I truly desired to jump into exactly what a content management program is, or perhaps a CMS to obtain things began within this program, referring to located CMS. Today, you will find additional programs on the internet as you are able to get examine to obtain in depth details about this.
Our work for this program, so far as I am worried, was to simply provide you with a type of what the majority of US think about like a content management system of easy, universal summary. Today I am talking about the fundamentals. The various items that we often employ a great deal.
Issues like opensource CMS, like, you realize, Joomla, wp, the number goes on and on, in addition to managed CMS. Such things as Squarespace, Wix, etc. In a content management program, generically, we really may transfer our information. We will enter material utilizing a web site. Which is what is great one or more of why it is excellent, of a CMS. Since we are able to include information within this software as you are able to access almost anyplace.
And this is one of the reasons why content management systems are so awesome, because things can change on the fly. Now the content that we put into this admin area, to this interface, if you will, is stored in the database, and then it’s actually put or fed into a template, and then pages are created based on that template.
So, for instance, I got an image right here that maybe I put into my portal. And by the way, if you look at that little image right there, that is WordPress. I’m not trying to tell you we’re going to use WordPress. I’m just showing an example. We put an image in there, it gets stored in the database with the other information. There’s a place in the template that this is supposed to go. So, the person that creates these templates, maybe not you, I don’t know, somebody else, will actually define these areas and say, “Oh, somebody puts an image in the admin “on the left over there.
“It’s going to automatically put it into the template here.” And then it’s going to generate these pages, and these web pages are created on the fly. It’s not like somebody goes out and hand codes all these and creates these separate pages.
We have a template, we have information, and then pages are generated. The end user, the person that’s going to go look at your site, can then visit the website in the browser. And I’m sorry. The site I’m using there as an example is horrifically boring, and it’s based on a really simple theme. Some of you could probably figure that out. It’s a WordPress theme, it doesn’t matter.
But a content management system, generally, is meant to allow you to access the information just about anywhere, virtually anywhere, on mobile devices, on your desktop, on your laptop, et cetera, store that information in a database, apply a theme, a template, something to the information to generate the pages that then the world at large can see. Now that you have a little bit of information on what a CMS is, we’re going to talk about some of the reasons why you might consider one.
So since we realize by what a Content Management Program is a little, about you had wish to work with a CMS, we are likely to speak a bit.
Content Management Systems, you are likely to discover, makes it easier, in lots of values, for all of US to complete our work. For people to produce a site. They may be extremely effective. They may be constructed for Business they may be constructed for personal customers, thereis a lot of various kinds of CMS out there. Some of things that I like of a CMS is properly, we reach use templates.
Which means you do not have to begin from nothing. After all, in certain of these you are able to, however many of these have excellent themes, and they are an excellent spot to begin. And also the best part, is the fact that, themes, when there is a bigger neighborhood, they are able to often changeover time.
That means they add more over time. You can usually, if you go into the design interface, you can edit them, change them how you like, and they can be a great starting point. Ease of use. Now, I need to be careful here because Content Management Systems, in general, can be very tricky to use.
They can be, have a very steep learning curve, let’s just say that. Look at WordPress. A lot of designers I’ve talked to say, “Oh, just use WordPress for your site.” Well, that’s great. Once you pick a theme and you pick something that you can start with, you get to a point where you say, “Well, now I just want to do this.” But that may be where the theme tools end and where you have to go into the code. So easy to use. Do you have to install it yourself? Well, certain CMSs you do, and that can be a bit of work. If you have a hosted CMS, it’s easier to use because everything’s there.
It’s already installed, the servers are set to go, you’ve got your interface ready to go. You just basically sign up, give them username information and get to work.
They can be easier to update if there are changes, certain things. You’ll find that if you have to update things yourself, let’s say, like it’s a Google this or something that, then you’re going to have to go into the code and do that updating, whereas a lot of the hosted CMS anyway, will keep things updated, or at least inform you that something needs to be updated and ensure that’s it’s going to work with what you have.
You can access your content from just about any browser. That’s one of the things I love about a CMS, especially if you’re working with clients. If I design and create a website, a lot of time, clients want to be able to go in and make changes.
They want to make simple changes or complex changes. Usually the complex changes are left up to me, and they pay me to do that, but if they want to make a text change or an image change, they want to be able to go out and do that. With a CMS they can access it from, usually, from their device, if they want to or from a web browser on their laptop or hard drive, and make a change.
And that’s going to ripple through the site. Now that can also be a minus. From experience, if you have a client that makes a change, and they save it, and something blows up, and blah, there you go. So it’s a plus and a minus, I guess. Plugins and widgets. If you are building your own site, you’re not using a CMS, and you want to go out, and you want to do the best slide show in the world.
You’re going to have to go find the code, you’re going to have to mess with the code, you’re going to do things like that. If you’re using a CMS, let’s say like a hosted CMS, like a Squarespace, Wix, et cetera, if you want to use a slide show, it’s going to be there.
And it’s going to be there usually as a widget. So you’re just dragging and dropping, changing what you want. Usually there is a larger community around these types of hosted CMS, which means that people will create these types of things.
And if it’s open, which means people can sell or give away their plugins and widgets for free, then that could be a benefit, as well. If you decide that you need e-commerce, or different things like that. They an be a little bit more challenging to put into a site. Hosted CMS, for instance, a lot of them have this built in.
They have this capability. At least, it’s something you need to look for. And we’ll talk about that. If you’re going to plan your site, we’ll talk a little bit about that process. But if you’re going to plan your site and you’re going to pick a hosted CMS, you need to do the research.
You need to figure out, well “The one I’m looking at, can I have a shopping cart, can I sell stuff, and if I go to sell something, what can I use, what kind of systems, do they have stripe integration, do they have PayPal?” “I specifically use X, do they have that?” And that’s something that could be a lot easier because it’s built in, it’s something you just turn on, and you start to manage and work with.
CMS, in general, hosted CMS, too, can be good for SEO. Basically, these are larger platforms, services, companies, whatever, that are out there and doing marketing for themselves, and you can potentially benefit from that. They can also have SEO built in, which means, as you’re building it, and you’re designing this thing, you can add this different content. Now SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. So we need to consider SEO for several reasons. One of them being ranking in a search engine, for instance.
Another one can be for accessibility. Integrations. Now this is something that could have fallen under the plugins and widgets, but, if you’re going to use a, let’s focus on a hosted CMS, Squarespace, Wix, you know, all these different types, you’re probably going to want to bring in different social accounts. You’re going to want to bring in things from Twitter. Things from Facebook, things from this, from that, Instagram, et cetera. A lot of these hosted CMSs have this integration already built in. You just turn it on, give it your account information, and go.
So that’s also something you need to watch out for, and if you have certain social or other that you need to integrate, for instance, I’ve worked with a fair amount of nonprofits, and they need to be able to go in and do things like set up donations and different things like that. So is that integrated? That’s something I need to look out for.
So using a Content Management System, in general, can be a good thing. It really can. It does make you think, you know, do I need to use one, for instance, are these things important to me? Can I get away with a really simple site that doesn’t require having this database on the backend, et cetera.
But once you start to explore and look at Content Management Systems, especially hosted versions, you’ll find they are pretty powerful.
