What is a Content Management System

(CMS)?
Content Management System (CMS) and other spin-off
terms definition(s)
Library Web sites are in constant flux. Not only does site design change to draw and
retain user attention, but the system and underlying structure of the site changes
as well. With an amazing amount of librarycreated resources posted online, Web
administrators face challenges in maintaining the content efficiently. This paper
explores library perceptions attached to Web content management system use,
based on data collected from survey respondents.

CMS became a buzz word in the web development industry because of its benefits.
CMS stands for Content Management System. It is a term and has not been endorsed with a solid
definition. A CMS can have multiple meanings depending on the scenarios and the person's or
project objectives.
To add to the confusion, an organization named AIIM (Association for Information and Image
Management) claimed the acronym ECM (Enterprise Content Management) and WCM (Web
Content Management) as their creation and came up with their own definition that suites their
organization's services. AIIM changed their definition of ECM a few times and submitted their
definitions to Wikipedia, which is now published.
At the time of this writing, for most scenarios, when someone in the web development industry is
talking about CMS (Content Management System), or ECMS (Enterprise Content Management
System), he / she is more likely referring to either the first or second definition below.
In this article, I'll put the emphasis on the common CMS definitions and not the one created by
AIIM. The detail of the purpose, use, and examples are all in the area of the commonly used
definition.

Content Management System (CMS) common definition #1

The definition of a CMS is an application (more likely web-based), that provides capabilities for
multiple users with different permission levels to manage (all or a section of) content, data or
information of a website project, or internet / intranet application.

Managing content refers to creating, editing, archiving, publishing, collaborating on, reporting,
distributing website content, data and information.
An example of a CMS application is a Web Application that provides the following
administration, control panel or website management functionalities:

Create, Edit, Publish, Archive web pages

Create, Edit, Publish, Archive articles

Create, Edit, Publish, Archive press releases

Create, Edit, Publish, Archive blogs

Add / Edit events into an Event Calendar

Add / Edit Inventory (products), description, product specifications, prices, photos, etc.

Enter, Edit, or View orders and print packing slips and invoices

View reports and statistics site data

Create and Edit system users which have different permission levels to different
section(s) of the above administration

Content Management System (CMS) Purpose

The main purpose of a Content Management System (relating to web) is to provide the capability
for multiple users with different permission levels to manage a website or a section of the
content.
For example, you can take a website which has Articles, Blogs, Press Releases, Store, Events and
assign each section or a part of a section to user(s) to create, edit, and archive.
Content Management System (CMS) Pitfalls and Misconceptions

1. One of the largest misconceptions about CMS is that it is the main ingredient for a website's
success. That is completely untrue. A CMS should make it easy for a website owner or
webmaster(s) to manage and distribute content, but a website's success has nothing to do with
CMS; it has to do with the quality of content, quality of services, marketing and many other
factors that are outside of the realm of this article.
2. The second misconception about CMS is that it will eliminate a need for hiring a web

developer or programmer to make changes to a website. That is not true in many cases.
Most CMS systems especially the Open Source CMS systems that are bloated to cover every
possible functionality (whether needed or not) will require an experienced web programmer to
make any customizations for tailoring to one's business objectives and for maintaining a large
scale project.
A very good example of a bloated open source CMS system is Drupal. Most end-users are told
that Drupal is the best and most cost effective solution for any website. That is completely
untrue. It requires a web programmer to setup and customize a Drupal project, and due to its
complexity and bloated nature, it will require an experienced webmaster or web developer to
maintain and manage a Drupal site.
So, if you are a small business and the cost is a factor in developing your website, you may
consider a CMS application that does not require a substantial number of programming hours for
set up and on-going maintenance.
3. One of the important ingredients for a website's success is to build a brand that users can
remember, revisit and tell their friends.
Unfortunately, most CMS systems are written by programmers. Programmers usually do not
have the design, branding and usability experience. That is why most of the out-of-the-box open
source CMS sites that have not been customized have no branding and personality.

Advantages of using a CMS

Ability to add or edit pages on your website yourself

It is nice to have control over your investment, the feeling of empowerment to control
your website is a good one. In particular for an organisation or business that is dynamic
and needs things to happen fast.

Not have to pay your developer monthly maintenance or hourly rate

for changes

Why pay someone to do something you can do yourself right? (but can you?)

Useful in organisations, with many content contributors, that

perhaps need to audit additions and changes to content being made

Many CMSs offer the ability to delegate roles and cascade these throughout the
organisation with some people writing content and others giving the OK. A CMS can be
ideal for this type of workflow.
Disadvantages of using a CMS

Potential to break your websites look and feel if not used properly.

So many things can go wrong, formatting errors, incorrect preperation of images, no

image compression, inconsistant resizing resulting in out of proporation photographs,
breaking away from the style guide of your website that you may have paid a designer a
lot of money to create for you, thereby effecting the consistancy of your brand. Most of
this can be mitigated by proper training or indeed good advice on which CMS to use and
as they say time heals all things. After some initial teething trouble most of these issues
can be ironed out eventually.

You may not have the resource to update website regularly

(By resource I mean the trained, motivated staff with time in the day, on top of all their
other duties, Note: do you plan to pay them more to take on this extra responsiblity or if
you plan to do it yourself are you aware of the time involved to do it properly) , there is
no point paying for a CMS to be implemented, that you dont intend to use very often and
more importantly one that you dont have the resources; time, staff and skills to use
effectively.

Using a CSM effectively can require certain computer skills that you
or your staff may not have

Taining will cost money so think about offseting this against a retainer on your developer.
Both options are well worth consideration.
For me the developer

Ironically many of the advantages for me are things that I can pass onto you the client as benefits
and mainly consist of technical things that happen in the background or under the hood if you
will.
Advantages of using a CMS

In some instances I can pass maintenance over to client and not get
tied up doing content updates and additions

Hooray, time to concentrate on designing and building more effective websites.

Faster development

A good CMS can take care of numerous tasks that must be done by hand using a static
website approach. It is not cost effective to continually reinvent the wheel and much
wiser to leverage good solutions that are already available.

Good built in SEO

Friendly URLS for marketing and SEO placement.

The ability to leverage excellent third party plugins

Depending on CMS used many tasks can be handled quickly and effectively and what is
more these plugins are constantly being upgraded and improved.
Disadvantages of using a CMS

The overhead on server resources

Calls to database as compared to a static HTML website. Page caching functionality can
help

Can require extra maintenance, backups, upgrades, security

patches.

Someone has to pay for this!

If incorrectly used by the client it can break site

Unless you restrict access to what client can do it is possible they can break the
architecture of the website by adding sections and pages here there and everywhere.
Clients know their business of that there is never any doubt, but they dont necesaryliy
have the same understanding of Information Architecture, SEO and effective website
design methods as a professional website designer. This reflects badly on me the
designer/developer. This can have a detrimental effective on professional reputation. One
of the biggest issues is copy and paste from MSWord with its nonsense markup. To a
certain extent some CMSs can now handle this age old problem by stripping away
unneeded formatting but I continue to see this as an issue on a weekly basis.

May have to add training to the cost of project

This can inflate the price.

Allows for bad design of text

Design and layout of text is so vital to how your website is portrayed and how easy it is
to read. A good designer can take a block of text and by applying some design techniqus
increase its usefulness exponentially. The same impact can not be achieved by letting
staff loose with a WYSIWYG editor.
To Sum up

If your website contains content that is frequently changing or being added

to, for example press releases, events or news stories then certainly a CMS
can be very advantangeous. If you dont update more than once or twice a
week, it may be more cost effective to pay your developer to make changes.

There is always a balance to be struck or a compromise to find and for me

this is often to restrict access to some areas of a CMS while providing CMS
functionality for others e.g. news items or events (although there are often
better solutions to these problems beyond a CMS to be discussed at a latter
date, so you all come back now ya here!! lol)

Pros and Cons of Content Management

Systems

Creating a website always involves a

series of design choices. Color palettes, logo choices, navigation choices all are part of the
process and there is an entire other issue in deciding whether to use a content management
system. A content management system is a means whereby a website can be published without
the need to know PHP, HTML or being forced to FTP files using an FTP client.
A content management system may sound perfect for a new website owner and it could well be
the ideal choice. Unfortunately, it is not the right choice for every single website either.
There are positives on both sides of the fence (client and designer) to using a Content
Management System. There are also distinct disadvantages to using them to both parties. It is
important that a website designer discuss both with the client in order to help the client come to a
decision they can live with.

Content Management Systems Pros

Larger firms may have several contributors and may monitor their contributions using
a content management system. It streamlines the process.

Content management systems can be used by almost anyone to create new pages.
Many clients who engage a website designer are experts in their own fields but may be
unfamiliar with how to create content pages on the internet. Most content management
systems include a simple interface called a WSIWYG (what you see is what you get)
editor that will allow the client or one of their staff members to create pages without
knowing how to code. This is a distinct advantage to the expense of having to use the
services of a web administrator.

Web maintenance costs can be cut drastically by creating new content in the office as
opposed to paying an administrator or developer to update the site.

Developer Advantages to Content Management Systems

Many content management systems will have pre-made appliances, widgets and
plugins available that will streamline the process of development.

Developers can design a site and often turn it over to the site owner with no further
involvement.

A site may be faster to develop using a content management system as they often have
solutions to common problems coded into them.

Content Management Systems Cons

Content management systems do require training and can be broken if used

incorrectly. A site that has been carefully designed and created can actually be broken
by improper use of a CMS.

Content management systems require time to update. If your organization does not
contain persons with extra time to devote to updating the site then a content
management system may go unused and be unnecessary.

If you do not already have a web perceptive, computer oriented person on your team
then extra training will be required to enable an employee to update it.

Using the content management system like WordPress, Joomla! may hinder your
ranking at search engines. Just think about it, why would a search engine reward your
website if your code is same as million other websites?

Popular content management systems like WordPress and Joomla! are often targeted
by spammers and hackers. Since just about anyone can download the code and look
for loopholes, security issues are inevitable. Not to mention that popularity of these
systems give hackers an excellent incentive. Hackers know that many popular sites
will be using these plateforms. So open one door and others will open by themselves.

Disadvantages in Using a Content Management System for the Developer

A content management system will use more server resources as opposed to a static
page and this should be balanced.

Cost inflation due to training expenses are not well liked by clients or by developers
but training may be necessary in order to teach the client to use the system effectively.

Poor text design is possible using a content management system. Designers work hard
on fonts, and text to give a website certain feel and flow and business owners pay for
that polished professional look. CMS editors can permit poor text design and ruin the
design the business owner paid for.

As mentioned before the positives to using a content management system are equally balanced
by the negatives and the business owner will need to consider both sides before making that
decision.
The advantages of using a CMS to build a library website include:

Separation of content, logic, and data

Ability for multiple content providers (many staff members can edit the website, rather
than just one expert)

Easier or automatic integration with Web 2.0 tools (built in RSS for instance)

Many cool add-ons that provide added functionality to the website (an Events Calendar
for instance)

Benefits and Drawbacks of Content Management Systems

oday there are many websites out there on the internet. Many of these websites are created
using a wide variety of tools. Some are created using Microsoft Frontpage. Some are created
using Adobe's Dreamweaver software. There are also content management software, called
CMS, that you can use to create and enhance websites. Two such programs are Joomla and
Word Press.
Both of these programs allow you the user to create additional pages on your website. It makes
things easier to manager and makes your content easier to manage. Joomla and Word Press are
programmed using PHP. So it is kind of a programming language on top of a programming
language. Its purpose is to allow someone who is not a programmer to add components, content
and information to their website without programming or web hosting experience. Once setup
by the web developer, you the business owner, can easily manage your website without web
development knowledge!
The nice thing about Joomla and Word Press is that it allows you to create pages on the fly so
it allows someone who isn't extremely savvy the ability to create their own content without
calling up and paying the webmaster to do this. This is very useful when creating articles and
information in order to help promote your website within the search engine. Once Joomla is
installed, configured, and running, it is simple for even non-technical users to add or edit
content, update images, and to manage the critical data that makes your company or organization
go.
An advantage Joomla and/or Word Press is that it allows you to customize your website with a

specific design and allows you to change that to another design on the fly but within the same
scheme. However this can cause one main problem. The website has a certain basic structure.
Once you have a specific look and feel, then changing that look to something totally different
outside of Joomla's structure will be extremely challenging as not using Joomla. For example, if
you website has buttons along the top and now you want to have a totally different style and put
the buttons on the left side, it will require changes to the structure, look and feel of the website.
Also, if your website that has a format that requires a lot of customizations to Joomla in order to
do something where it would be easier to do without Joomla. An example would be have a
specific articles page formatted a certain way. It may not be as easy to do this with Joomla or
Word Press as it would to program it on your own.
One drawback is the amount of additional files that are created in the back end. This can be a
maintenance drawback if your website is only a few 100 pages worth of content. I have had
situations where the web master left the project to someone else and the owner has no clue how
to change his or her content? Or some specific code broke and now the web master is no longer
with the firm. It is up to the new webmaster to figure out what the old webmaster did. So the
webmaster has to go in and figure all the additional customizations that were done to the website
and find it within the Joomla or Word Press interface which has a lot of files and sub-directories.
These files and sub-directories may have not existed if the website was done in a neat and
concise programmed format. Joomla also creates a lot of cache files. These files will continue to
grow when changes are made. This can add a lot of overhead to the web server where it is
hosted.
These content management systems aren't the end all be all. The possibilities are not endless.
It doesn't do absolutely everything that is available on the internet. It may allow you to add
articles but if you want to allow comments to the articles you will still need to call your
webmaster and pay him to add that feature if you do not fully understand how to do this yourself
using Joomla. From my experience with these content management tools, it will take just as
much to add features with CMS then it does without it. If you are a company owner and not a
web designer or programmer than chances you do not know how to do this yourself. So for an
example like this, what benefit does Joomla or Word Press have? It doesn't do anything and
everything and you will still need to pull different programs off the internet or pay to have
specific programs developed to tailor your specific needs. For example an online calendar
scheduler may require specific coding to incorporate into these content management systems and
requires solid programming knowledge. Content management systems are also having a slower
loading time.
Now this isn't a bad thing against Joomla or Word Press but in the end, the customer will be
paying someone to do these features. A lot of sites are custom built and even though they are
using Joomla or Word Press, there are still lots of custom code involved. When you combine
custom code with Joomla/Word Press things can get messy and like I mentioned above, if there
is a change in webmasters, for example webmaster leaves part time project and gets full time
job, it may be difficult and actually take longer for the new webmaster to figure things out where
as if the website was not using these content management systems (CMS) it would be easier to
decipher. Sometimes simpler is better in my opinion all the time simpler is better. I have
worked on sites that were originally built the old fashion way, the customer loved it, then it was

changed to use a CMS like Joomla and now for some reason everything is a mess. Now I have to
come in there, find out what went wrong, fix the mess so the customer is once again happy.
I've always believe that there is a place for everything, content management software, custom
programming and/or off the web specific modules. There are many ways to skin a cat or a
website in this case and it has to be well thought out beforehand. It depends on what your needs
are and how easy you can make it happen for the customer and the webmaster. Just remember
regardless of what you decide to do for your website, make sure you keep it very organized!

What is a Content Management System?

A CMS is a web application that provides all the necessary tools to manage online content and
users, or more specifically, a server-side software that facilitates the creation and maintenance of
websites.
Probably one of the most notable perks of having a CMS is that users dont need extensive
technical expertise to generate webpages, to upload or modify content. CMSs feature an
administration area that allows users to upload or edit their content as needed. This admin area is
accessible through a web-browser, which means that no client software installation is needed and
an internet connection is all you need to start working on your website.
A CMS essentially eliminates the need for a webmaster and allows users to take matters into
their own hands.

Most Popular Open-Source CMS Software

Migrating from one CMS to another requires a lot of time, knowladge and effort, therefor is
essential to choose the content management system that is right for your website modell and your
business. There are hundreds of software out there both paid as free which you can use for
building your website. In the following I will present the top 3 most popular and feature-rich
open-source CMS software.

WordPress
At its heart, WordPress is more of a blogging platform than a CMS, however, due to the many
plugins available (over 17,000 plugins) it evolved into a more CMS-like software. Given that its
script is open source, youre free to use it for any project that you may have, which makes it a
multi-faceted and highly customizable platform. Its mostly used for small and mid-sized
websites and blogs. Although its a complex system, it has a fast learning curve even for those

who dont possess advanced technical skills. In this sense is probably the best platform for
beginners.
WordPress has a huge community of users, meaning that support and documentation on almost
all aspects of installing, customizing, updating, using, managing, etc. WordPress are available for
users. The abundance of plugins allows you to achieve virtually anything with your WordPress
site. By using free and paid templates or themes, you can easily customize your websites look.
Disadvantages of WordPress include: need for PHP, HTML&CSS knowledge for implementing
modifications; the need to install a lot of plugins for advanced features; security vulnerability
issues brought about by themes and the installation of multiple plugins.
Read: How to Build a Website with WordPress?

Joomla!
In terms of complexity, Joomla is a bit more complex than WordPress, but less comprehensive
and advanced than Drupal. Joomla is also an open source platform with more than 3% of the web
running on it. Joomla is extremely rich in features and supports all the features of a modern
website. It can be used to create any website, however, its predominantly used for small to midtier eCommerce websites.
Although not as easy to use as WordPress, Joomla still ranks high among the easy-to-use content
management systems. Users have an abundance of resources available, including programmers
tools and tutorials to get started on their Joomla website.
Thanks to Joomlas comprehensive navigation system, users can successfully manage several
hierarchies, meaning that managing a website with hundreds of pages can be easily done.
Disadvantages of Joomla: requires lot of work to make it SEO-friendly, huge server resource
requirements, some plugin incompatibility issues, less secure.
Read: How to Create a Joomla Website?

Drupal
Drupal is one of the most comprehensive open source CMSs available, outranking both
WordPress and Joomla in terms of complexity. It is considered an enterprise-class CMS,
allowing developers to readily integrate it with SAP or other similar applications. Moreover, it is
viewed as a content management framework rather than a CMS. This means that unlike a CMS,
a CMF does not make any assumptions regarding how a websites content should be managed,
leaving a lot of leeway in terms of structuring the content. Its a great platform for creating tailormade eCommerce websites or any large projects where power, scalability and stability are the
most important elements.

Drupal focuses on functionality in all aspects of website management, particularly with respect
to user management, graphic content management, page content management, etc.
Drupal facilitates the creation of feature-rich, SEO-friendly, and mobile-ready websites. It also
allows companies to deploy core features rapidly and leave customization for later. In this sense,
its a platform that allows for a better dynamic in terms of customization, that is, a Drupal
website can better respond to changing business requirements and customer feedbacks.
Disadvantages of Drupal include: steep learning curve, the absence of quality free plugins and a
lack of theme variety.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Using CMS

While all CMS software have their own particular advantages and disadvantages, some of the
pros and cons are common for each.
Advantages of using a CMS:

Quick development and deployment time: Using a CMS can drastically speed up the
process of developing a site;

Open source CMSs are free to download and install;

Advanced site functionality: Most systems allow the implementation of functionalities

(forms, polls, quizzes, event calendars, etc.) that would otherwise be extremely hard to
achieve;

User-friendly: Gives people with little or no technical skills the ability to create, update or
modify content;

Reduces costs: Implementing an out-of-the-box CMS is definitely less costly than a

custom one. Also, after users have learned some of the ins and outs of the CMS, they will
be able to handle the basic functions on their own, and this reduces the costs of outside
technical assistance as well;

Easy maintenance and updates: Most CMSs are developed to be easy to maintain and
update.

Huge development communities for open source CMSs;

Disadvantages of using a CMS:

Hidden implementation costs for perfecting the system for users needs;

Server resources: Some CMSs (e.g. Joomla) can put a load on your server resources;

Some technical skillset requirements: If users have an aversion to learning the basics of
using a CMS, the usage of a CMS will not be as efficient. This means that hiring
experienced staff or contracting technical help might be necessary;

Maintenance: In the wrong hands, an unmaintained and outdated CMS can do a lot of
harm to a website and lead to serious security vulnerabilities;

Direct support: for community-based CMS systems, direct support may not be easy to
find, and you have to rely on user forums and existing documentation.

Read: Pros and Cons of Website Builders and Traditional CMS Tools

What to Look for When Choosing a CMS?

Apart from the above-mentioned CMS options, there are hundreds of others. Choosing the
perfect CMS for you can be a daunting task. Here are some features that you should look for
when selecting a CMS for you or your business:

Page management: see if the CMS includes the page management features that you need.
For example, a blogging CMS may have restricted page management capabilities making
it hard for you to structure content beyond these capabilities.

Adding content: Can adding or modifying content be done in an easy, straightforward

way irrespective of the type of content?

Template and theme variety: If customizability is important for you, look for a CMS that
supports a lot of templates and themes.

Flexibility of user groups: For organizations in which the workflow requires the
collaboration of more users, a CMS that can handle multiple users or user groups is a
better option.

Multisite support: Does the CMS support multiple site installs?

Security: If you own an eCommerce site or you handle sensitive data, make sure your
CMS is bulletproof in terms of security.

Search capabilities: If searchable content is important on your site, make sure your CMS
covers this area both in terms of search speed and structuring results.

SEO-friendly URLs, page generation speed, and clean code generation all of these can
have an impact on the Google ranking of your site.

Support documentation and support community: Make sure there are plenty of resources
and that comprehensive documentation is readily available.

So which is your favorite CMS? What content management system you are using for your
website? Please let us know in the comments bellow.

7 Advantages of Using a CMS to Run Your Site

by Moveable Online | October 29, 2013

Using a content management system (CMS) to

power your site could be one of the best investments you make in your website and your
business. And you do need to invest your website is one of your main tools for communicating
with your customers and you want to make sure they love it. But that doesnt mean you want to
get bogged down in technical details. A CMS marries power with simplicity so you still have
time to concentrate on improving your business. Here are seven key benefits of using a CMS to
run your business website.

1. Its easy for the non-technically minded.

Not all users have the same comfort level with technology, but the basic CMS functions of
writing and publishing content, and slightly more advanced ones of adding media are usually

easy for everyone to grasp. In fact, anyone who can use word-processing software can use a
CMS for the basic functions so you dont even have to spend much time on training.

2. It allows multiple users.

In a business, there are many people who can have input into your website, from those who add
product pages to those who produce blog posts for your content marketing efforts. A CMS makes
it easy to manage roles and publishing permissions for all these users so that only those you
allow can publish content and content only goes live when youre ready.

3. It streamlines scheduling.

Related to that, any decent CMS will give you an at a glance view of the status of all content,
whether its live, being reviewed or a draft. That doesnt just apply to blog posts but to product
pages and other website pages. It allows you to assign tasks and check that they have been done.
And its easy to integrate planned content with your marketing plan so that everyone knows
whats happening when.

4. It improves site maintenance.

Need to change something on your site? Without a CMS that can mean having to trawl through
hundreds of pages, making changes on each one. With a CMS, the underlying architecture is the
same so you can make maintenance changes, update the CMS software and add functionality
without breaking the site. In fact, with the right CMS, it may keep itself up to date automatically.

5. Design changes are simple.

Speaking of making changes, lets talk about the look of the site. If you want to change the site
design, a CMS makes the process easy. Thats because the content and design are in separate
virtual boxes, so you can make design changes while keeping the site functional. Another

advantage is the ability to make a change in your administrative dashboard and have it
automatically propagate to the entire site. This gives your site a consistent appearance and is
great for branding. It also makes it easy to add a mobile interface to your site.

6. It helps you manage content.

This may seem obvious, but for some businesses, content management is not just about
publishing content but about being able to remove it when its out of date. If you are running a
Thanksgiving or Christmas promotion, then even before the season ends, you will want to
remove and change it. With a CMS this is as simple as unpublishing the content all menus and
links update automatically, so that your customers continue to have a good experience of the site.
And if you want to include customized content such as countdown calendars and lists, the CMS
can be configured to allow this. And a good CMS includes SEO too, making sure your content
ranks well in the search engines.

7. Youre in control.

All of this adds up to the biggest advantage of a CMS. Instead of being reliant on an external
vendor, with a CMS you are in control, with the ability to assign tasks and roles and to check
progress at any time. That puts you in the driving seat when it comes to this important business
tool.

5 Features to Look for in a Great CMS

Theres no getting around it were now living in a content driven world. That means if you
want to connect with your customers, you have to regularly deliver fresh information. Your blog
and website are a key part of your content delivery efforts. Basically, a blog and site that you
control is your best marketing tool. But managing a business site is different from running a
hobby blog. Your customers expect reliability and consistency and thats where a content
management system (CMS) can help. Here are five features every good CMS should include.

1. Easy Administration
The admin dashboard is the hear of any CMS and it should make it easy to manage all the tasks
involved in content production. That means:

managing roles for editors, contributors and others.

including notifications to files.

administering multiple sites if necessary.

adding functionality through modules and plugins.

keeping track of scheduled content and related assets.

Lets face it, its far easier to handle the content workflow within a single piece of software that
gives everyone the appropriate access for their level of responsibility. That streamlines content
production and reduces complexity.

2. Great Publishing Tools

Just as the content you publish is the backbone of your interaction with your key customers and
audience, publishing tools are the core of any CMS. A good CMS will adapt to the type of
content you want to publish everything from short news items to longer articles and integrate
this into an overall publication workflow. It will also handle SEO, tag content, add images and
multimedia and more from within the publishing interface and be easy to understand, even for
novice users.
When working with content, its also essential to be able to move articles around when needed.
For example, you may need to unpublish a seasonal promotion, while keeping the content handy
to be refreshed the following year. Any move should automatically update links to create a
seamless experience for website users.

3. Built-In SEO Tools

Google is always tweaking its search algorithms, most recently with the Hummingbird semantic
search update. However, technical search engine optimization isnt going away. A great CMS
will have built in SEO tools to help you automatically create URLs that work for both readers
and search engines. Your CMS will also help you add keywords and tags, format headings

properly, make sure you have alt tags for images and comply with accessibility guidelines and
avoid duplicate content. It should also help your search engine results look better by supporting
microdata and structured data.

4. Social Media Integration

Social media sites remain hugely popular. Thats why any modern CMS must take account of
social tools. This means making it easy to add social media sharing buttons for the most
important sites to any page or piece of content to encourage people to share your content with
their audiences. Think about whether your CMS automatically appends your Twitter username to
any piece of shared content and if it uses Open Graph tags to optimize the display of shared
content on social sights. These are two more important social features for a CMS.

5. Analytics
Tracking whats happening with your content in terms of views, shares and navigating your site
is an essential part of carrying out your content strategy. Your CMS should integrate with the
most popular analytics tools, especially Google Analytics, so that you can track information right
from the dashboard. Every site administrator needs to know where the key audience is based,
what technology they are using, how they are interacting with content and which pieces of
content are most popular, in order to further refine the content strategy. Any good CMS should be
able to enable this.
If your CMS includes these five features, then youre on the right track for a great content
management experience. And if your CMS also allows you to cater for your mobile visitors, then
your site is sure to be a winner with that growing segment of your key audience.

Benefits of the CMS

Quick and easy page management Any approved user can quickly and easily publish
online without complicated software or programming.

Consistent brand and navigation Design templates provide a consistent brand and
standard navigation across all KU websites.

Workflow management An integrated workflow process facilitates better content

management.

Flexibility for developers Because the CMS enables non-technical users to easily
publish content, this frees up technical developers to focus on functionality and enhanced
features.

Design is separate from content You can manipulate content without fear of
accidentally changing the design.

Database-driven You only need to change data once for it to be updated throughout
your site.

Shared resources Website managers will have access to shared resources, such as
modules, images, audio and video files, etc.

Approval systems You can give different levels of access to different users, and the
CMS has mechanisms to ensure content is approved before going live.

Mobile ready The CMS automatically scales your site to fit tablets, mobile devices and
smaller browser windows.

Archive capabilities You can track who has made changes to your page and archive
previous versions of your page.

Remote access You can access and update your site from anywhere with an Internet
connection.

Security Security is automatic.

Search engine-friendly The CMS helps to optimize your website so that search engine
users can easily find your information.

Updates The CMS allows alerts to be set to notify the editor when content needs to be
reviewed, updated or removed. This will help prevent old data from being presented and
misinforming users.

CMS Roles and Responsibilities

The CMS allows users of various skill levels to be involved in managing a KU website. Whether
you are a highly skilled web developer or have no web experience at all, you can play a role in
creating a web presence to engage your audience. How you use the CMS will depend on your
role.
Contributors

Contributors can create, post and update content, including words and images. Contributors do
not need advanced technical skills. Anyone who can create text in Microsoft Word and who can
navigate standard online functionality will be able to create content using the CMS web
interface. Contributors can only manage content on sites assigned to them. Multiple people in
organization can be designated Contributors, allowing subject matter experts to create and update
content in their own areas within the organization.
Editors

Editors have the ability to create, post and update content, including words and images. Editors
also can approve content to be published on the KU sites they are assigned to manage. Because
Editors have the ability and responsibility to review and publish contentmaking it visible to the
publicthis role should be limited in each organization.
Site Administrators

Site Administrators are most closely aligned with the traditional role of webmaster. In addition to
the ability to create, approve and publish content, they are responsible for the overall design and
functionality of the site within the KU CMS templates. Site Administrators can build and
integrate modules, modify administrative features and authorize and set up user profiles for
Contributors, Editors and peer Site Administrators for their sites. Typically, organizations will
have only one Site Administrator. Some organizations that dont have the technical expertise on
staff may outsource the role of Site Administrator to KU Information Technology or an external
vendor.
Advantages of Open Source Content Management Systems:

Software is "free" - This is partially true. Open Source software is software that has been
developed by a community of people that do not charge licensing fees for their work.
Plug-ins - If you want to add functionality to your website, there is often a plug-in already built.
There is no need to pay for custom development.
Flexibility - The right tool in the right hands can be extremely powerful and flexible. Many of
these open source content management systems can be set up to do just about anything. The
possibility is almost endless.

Disadvantages of Open Source Content Management Systems:

Software is "free" - The old adage "you get what you pay for" is very appropriate here. While
there is no ongoing subscription or licensing fee, Open Source technology often takes tens of

thousands of dollars to set up properly. Plus, who do you call to fix the software when a bug is
found? The open source development community may eventually provide a fix but there are no
guarantees as to when.
Plug-in security issues - Some of the plug-ins work better than others, but you can never be sure
until you install it. If it doesn't work, however, there is nobody to call for technical support you're on your own. It seems that not a week goes by where you don't hear or read about a major
security flaw either on a prominent website, or with the content management system itself.
Updating versions - Often times, these open source systems need to be updated to work
properly. Updating the open source CMS behind the scenes of a website can often times cause
problems on the website itself.
Steep learning curve - Many of these systems have a steep learning curve, as they are built with
the developer in mind, not the non-technical marketer. It is possible to learn any system, but
these more technical systems can often times lead to frustration and lack of use.
Have any other advantages or disadvantages of Open Source systems? Let us know in the
comments section below.