the right time; and that every aspect of that material is well presented – from its creation, to its roll out onto your web site and subsequent updates. There’s a lot involved in maintaining your company’s image online, and a good web designing agency will recommend you get help from an easy to use and powerful Content Management Systems(CMS).
What is a CMS?
Back in the day, when people wanted to communicate, they used typewriters. The introduction of the word processor, and subsequently today’s multifaceted software like Microsoft Word and MS Publisher, caused a paradigm shift in communication. It put the power of communication into the hands of the communicators – removing the “typist” and the “scribe”.
And that’s exactly what CMS’s have done to web site design and management.
At its very basic, a CMS is a software tool that empowers “non technical” individuals to create, edit and update website content. By decoupling the act of managing your website's content from the technical aspect of website designing, the CMS puts more power into the hands of novice website administrators.
In reality though, CMSs offer a lot more power to website owners.
The CMS Unleashed
Here are a few common reasons why any professional web design agency may recommend a business level CMS to its clients:
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Flexibility: CMS’s give you, the business owner, the flexibility to make routine, and sometimes highly time-sensitive changes, to your website by yourself. Adding information about a critical product launch event, or updating the site with a new image of your latest book, can now be done without “technical” assistance. A good web design company will also demo the CMS for you so you can quickly and visually learn how to do these updates with ease.
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Ease: CMS’s come with built in content editing capabilities that makes creating relatively complex web pages a breeze. Sure, you’ll likely still need some professional assistance to produce and update the 'backbone' of your website; but if you are comfortable using Microsoft Word, you’ll probably be able to use the CMS to add, edit and move web pages around by yourself. No HTML, Java script or CSS knowledge required.
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Cutting edge: Website design technologies are continually evolving – almost daily, in fact. It’s hard for non-technical users to stay abreast with all the latest developments and techniques. Most renowned CMS’s will bring their users regular updates and upgrades that maintain cutting edge functionality to their products. You’ll never have to worry about buying the latest upgrades and patches – a good web design support company will be able to upgrade your CMS for you.
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Website facelift capability: Today’s flexible web design approach means content is kept and managed separately from the web page layout and design components. With the help of a CMS, you not only are able to update your content quickly, but you can also give your websites structural facelifts efficiently without professional web designing expertise.
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Internet marketing: Some of the most robust CMS tools are now built to manage email marketing campaigns, social media marketing, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) support and the ability to manage blogs. While a professional web design agency can help you put together your overall internet marketing strategy, you can manage and run those programs independently – on your own terms and time.
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Collaboration: Using a good CMS, you can delegate various aspects of content management throughout your organisation, while still maintaining final editorial control yourself. This ensures that there’s a team approach to producing, reviewing, editing and publishing content for your website.
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Security: With viruses and malware a perpetual threat to your web design, it’s hard to manage your website while worrying about website security. Most quality CMS solutions can offer firewall-type security protection, keeping your content and other web components safe. Security is an important and detailed subject so it's best to discuss this with your web developers and they can put a strong solution in place for your website.
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Standardisation: Any professional web design agency will tell you why standardisation is important: It gives a unified image for your company. By using standardised templates, CMSs make website branding simple and easy to implement across multiple web presences – be they websites, blogs or social media platforms.
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Analytics: Many CMS products come with built-in data analytic capabilities. This means you get to monitor and analyse your website visitor’s behaviour, leading to better conversion strategies and a better understanding of your website visitors interests.
Making The CMS Case
While you will still need to work in collaboration with a professional web designing agency to select and implement your overall CMS strategy, having a good CMS tool within your reach gives you tremendous power to manage and maintain key aspects of your website independent of professional help.
With a business ready CMS working for you, you’ll not only save time and money on common website designing tasks; but your content creation process will became more responsive to your customer’s needs and your business needs. If you would like to discuss your CMS and website requirements call us on 01-6216866 or email info@myit.ie and we'd be happy to discuss a smart solution that will work for your business.
