Behind Every Great Website there is a Great CMS! That's right! Your website is only as good as the Content Management System (CMS) that supports it!
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What makes a great website? Is it the ability to attract visitors, keep them interested, capture client information,
facilitate commerce, support a sale, provide information or promote your brand? The answer is probably "all of the above".
Combining the above performance areas into a single measure requires an examination of your return on marketing investment.
The single most critical question you can ask yourself as a website owner is whether your website is functioning at maximum
efficiency.
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Maximum efficiency in a website implies that the finest functionality has been deployed, aesthetics are superb and content
is effective; furthermore an Internet marketing strategy has been formulated and implemented and is being measured and
controlled. Provided the above requirements are met, you can comfortably assert that you are getting the best marketing
value your website has to offer.
Take note however that this status is not self supporting. Maintaining a status of maximum efficiency could require a
great deal of effort. iLead Online promotes the use of simple technology enabled marketing and continuously endeavours
to create and deploy mechanisms which support and facilitate effortless marketing principles.
Your CMS is such a mechanism. If deployed correctly it has the potential to simplify website maintenance by driving the
information management process.
What is a CMS?
A CMS refers to a database in which documents are created and stored. CMS's come in various forms and could serve
different purposes, such as web, transactional, publication, learning and integrated CMS's. Web CMS's, also known as
Web Management Systems primary purpose is to manage web content. This often includes the creation, approval, distribution,
publishing, tracking and archiving of information.
Features and benefits of CMS's
Some of the distinguishing features of a great Content Management System are;
Content owner's ability to manage data:
One of the most powerful advantages of a content management system is that it enables the content owner, with no
knowledge of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) to add, edit and update information on a website without intervention
from the webmaster. This reduces cost and shortens workflows.
Templates
Publishing features such as templates provide a measure of control over visual elements whilst format management
allows standardization of file formats appropriate for web.
Indexing, search and retrieval:
CMS improves efficiency through consolidated indexing, search and retrieval functionality.
Tracking:
All updates can be linked to user information and thus tracked, promoting content ownership and accountability.
Advanced Features:
Advanced CMS's improve performance on busy sites through caching and templating techniques. They also enable
RSS feeds, printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, forums, polls, calendars, website searching, language
translators and other useful tools. Over and above reduced cost, shortened workflows, improved efficiency,
standardisation and improved performance, the following general benefits can also be derived from CMS's:
- Streamlined processes;
- Timely content updates and additions;
- Improved consistency;
- Improved navigation;
- Supports decentralised authoring;
- Tightens security;
- Greater scalability;
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CMS's support website operation by automating administrative and maintenance function's, they ultimately drive
efficiency and are a critical component of a website's back-end functionality. CMS's are available commercially,
in open-source formats or they can be developed for specific use on a proprietary basis. Commercial solutions such
as Microsoft Content Management server are generalised systems and likely to be more costly than a proprietary
solution, whilst open source systems such as Post Nuke and Mambo are available at no cost.
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When selecting a CMS it is important to determine your businesses content management requirements then evaluate
the different products and solutions available. Some criteria in determining your requirements include your
organisations size and geographic location. For larger organisations with scattered locations, CMS implementation
is more complicated. Another criterion to consider is the diversity of electronic data forms as a larger number
of data forms could also complicate the management of data.
An effective content management system is vital to successful long term Internet marketing and should be created
and implemented with care and due consideration to the above.
