Content Management Systems: Should You Be Using One?

The World Wide Web has evolved significantly from the days of text-based websites full of flash animations. Today, it’s possible for just about anyone to set up and manage their own professional online presence without having to pay excessive amounts of cash for the privilege. A CMS, or content management system, allows you to take control of your website and content without any coding expertise.

Content management systems transform complicated pages of code that developers deal with on a regular basis into a management interface that you can manipulate with ease. Once upon a time, you needed to know HTML, PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript just to get started with building a sophisticated website, but today, anyone can be their own webmaster.

So what are the benefits of using a CMS?

1. You’re the Admin

Through CMS, you can edit content, apply third-party applications, manage users, optimize for searches and choose website designs with ease. A CMS system gives you simple control over all of the backend development that is happening behind the scenes of your website. You don’t have to understand all of the complicated languages that go into making things work, you just have to make decisions based on what fits best with your brand or company.

A CMS allows you to edit, add and delete content within seconds, streamlining the process of content marketing, by helping you to format text, easily add links, tags, and images, and organize your posts into different sections. Some content management systems even come with the added option of scheduling content to be posted at specific times on your blog, thereby freeing up your time for other online marketing activities.

With your own CMS, you can also add new users into the mix, and control what they are allowed to do on your website. Because of this, you can make it simple for employees to log into the CMS and upload new content.

1. You can Extend Your Business

By using a CMS, you remove yourself from the complications of coding and free up time to start building new aspects of your company, from blogs, to support pages, forums, and shops. What’s more, you can add all of these things within the comfort of your own CMS, using plugins.

There are numerous plugins available online today that will give you everything you need to set up online stores, where you can display products on your website and direct users to secure shopping carts. There are even plugins that allow users to post a quote from your page directly onto their Facebook or Twitter wall, thereby boosting your social following.

You can even use plugins to enhance your SEO strategy. Everyone needs their website to be found by as many people as possible to increase their chances of valuable leads. A CMS can simplify the entire process of SEO, by allowing you to use a well-reviewed SEO plugin that reads through your content for you and shows you the areas that need further attention.

1. Content Management Systems save money

If you were hiring a specialist company to carefully manage and control every aspect of your website, then every little tweak would cost you something. With a CMS, even if you hire someone else to take over the various responsibilities that come with editing, formatting, and posting content, the chances are you’ll be paying a lot less than you would be for the alternative, which involves the manipulation of code.