Gone are the days of having your website be a static brochure for your company. You need to be adding and changing content on a daily (or at least weekly) basis to really start to enhance your website.
There are many advantages to using a content management system (CMS) for your new site. A CMS is basically a piece of software and a database that runs on your web server. The software has a password-protected administration area where you can make modifications to the information on your website. This simplifies the content editing process. Also, the software has optional add-ons which are relatively easy to install, but provide powerful functionality, like spam prevention, e-commerce, Google Analytics, and more.
One way to visualize a CMS is to picture it as a foundation to build on. You build up your functionality with add-ons and dress it up with the appropriate design and styling. There are lots of reasons to use a CMS, but here are the best ones:
* Don’t call your webmaster for content updates - save money by easily doing it yourself. Your web developer should set you up with an administrative username and password where you can login to make all the changes you need. Find a typo? Navigate to the page and click ‘Edit’ - Done. Need to add a page? Select its position in the menu and type out the page text - Done. In a CMS, the formatting and styling of the site is stored separately from the content, so there’s no risk of messing up the site by making changes to your content. Additionally, you get to handle the updates on your own schedule, so you’re never ‘in line’ for revisions.
* It only takes a minute to add a common, powerful feature. You’ve seen the row of little social networking buttons at the bottom of pages, but don’t think I spent more than a minute implementing it on my site. From the administration end, you simply search for the plug-in, extension, or module you’re looking for, click ‘download & install,’ and it’s automatically activated and shows up at the bottom of all my articles - all in about 30 seconds. That’s not the only quick upgrade - spam-blocking add-ons for your comments, an XML sitemap generator, the Google Analytics tracking software, and tons of other useful apps.
* Google L-O-V-E-S a CMS. Typically, a site with a CMS is updated more frequently than a static site. Since search engines love to index fresh content, it will return more quickly to your site to see what new information you have to offer. To make sure that your pages are easily indexed, I recommend installing the SEO plug-in or module to clean up your URLs, among other things. The SEO plug-in will convert a typical dynamic URL like “http://www.examplesite.com/?=node_22?=story to something nice like http://www.examplesite.com/great-article-title.
* It’s easy to blog when you use the right software. A corporate blog is no longer an option if you want to be a leader in your field. By blogging on topics relevant to your industry, you’re establishing yourself as an industry authority, creating a resource for your visitors and customers, and raising your search engine rankings by becoming a large source of content on your topic. The mainstream content management systems have a blogging plug-in (or are already set up in Blog Mode, like WordPress), making your life easier.
* Sell your wares! If you want to sell products on your website, the VirtueMart extension for Joomla is one of the most popular solutions. The installation process should be handled by an expert, but products and their details can be added, removed, or modified without the help of a techie. A full-featured shopping cart like VirtueMart will handle product management, user accounts, inventory, and even shipping calculations.
In summary, a Web 2.0 CMS is an excellent foundation to build your next website on. Its expandability, reliability, and capabilities can really make life easier for your office, and demonstrates to your customers that you take your business seriously. If you have and questions or comments about anything in this article, please feel free to contact me - tony[at]vanivo[dot]com.