Choosing the right content management system is the first step in setting your website up for success. These days, regardless of your industry, being competitive requires having a world class website. Your website is often the first impression potential customers have of your company. Take this as an opportunity to really hammer home the fact that you are a modern, forward thinking business with your finger on the digital pulse.
As a leading provider of web development services in Melbourne, Newpath Web have built state of the art websites for businesses across all different industries. We know what it takes to succeed on the digital stage and understand that the first step in this process of choosing the right content management system.
What is a content management system, you might ask? Read on to find out!
CMS explained
CMS is one of those acronyms that is commonly thrown around when discussing matters relating to digital marketing. If you have limited tech knowledge, the good news is that CMS platforms are fairly easy to understand (and even easier to use!).
A content management system is a type of software that is designed to make the process of designing a website simple. Rather than having to code from scratch, a CMS provides scaffolding from which you can construct a secure, scalable, and personalised website.
While a CMS certainly helps streamline the development process, the main advantage of using this software is the fact that adding, editing, and removing content only requires the click of a button. This is particularly good news for digital marketing teams that are constantly updating information and making content changes. Rather than having to meddle with code, a CMS provides a handy and user-friendly interface for those making alterations at the back end.
Your CMS options
You’ve probably heard of the most popular content management systems, even if you haven’t quite understood what they do.
WordPress is by far the most widely used CMS, accounting for approximately 455 million of the world’s websites. WordPress is a great option for those looking to build a simple website, like a blog, that is easy to use and doesn’t require much effort to customise. In saying that, WordPress does have fairly powerful design and development capabilities and is perfectly suited for building more complex sites, too.
In addition to WordPress, a web development services team may recommend either Drupal or Kentico to build your new website, depending on what industry you are in (a Kentico developer in Melbourne, for example, will tell you that the platform lends itself particularly well to e-commerce) and what your specific digital requirements are.
What to consider when choosing a CMS
If you’re working with a professional development team, they’ll likely have certain CMS platforms they recommend or prefer to use. Here at Newpath, we are fortunate in that our team has experience working across a wide variety of content management systems. This enables us to recommend a platform that really suits our clients needs, rather than focusing on our own capabilities.
We always consider and discuss the following key factors when choosing a CMS platform.
Responsive design capabilities
With over 80 percent of internet users using mobile devices to browse the web, your website needs to be responsive. What does this mean? Well, a responsive site is one that automatically adjusts itself to the device it is being accessed on. You’ve probably tried to navigate a desktop website on a mobile device — it’s not a fun exercise. By choosing a CMS that permits responsive design, you’re making a good decision from both SEO and user experience perspectives.
Roles and permissions
There will likely be a number of people in your company who need access to the back-end of your website. However, you don’t necessarily want to allow everyone free reign. Top CMS platforms make it easy to assign certain roles and permissions, ensuring your website is both accessible and secure.
Security
In this day and age, security is a top concern for both developers and web users. Given the amount of private data that will be stored on your website, it’s imperative that you choose a CMS platform with appropriate security features in place.
Multilingual capabilities
For companies with a multinational presence, having a website in just one language simply won’t cut it. Some CMS platforms are ahead of others in this regard. Drupal, for example, can build a website in over 100 different languages. You may only require an English language site for now but if you have any plans to expand into different territories, multilingual capabilities should be a CMS priority.
Price
Finally, price. CMS platforms come with different price points and payment plan options. Add this to the fact that you will be paying a development team to do the hard work of building the thing, and it becomes very important to consider your overall, long-term budget.
These are only a select few of the factors that you really need to think through before deciding on a CMS platform. After all, your choice in platform directly informs the look, feel, and accessibility of your website — and, therefore, your company. As a top provider of web development services, Newpath Web is well placed to help you first make the difficult decision of choosing a CMS platform before constructing a world-class website that reflects your business.
