What Is CMS and How it Can Help Manage Your Website

Do you know what is CMS? This type of software has been more and more used by multiple companies, of different sizes, to optimize work when it comes to maintaining their websites always updated and with fresh content. 

If you are looking for a solution to help you manage your website, automate tasks, enhance its performance and analyze results. A CMS software may be the solution to assist you and your team. 

What is CMS?

Short for Content Management System, a CMS can be defined as a software application that enables you to create a website, publish, edit, and manage its content. Instead of having to develop a system from scratch to build your website, by using a CMS, you can skip that part, and you don’t need to know how to code or design to make your pages.

The CMS gives you all the infrastructure necessary to put a website online, and you can focus on the content and visuals of the website. The software usually counts on pre-built templates that you can select and customize with a design editor to personalize the pages. 

The CMS also provides a content editor where you can modify, review, and publish texts, images, and videos on your page. Besides, it usually gives the option to add multiple people to the same website project. You can include your team, assign roles to them and configure access according to it.

How to Create a Website with a CMS

Now that you know what a CMS is, how can you enjoy its features to have your own website? It takes just a few steps to build your pages with a content management system. You will need to choose the platform that suits your needs best, according to your website and company demands. 

Once you have done it, chosen the CMS plan, and made your account, it’s time to start. You need to buy a domain name, then you can opt to build the whole layout design by yourself, or with your team, or choose a pre-built template. 

In this second case, it’s easier because the design is pre-structured, all you need to do is arrange the details, choose the color palette, insert the page elements you wish, position and resize them. 

CMS software often provides an easy-to-use website builder with an intuitive interface that will facilitate that process. After you have made the pages, review them, test the usability, and publish. 

With the website available, you can use the content editor to create and publish new blog articles, for instance, and also modify what was already published. Many Content Management Systems allow you to build online stores as well and provide ecommerce management tools.

Benefits of Using a CMS

Doesn’t Require Coding Experience

One of the great benefits of using CMS software is that you won’t have to rely on programmers every time you need to make a change on your website. Everyone on your team, from marketing to web writers can access the web pages, and use the content management system to edit or publish what they need, without having to write any piece of code. 

It Facilitates Collaborative Work

Whether your team is working remotely or in the same office, you have the opportunity to add all of them to the content management system software. Everyone can keep track of the website updates inside the same platform, easily take care of their tasks that involve the website content maintenance, and follow up on what others are doing as well. 

Optimize Your Pages For Search Engines

The best CMS platforms available provide you with SEO tools, which are extremely important to conquer organic visibility and make sure that your pages are seen as relevant by search engines. This can help them to appear on the first search results pages of keywords related to your products and company sector, increasing the number of visitors to your website, and even the number of sales. 

Blogging Functionality

Counting on a CMS makes it much easier to create a blog and maintain it since you will count on the content editor to publish and edit articles. The editor usually gives you several tools not only to personalize the text, such as organizing it in headings, putting words in bold and italic, and choosing the font type, but also to put hyperlinks, images, and videos. 

And you can do all that quickly, review how the content is going to appear on the page, and publish, It facilitates the task of updating the blog regularly, 

How to Choose a CMS: Aspects to Pay Attention

After understanding what a CMS is and knowing some of the benefits it can offer, you may be wondering how to select a content management system. If you make a quick search on Google, you will find a wide range of this type of software, but it’s important to pay attention if it meets some criteria.  

Easy-to-Use

When selecting a CMS, make sure it provides you with an intuitive interface that allows you and your team to enjoy all the features and easily learn how to use them. Most content management systems offer free trials, test them before making the final decision. Remember a CMS is supposed to facilitate the tasks of creating and managing a website, not complicate it. 

Integrations

Does the CMS software offer plugins with the option to integrate with other applications such as marketing tools, analytics, and CRM (customer relationship management)? If you are going to manage an ecommerce, for instance, integrating CRM with the CMS will optimize the work, and save you time. 

Beyond that, it’s simpler to work with the main platforms you use daily integrated, with all the information aligned, it reduces the chances of errors. So, check which integrations the CMS supports.  

SEO Tools

Take a look at the CMS software to make sure it provides you with the following SEO tools:

• Customize URLs;
• Write meta titles and meta descriptions;
• Add alt text to images;
• Have a responsive design.

Web Analytics Tools

How are you going to measure the performance of your pages? To do that, it’s important to count on web analytics tools that give you valuable data, such as conversion rates, main sources of traffic, average time spent on each page, exit pages, bounce rates, and much more. 

The CMS software should provide those tools or allow you to integrate them. Through it, you can analyze the KPIs, identify what needs to be enhanced on your website, and get to know your customers’ behavior better. 

Scalability

Does the CMS software give you flexibility in case you need to expand your website? For example, when it comes to storage space and bandwidth limit, it’s important to be able to increase it.

As you invest in marketing strategies to promote your brand and website, your traffic may grow considerably, and that’s what you wish for, right? So, the website needs to have a good infrastructure to avoid downtime in case of traffic peaks. Therefore, the CMS must enable you to scale up.

Customer Support

The CMS of your choice should provide you with great customer support. In case of any doubt or problem. It’s fundamental to count on a team of specialists that will be able to give you the necessary assistance, avoiding having your website unavailable, for instance. Check the contact options the CMS company offers, and if it’s 24/7. 

Cost

You are going to see that there are CMS software plans with a wide range of prices available on the market. It’s necessary to set your budget, then list the essential features you need in a content management system. After it, research the options available and, if necessary, test more than one of them. 

6 Best CMS Platforms

1. Wix

Known as one of the best CMS in the world, Wix allows you to create your website, including online stores, using pre-built templates and personalizing everything at the drag-and-drop editor. You will find multiple tools to help you manage your website, such as an SEO toolset, analytics, and reports features, app integrations, and marketing solutions. 

Highlighted features:

• Easy-to-use interface
• Wix Editor
• Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence)
• Custom domain name
• Logo maker
• Analytics and reports
• SEO tools
• Ecommerce management tools
• App integrations
• Free hosting

2. Bluehost

Bluehost is an easy-to-use website builder. Start by choosing your domain name, then select a pre-built template and customize it. You can install multiple plugins according to the features you wish to include in your pages, such as forms. The platform will take care of your website security by providing automated security updates, backup data protection, malware detection, and free SSL.

Highlighted features:

• Free domain
• Free SSL
• Free CDN
• Pre-built templates
• Insightful analytics
• Automated security updates
• Backup data protection
• 24/7 support
• SEO tools
• Powerful plugins

3. SITE123

Website editor, predesigned templates, free hosting, SEO tools: those are just some of the features SITE123 offers to enable you to create and manage your website. The platform allows you to have your online store as well, and grow your business online. Besides, you can count on 24/7 customer support to guide you through the process and help with any doubt. 

Highlighted features:

• Pre-built templates
• Website editor
• Responsive design
• Free hosting
• SEO tools
• Custom domains
• Sell online
• 24/7 customer support

4. Hostgator

With Hostgator, you can develop your website, publish and edit content and find the best web hosting option for you to avoid problems such as downtime or slow page load. It offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee, unmetered bandwidth, and a free SSL certificate. You will count on an intuitive website builder and ecommerce management tools too.

Highlighted features:

• Web hosting solutions
• Unmetered bandwidth
• Free SSL certificate
• Intuitive website builder
• Logo maker
• Image library
• Search optimized
• 24/7 customer support

5. Webnode

Webnode provides you with a user-friendly website builder that enables you to use predesigned pages to create your website, customize the layout, and add different types of content. It isn’t necessary to download or install anything to use the CMS, you can enjoy all the features through your browser. 

Highlighted features:

• Website builder
• Intuitive editor
• Predesigned pages
• Reliable hosting
• SEO tools
• Extensive image gallery
• Responsive design
• Traffic overview
• Store management

6. GoDaddy

GoDaddy allows you to create your website for free, then scale up, as you see the need for it. You will find multiple mobile-friendly pre-built templates to start with, then use the editor to customize your pages. If you want to have an ecommerce, the CMS software also provides inventory management tools and enables you to sell on several platforms. 

Highlighted features:

• Website editor
• Pre-built templates
• SSL certificates
• 24/7 customer support
• SEO tools
• Online store creation and management
• Multiple hosting options
• Marketing tools

What Is CMS: The Tool to Grow Your Business

Now that you have a better understanding of what a CMS is, what about testing content management systems to see the one that suits your business best? Creating and managing a website may be no easy task, but it becomes simple when you count on the right apps to optimize the work. 

Remember that a business website is strongly connected to how your brand is perceived by the public. So, you must pay attention to developing pages that have a high-quality design and content. It will impact your brand’s credibility and authority in its sector for the worse or the better. It’s up to you and your team to make good use of the CMS you choose and deliver an incredible user experience.