Content  Management: Why we believe most websites need a content management system

Few websites remain completely static and at some stage the content needs to change. Some sites need changing frequently, even daily. There are good commercial reasons for changing site content, not least the fact that there is nothing worse than a site that gives out of date news or information.

The challenge in managing the content of any website is the fact it is programmed in computer code. That is why website Content Management Systems (known as CMSs) were invented – they offer non-technical users a tool to create, manage and publish web site content quickly and easily.

The fact is that web site content is normally much better generated and managed by someone who writes good copy or can take a good photograph – or better still both! Computer programmers can manage and create content but in general it tends not to be that interesting (but don’t tell the programmers!)

Being able to manage your own website content is non-only more cost effective but also much quicker – you get to publish updated content virtually ‘on demand’ with much quicker turn around times and no bottlenecks.

How content management systems work

A CMS will allow certain areas of your website to be changed, modified or updated. Generally most web site owners ask to do this while still maintaining the ‘brand integrity’ of the website, so the pages on the site are built using set templates that the CMS cannot alter. However, depending on the degree of content management required, and the skill set of the user (we always provide CMS training for site administrators), the CMS can let you manage the following:

• Words and copy
• Prices
• Images
• Documents and pdfs etc
• Audio and video files

All these ‘digital assets’ are stored by the CMS in a reusable fashion and can be managed by content authors through a software application.

Most content management systems provide for the addition of new templated pages, once again drawn from a database of pre-created styles. A CMS should also provide for a ‘Publisher’ or administrator to sign off content prior to upload in cases where content creation may be more broadly distributed.

How easy is it to use a content management system?

Generally a CMS will run using a set of intuitive tools and commands quite familiar to anybody who uses Microsoft Office or even just Microsoft Word. As mentioned above we always provide full content management system training with the sites we build which takes about half a day. We recommend that more than one person learns the CMS as an administrator, and follow a ‘train a trainer’ model so that during CMS training an administrator should be able to learn the system sufficiently to train others back at the office.

What sort of content management system will you need?

As part of the scoping and costing for your web site you will need to ask yourself the following questions:

• Do I only need to change the odd word now and again?
• Will I want my CMS to change words and images?
• Will I use my CMS to replace entire swathes of copy and put whole new articles on pages?
• Will I need my CMS to generate new pages within the existing architecture of the site?
• Will I need my CMS to change the architecture of the site, and do I have the skills to do that (things get a lot more tricky at this stage and it’s best left to experienced developers)

The good news is that whatever levels of content management your site needs A Zero G can provide the tools and the training – anything is possible. If you want to know more about content management systems, please don’t hesitate to conact us.