Did you know that there are more than 1.8 billion sites on the internet today? We’ve come a long way since the first website was published in 1991!
Today, building a website is one of the first steps that a fledgling business should take. With ever-increasing rates of e-commerce, and most web traffic coming from handheld devices, it pays to create a website that drives traffic to your site and increases sales.
CMS web design makes designing business websites easier than ever before. Now, you don’t need to know any coding to set up a website; with CMS web development features, you’re just a few clicks away from getting your new website up and running. Even when working with a professional web development team, it’s helpful to know how your website is built so that you can tell your team exactly what you want and help with upkeep later down the line.
Curious to know more? Keep reading to learn all about CMS systems!
What is a CMS?
CMS stands for content management system. It’s software that you use for all aspects of website development. Whether you’re creating a new page, writing a blog, uploading images, or changing the meta descriptions of your pages, all these activities and more happen within your CMS.
Without a CMS, you would need to know in-depth coding to be able to create any content for the internet!
Types of CMSs
Depending on the size and needs of your business, different CMSs will work best for your company’s skills and financial resources.
Open-source CMSs are freely available for use. You can download the software and start creating your site within minutes! However, you’ll likely start with a pretty basic template for your site, and if you want it to look more custom, you’ll need to spend time adapting the design.
You’ll also need to do your own hosting, security, and updates on your site, some of which will cost money. Adding plug-ins and apps to your site may also come at a cost, so don’t assume that using this form of CMS will keep your website low-cost forever.
A proprietary or commercial CMS will likely charge you an upfront cost, and it may also require monthly fees for use. The benefit to this kind of CMS, though, is that it often offers many more features than an open-source CMS does.
Finally, more and more Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) CMSs are becoming available for business use. While these CMSs require a monthly subscription fee for use, they handle all data storage you could need. They also provide ongoing technical assistance and automatic updates, so you don’t need to worry about your security systems going out of date or having to upgrade local servers.
How to Use CMSs for Websites
When you log into the CMS, you’ll be taken to your homepage. From there, you can navigate to whatever part of the CMS you need. Although all CMSs are designed slightly differently, they all have the same main components. Using different CMS features, you’ll be able to create any content that you need for your website.
Page Designs
Depending on the kind of CMS you use, page design will either start with a template or with a “blank canvas,” so to speak. With a template, you can jump right into filling in your content for the page. If you’re not using a template, you’ll need to arrange the page elements that you want and place them where you want them on the page.
When you’re writing text content for your webpage, a CMS allows you to view the content in a WYSIWYG editor. Named as an acronym for “what you see is what you get,” this style of editor shows you your text content as if you were looking at a word processor (think Microsft Word or Notepad). That way, you can see exactly what your end-user will see while you write your page content.
If, at any point, you need to see and edit the code behind what you’re writing, you can toggle to an HTML view as well.
Creating Blog Content
CMSs will let you create blogs directly in the system itself. These are considered to be a separate type of content than text on a specific webpage. When you set up a blog, you set up a container page and then associate different blogs with the blog page.
While this may seem convoluted, this feature allows you to use the same piece of content across multiple sites. If your business relies heavily on digital marketing, this can be a huge time saver, as you’ll be able to write a piece of content once but use it in multiple places across your site and multiple advertising avenues.
Storing Content
Most CMSs will include a “content repository” of sorts. When you upload an image or a file that you want to include on one of your webpages, you actually upload it to your entire CMS. Then, you can pull the appropriate piece of content from your content library when you want to place it on a specific site.
Working With a Pro
As you can see, there is a lot of knowledge that goes into CMS web development. While some CMSs are easy to use at first, if you want any in-depth functionality, it’s helpful to have an expert on your team.
That’s where we come in. With our full-service web design and development services, our team of experts is sure to provide the website of your dreams.
We ground our work in search engine optimization research in your industry, so your site has the best of being seen by your ideal customers. Our custom web designs help your business stand out from the crowd, and we’ll help you track your analytics to make sure you see the results you need.
CMS Web Design: Start Your Website Now
Using the right content management system is key to building an effective website for your business. CMS web design tools help you with content creation, storage, and more! Knowing how a CMS works will help you be a more effective collaborator with your web developers in the future.
Curious to know whether your current site is effective? Take a look at our ten signs of an effective website to find out!
