What is a CMS?

Even before I dive into the discussion about whether a CMS is required or not, let me give an overview of what a CMS is and what are its capabilities. CMS stands of Content Management System. The name rightly implies its strength, which is content management system.

A good CMS will allow a user to add, modify, and remove content from a website very easily through a regular browser interface itself. One can configure multiple users who can contribute to the website after putting in a process for review and publish.

Unlike a static website, A CMS separates the content and the appearance. You can have a web designer work on the appearance of a website and create a template after which you can add any number of content pages that publish with the same template.

 

 

Key Benefits of a CMS

One of the key benefits of a website is the flexibility of managing the content yourself

Consider that you have a website that you wish to update with fresh content every day. In case you have a static website then you have to prepare the content and then send it to your website designer. The website designer will then put it into a HTML format and then provide the necessary links on the page. After this is done, he will have to upload the page onto the web server using FTP or some other file transfer protocol so that it becomes a part of the website.

A work process such as above will obviously take time as well as effort. It can be done once in a while but if you have to do it every day then it adds up to a lot of effort.

If the website used a CMS then it is a different story altogether. The author of the content can simply login to the website using a secure login system. He or she can directly type in the content they wish to add to the website and click on a review button.

You as the website owner will be able to review the article in a web browser and if you are happy you can simply click on a publish button to put the content on the website. It makes the job so much easier and quick as well.

There can be any number of contributors that can be added to the system and each of them can do the same from their respective locations. All content is stored on the web server in draft mode until the publisher or website owner decides to publish it on the website.

Consistency is ensured

A CMS website uses templates for providing the look and feel. You can have your web designer work on any number of templates that you will use in your website. For example the look and feel of your home page can be a different one and use a unique template. The inner pages can follow another template while your sales and blog pages can appear differently.

Once all the templates and formats are designed and finalized you will be able to publish and link any number of content pages with the same look and feel. Your entire website will be very consistent and will make it easier for access for all of your website users.

When to go for a static website?

This is not to say that static websites are not to be done at all. If you expect your website to be small for a reasonable period of time or the nature of content is not very dynamic, then a static website will suffice.

Since the updates and new pages will be far and few, you can get your web designer to update them whenever such a need arises. Typically a static website might be faster and easier to publish than a CMS website and hence may work out to be cheaper as well.

So the next time you are ready to bring up a website, consider the pros and cons about a CMS and take the best way forward.