In this article we will cover CMS in web design, precisely what is CMS, why use CMS and popular CMS platforms being used by small to medium sized businesses.
CMS stands for content management system and the majority of websites on the web uses a CMS. It is a software that allows you to create and manage a website with limited coding or no coding at all.
Do keep in mind that while such softwares are getting better day by day giving flexibility to customise the website as per our requirement, however if you truly want to customise the website, coding skills will definitely come in handy.
The main advantage of CMS is that it helps non-technical teams and individuals build websites according to their requirement without having to depend on web developers. It also helps them to easily maintain and update the website from time to time.
CMS consists of two parts namely CMA and CDA referring to content management application and content delivery application respectively. These two parts handle the back end of our websites giving us the freedom to focus solely on the front end. These CMS softwares have content editors that help build the front end by dragging and dropping premade elements instead of having to write code. However, if you want to customise beyond the scope of these premade elements they also give you the provision to write custom code.
Following are a few reasons to opt for CMS to build your website, instead of building it from scratch.
This is a point that I briefly touched up in the above section. They primarily help individuals and teams to create a website on their own without having to depend on web developers. This also gives the freedom to constantly update the website as per requirements and maintaining the website is also easy.
These CMS softwares also have templates that you can use and modify to suit your needs. Overall it helps reduce the dependence on a web developer and also serves as a platform to produce output faster. These CMS softwares also have the provision to write custom code in case you wish to customise the website above the inbuilt capability of the software.
It provides an opportunity for multiple people to collaborate on a project simultaneously. For example marketer, copywriter, designer can all work on the same website at the same time.
With collaboration there comes the need to provide the people involved the right access and permission to ensure they do not hamper parts of the website they don’t have expertise in.
This is where CMS softwares have the provision for setting up roles and permissions for each user. According to the CMS software being used the roles and permissions available can vary.
CMS softwares provides the feature to schedule blog posts, web pages, emails. This is a feature that enhances an individuals or team's workflow.
Apart from the above advantages CMS softwares are scalable, can handle large volumes of content and provide features to optimise the website for search engine optimization. They also provide security features and extensions to ensure your website is safe and secure at all points in time. The content editor of websites built using CMS softwares can be accessed from any device as they are browser based, this makes quick edits possible on the go.
Wordpress and Webflow are two popular CMS platforms used by companies around the world. I personally use webflow currently and hence will recommend the same. Shopify is another popular option primarily used for E-commerce.
Please note that these three options are used by small and medium sized companies. However, there are more options available in the market.
To conclude, CMS refers to a content management system. A CMS website is built using a website builder supporting CMS (referred to as CMS software in this article) helps anyone create a visually pleasing website and constantly update it without writing a line of code. However, to customise the website beyond the scope of the CMS software requires coding and these softwares have provision for the same.
With this we come to the end of this article, I hope it was of value to you. Thank you for reading and have a great day.
