Starting a new website can be an exciting venture. You will be tailoring the site to suit your business’ needs and to provide information that your clients are looking for. When it comes to website development, choosing a content management system (CMS) is one of the most important steps. If you need assistance in choosing a CMS for your site, read the tips down below.

What Does the CMS do?

A CMS is an application that can create, publish, and manage the content of a website. Having a CMS allows multiple users to access the content without needing the help of a developer. People will use a CMS that will safeguard against accidental edits and will keep the database from getting tampered with. Another thing a CMS can do is automate certain aspects of web content. For instance, it can schedule posts for when you want to publish them.

Common CMS Choices

There are hundreds of different CMS options for website owners to choose from. Some of the most popular include WordPress and Drupal. 

WordPress is the most commonly used CMS in the world. It is very beginner-friendly and has a simple configuration. Some providers offer specific plans that are tailored to hosting for WordPress. These optimized plans have the purpose of meeting the performance requirements of WordPress. 

Drupal has a large number of free themes and plugins. It is a powerful tool and is best used by individuals who have more experience in web development and coding. 

Knowledge Base

When considering which CMS to choose for your website, keep in mind the skill set of everyone on your team. This will impact whether the chosen CMS will get used to its optimal capacity. This could include having skills in virtual security, CMS maintenance, and programming languages. 

If your team does not have a lot of experience with these areas, it may be more beneficial for you to select a more user-friendly CMS. As you grow as a business, your skills are sure to expand, and you will have a greater understanding of the system. 

SEO

SEO, or search engine optimization, is an important concept for a new business. You will want new clients to find your website easily after typing certain phrases into a search browser. You will need to select a CMS that can boost your SEO rating. 

The CMS should have features such as title tags, site maps, image alt-tagging, and meta tags. The system should also have an option to optimize SEO that is automatically enabled. 

Emailing

You will likely be doing a lot of work with email marketing within your CMS. The CMS should have tracking metrics to assist with campaigns. Ideally, your chosen CMS will also be able to integrate with some of your other marketing software. Take a close look at the emailing features that each CMS offers before you make a final choice, as some may benefit your business more than others.  

Scalability

When you are just starting, your business is going to be small and your CMS will correlate to that. There will not be much activity on your website, and sales will be low. As your business expands, you will need a CMS that grows along with you. This could happen very quickly, and traffic to your website could rapidly increase. 

Templates

Many CMSs come with pre-designed templates for you to use. You can take these templates and customize them to fit the appearance of your site. This can result in websites getting created very quickly without you having to do any coding. Later on, if you want to re-design your website, you can use the same template and simply change the wording or images. 

Tips to Remember

Something to keep in mind once you choose your CMS is that you need to test everything before you go live. Make sure that your team has thoroughly tested every part of the website including photos and links. If there is anything wrong, you will have time to fix it before any potential customers see it. 

Even if you are feeling ambitious, do not try to create your own custom CMS when you are just in the early stages of a business. This can be a project for later down the line when your team has had more experience dealing with the technology. Building a CMS will come with many complications, and you will find that it is much easier to invest in one that already exists.