Choosing A Web Site Content Management System

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As the saying goes on the web “Content is King.” There is no argument thatif you are going to have an ...
Internet presence you must ... dynamic content that gives your visitors reasons As the saying goes on the web “Content is King.” There is no argument thatif you are going to have an effective Internet presence you must havecurrent, dynamic content that gives your visitors reasons to come back timeand again.
While content may be king there seems to be little discussionabout the optimal way to manage this content for small to medium sizedbusinesses. Have you ever noticed that when your building the web site youhave plenty of helping hands but once the site is launched and the dailygrind of support kicks in it becomes harder and harder to find that help.This is why it is so important to evaluate your Content Management System(CMS) for you web site in the development stages.
Every web site has someform of content management system in place, except for those that neverchange. The CMS can be as informal as an email to the web developer or amulti-million dollar computer program that warehouses data from severaldifferent databases.
In focusing on small to medium sized businesses I havedecided to eliminate the big dollar systems and concentrate on the threemajor types of CMS’s available.The first type of CMS is the default traditional and most widely used methodI call the manual update system. This usually requires sending theinformation to the web developer.
The web developer then utilizes their FTPprogram and HTML coding skills to make the requested changes. The changesare then reviewed and approved by the requester.
The problem with thismodel is that the web developer is usually a high priced contractor and notan in-house resource. This means that you end paying a hefty price for website changes.
The cost of web site changes becomes a budget issue so youend up reducing the number of changes you make to your site in turn reducingits overall value.The second type of CMS is the WYSIWYG system. This model allows the website owner to use one of the graphical web development tools on the markettoday such as FrontPage or Net Objects Fusion.
These are great programsthat allow you to make changes to the web site in a graphical look. Thechanges are simple and if you configure the software correctly you canupdate your web site with a few clicks of the mouse.
The problem with thismodel is that you become dependent on the WYSIWYG tool. If you can’t get toFrontPage then you can’t make your change unless you resort back to ourfirst model.
But now it gets a little trickier. These WYSIWYG tools createvery convoluted HTML code so manual changes can become very time consuming.Another draw-back of the model is that if your company utilizes a tool likethis to create their site they are limited to the graphical templates thatcome with the software.
You end up getting a site that looks pretty muchlike everybody else’s. Furthermore, I think it is important for any companyplanning on building or revamping their web site to meet with a webdevelopment company to at least review the best practices for webdevelopment.The final type of CMS is what I like to refer to as an integrated CMS.
Thistype of Content Management Systems is built directly into the site duringdevelopment. In order to make changes the web owner simply enters in asecure URL, logins and makes changes to the site without having to know anyHTML or FTP commands.
Changes are instant and all the user needs is a webbrowser and access to the Internet. This has been a very successful modelfor our company because it allows us to build web sites that empower the webowners.
Web owners can make changes to their sites as often as they likewithout the need for a high priced web developer. Of course the cost of asite with an integrated CMS will be a little higher but the overall cost ofownership of the site will be dramatically reduced over time.Regardless of the model you choose web site owners must acknowledge thattheir web site does come with a Content Management System installed.
Aneducated web site owner will ensure that their site has a CMS that allowsthem to get the most out their web site. Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com .