Understanding CMS Websites

In an ever increasing digital world having a website that meets the requirements of your business and your customer is vital. Websites can be as complex or as simple as you like, with a huge variety of options available. We will attempt to explain the differences between website options.

What is a CMS website?

A CMS or ‘Content Management System’ website allows you to control and manage the content on your website. In many cases no technical training is required, and the uncomplicated system allows you to easily amend text and pictures throughout your website.

What makes CMS websites so good?

There are many advantages to having a CMS website, including:

• Flexibility
• Easy to use
• Allows multiple users
• Offers control over content
• Cost savings
• Time savings
• Search Engine Optimisation
• Mobile ready

In essence you can change your website, when you want, how you want and by who you want. Meaning you have complete control over your website and your image.

Are all CMS systems the same?

There are hundreds of CMS systems available across the world, and choosing the right one is an important decision. There are however several well-known CMS systems that are most commonly used:

• Wordpress (Used by over 40% of CMS websites)
• Joomla
• Silverstripe
• Drupal
• Magento

All of these systems have their advantages and disadvantages. Wordpress is by far and away the most popular of the CMS systems out there, and we will explore the reasons behind that later.

In terms of usability the majority of the systems will be very similar. They will allow you to view individual pages and then make amendments. An example of this is seen below.

As you can see the layout clearly shows a space for a title, a space for text, and a blue update button on the right hand side. Many CMS websites will have this simple functionality for page creation.

Of course some websites require more complex pages, and this can often impact upon the ease of use for the user.

What are themes?

Many CMS websites allow you the option to select a theme around which the design is created. There are thousands of themes, and these work as a template for your website design. Some CMS websites don’t require a theme, allowing for additional flexibility in the design.

We design the majority of our websites with a CMS system, meaning we can create a website that suits the needs of the client perfectly.

Why does everyone choose Wordpress?

Wordpress is a great option for a website. It is easy to operate, relatively cheap to build and allows lots of additional modules/widgets to be added on. It is also the most well-known of the CMS systems available meaning that many people look no further that Worpdress when choosing which system they would like.

Confusion between Wordpress and CMS websites

We often have clients that are looking for a brand new website, and request a Wordpress website. But do they actually want a Wordpress website or are they confusing Wordpress with CMS?

In our experience it is the latter. Much like many of us say ‘just use Google’ rather than, ‘use the Internet’. Google has in many ways become the only option. We like to point out, that there are some very viable alternatives to Wordpress websites, which will suit the client much better.

Our work

If you are interested in seeing more of our website design work, head to the ‘What we do’ section of our website. If you have any questions or would like to get in touch about a web design project, click here.

By James Hale on 26.10.16