Pros and Cons of a Content Management System

A Content Management System (CMS) is a back office tool that lives behind your website and enables your organiztion to author, edit, publish, and manage content without the need for programming knowledge. The content is stored in a database where it is retrieved in many different ways for your website visitor. With a CMS there’s no need to contact your web hosting company to update a picture or fix a grammatical error on your website. You have the power to do so through the CMS, which is accesible anywhere, anytime, via a web browser.

We’re big fans of CMS’s here at Boone Digital, because we believe our clients should have control of their web business. However, there are some things to consider when deciding if you need a CMS behind your website. Below we provide a list of some of the Pros and Cons of a Content Management System. 

Pros:

1. The CMS enables your organization to concentrate on creation of content rather than development and design. No new “web pages” are created via code when new content is added. The CMS publishes the content into the framework (design) of your website.
2. Non-technical members of your organization can manage, edit, and publish content to your website. No HTML experience or graphics experience is necessary. Usually, your most inexperienced web users can be trained on the CMS without much difficulty.
3. All of your content is stored in a central location. The content is in a database, making it uniform and accesible in many powerful ways depending on the CMS.
4. Content is searchable. Because it’s in a database, the content can be easily searched.
5. Content can be scheduled to be published at a future date.
6. Extended features such as a calendar, message boards/forums, and photo galleries are usually included in a Content Management System. These features can be managed from within the CMS, reducing the need to invest in and manage multiple systems.
7. Multiple contributors/content authors can work on the same website without difficulty. You can establish website editors and authors with varying permissions. Have all content wait to be published until it’s approved by an editor, for example.
8. Spell checking and linking tools are included in the CMS.
9. Options such as content categories can help you organize content so your website visitors can find it easily.
10. A CMS can be integrated with your email newsletter list, reducing the number of systems you invest in and storing your subscriber lists in one location.
11. Since design and content are separated in a CMS-based system, changing the look-and-feel of your website is much easier.

Cons:

1. You have more of an initial investment in your website, both in time and money, usually.
2. There is training involved in using a CMS, and someone (usually at least one person, but sometimes more) in your organization must become the “webmaster” who owns the CMS, understands it, and carves time in their workload to manage it.
3. A CMS does not make bad content good. It does not make a bad writer a good writer. In other words, your content will be easier to publish and manage with a CMS, but it will only be as good as the humans who produce it.
4. Changing a CMS can be time consuming and expensive. If your web business plans to change drastically in the future, consider trying to anticipate the new business rules you’ll employ.

To speak with Boone Digital about Content Management System solutions, use our Contact Form or call 1-800-438-9490.

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