mPower Consulting

I remember when I first started building websites over 10 years ago that all I had at the time was Microsoft’s Notepad application and a book titled “Sam’s Learn HTML in 24 Hours.” Piecing a website together was an arduous process that included lots of technical knowledge (or at least lots of reference books) and took many long nights with lots of caffeine to finish.  We’ve sure come a long way since then and today there are all sorts of free online tools where you can build your website in say less than 24 hours (it may not be pretty, but it would be a website.)  One of these tools is called a “content management system,” or CMS for short, and I want to spend just a little bit of time telling you what I consider to be the top four benefits of using a CMS tool to build your website.

Benefit #1: You have the ability to make updates instantly

This absolutely is the #1 reason for using content management systems.  I don’t know how many times I have heard our clients and prospects tell us, “We want to be able to make updates ourselves, without having to call you.”  Well guess what, with a CMS system you can make all the updates you want, and most systems have an interface that looks similar to your favorite word processor so you can add formatting like bold, italics, bulleted lists and so on.  The best part? You don’t need to know HTML code.  The good news for us?  You often still need someone to set it up for you and train you on how to use it, but it can cut the costs of a developing a website in half!

Benefit #2: It’s easy to add new pages making your website easily scalable

The main purpose of a CMS tool is that you use it to manage all of the content on your website. That alone is already fantastic, but what’s even more fantastic is that most CMS systems allow you to add brand new content pages with just the click of a few buttons.  So when you need to grow the amount of content on your website, you just use the system to add the new pages. There is no longer a need for a skilled web programmer to create the pages, link them into your website, then send you a bill. You simply add the new pages using the system itself and pass on receiving that extra bill.

Benefit #3: You can add additional functionality quickly

Behind almost every CMS system is a framework for adding new functionality, which can be anything from a photo gallery, to a message board, to integrating social media tools.  This allows you to expand what your website is capable of and thus offer visitors and users new tools that may provide additional value or aid in persuading them to engage your business. What makes this a great benefit is that for most CMS systems, all it takes to add these new capabilities is to upload a few files and flip the “on” switch.

Benefit #4: Redesigning your website is a piece of cake

It seems like every year businesses feel that it is time to completely redo their website (and to a point, we agree.)  Most of the time all they really want is to “freshen up” the look and they’ll reuse most of the content.  While we believe that the content is MORE important, it’s worth to note that most CMS systems use what’s known as “web templates” to control the structure and design of an entire website. So when you want a new design, you simply create a new web template, install it into the system, and activate it. Voilà! Your old site gets a face lift in mere seconds! The best part?  No need to start building the whole website from scratch!

Where can I get one of those?

Hopefully by now you can see why we’re so passionate about using content management systems to build our websites.  It’s easier for you, it’s easier for us, and… well… we like to make the web easy!  Now if you’d like to get your hands on one, we’ve listed a few of our favorites below with links to learn about them. If you need help with actually building your site using a CMS system or simply want us to train you on how to use one, give us a shout! We’d love to help!

A few CMS systems we like:

1. Joomla!
2. Drupal
3. Wordpress
4. Typo3

Are there any you would like to list?  Post them in the comments below!

Would you like us to test and review one? Send us a Contact Request and we’ll give ‘er a go!