What Does CMS Platform Mean?

What Does CMS Platform Mean?

If you’re looking to expand your digital collateral, there’s no doubt that you’re feeling a little bewildered over how to manage things. This is where a good CMS Platform comes in. What does CMS stand for? Your CMS Platform is your website’s content management system that essentially controls your company’s entire “digital experience.” What it means for growing your brand is everything.

What Is a CMS?

A CMS is any software application that relies on a database to manage content. A CMS consists of two parts. The first part is a content management application (CMA) that you use to create and edit content. The second is a content delivery application (CDA) that allows you to publish and host your content. Once it’s properly developed and set up, a CMS offers an easy way to maintain a website without “building everything from scratch.” Some of the functions covered in a CMS include:

• Create content.
• Publish content.
• Edit content.
• Manages versions.
• Manage author workflows.

If you’re choosing a CMS for your company, it’s essential to select an option with good accountability for multiple users. A CMS platform should make it easy for multiple users to make contributions from anywhere. In addition, there should be features for managing edits, maintaining consistency, sharing drafts and preserving versions.

How Do I Select the Right CMS?

There are enough different content management systems out there to make your head spin if you’re looking for a simple solution for your small business. For business owners, choosing a CMS comes down to deciding how much hands-on involvement you want to have when managing or updating your site. If you’re coming to the picture with zero tech capabilities, a user-friendly option like WordPress may be the right choice. Hiring a team to create a smooth, streamlined CMS plan that allows you to go in to make posts “as needed” can be a great way to maintain some control over content without actually needing to know how a CMS works. When it’s time for actual site upgrades, you can have your third-party team take care of revamping or updating your website to look better, perform better and achieve your objectives. In addition to standard CMS options like WordPress, people use platforms like Joomla and Drupal to launch websites.

Where Most People See Problems With a CMS

A CMS is marketed as an all-in-one solution for people who don’t have any skills related to web development, databases or IT infrastructure. The big draw is that you can just “plug-in” information to get your website running. In reality, it’s a little more complex.

A CMS is an invaluable tool for businesses that don’t want to build web infrastructure from scratch. However, it’s a myth that you can indeed run a business through a CMS-reliant site without some optimization and personalization. This is where you get those flat, “cookie-cutter” websites that people click away from almost instantly because they don’t look like legitimate businesses. In fact, nearly every CMS is actually built for developers to use as a launching point for custom sites. If you don’t have any development skills, it can be hard to get your CMS to do what it’s capable of doing. Any type of custom module, custom feature or plug-in requires coding. Just keep in mind that any website you’ve done business with potentially employs thousands of developers to keep things running smoothly.

Getting the Most From Your CMS

First, have a professional help you select a CMS based on the specific goals you have for your website. You can then have the site created to be very easy to edit! However, you’ll want to consider some sort of support or maintenance package to ensure that your site is properly maintained, backed up and updated for compliance. Think of your website as a living, breathing part of your business that has to be “fed” with proper updates and customization. Simply relying on the generic setting of your CMS is really a formula for low page rankings and high bounce rates.