Do you need a CMS?

The Internet is basically a limitless font of digitized information.  Anything and everything can and has ended up on some sort of website at some point in the past three decades.  The trick is organizing and updating that information while making it easy to access.

Web developers and programmers have the tools and skills to update websites themselves.  If you aren’t planning on going back to school and need to make frequent updates to your site, you may want to consider using a content management system.

Content management systems have become increasingly user friendly and allow you to organize your website in such a way that it is accessible to everyone.  The trick is finding and implementing the correct CMS for your needs and budget.

What is a CMS?

If you have a website or you are thinking about hiring someone to create a website for you, it’s because you have information you want to put out there. That’s the first step.  What comes next is deciding how you want your information to be presented.

A content management system allows the website owner to control what the website looks like without first having to get a degree in web design or programming.  A CMS organizes the different types of information on a site, allowing for regular and easy updates through a user-friendly interface.

Do you need one?

If your site is purely informational and doesn’t require constant updates, you can probably get away without using a CMS.  Some law firms, for example, are perfectly happy with a website that features basic information such as who they are, their specialties and where they are located.

Other law firms may want to highlight their views on the latest legal news and important cases they won or that may affect their clients.  In that case they would probably need access and control of their site instead of having to request updates through their web developer.

That’s where a CMS comes in.

Choosing the right CMS for you

The most important thing about a CMS is making sure that it is the right fit for the site it manages.  Too many web development companies learn one CMS and then try to shoehorn every single client into that system regardless of the client’s needs.  This saves time and money for the developers because they get to be lazy and not keep up with emerging systems and it is seen as a way to keep the clients out of their hair since they will be in charge of their own updates.  The problem with that is the client ends up saddled with an expensive CMS they either don’t need or can’t use because it isn’t designed to do what they need it to do.

Here are three of the many systems we use and recommend:

WordPress – This is the CMS we use for MudbugMedia.com.  It’s great for a site that might have five or six static pages that don’t change very often, like our “About Us” and “The Team” pages, and a few that change on a much more regular basis like our blog.  Another good example of WordPress in action is the site we designed for Ursuline Academy.  The site allows school officials to easily update the site with current events, weekly updates and school wide reminders for the students.  This CMS really pays off if you are interested in blogging and/or disseminating a large amount of information to a widespread audience.

ExpressionEngine – ExpressionEngine can be seen as a step up from WordPress.  While both are convenient and easy to use, ExpressionEngine allows for more dynamic content.  The website we help update for Ochsner Health System is run by ExpressionEngine, which allows them to easily manage multiple web pages.  If you check out the locations page on the main Ochsner site, you will be presented with a plethora of information.  Ochsner can go in and change the details for each location to ensure visitors to the site get exactly what they are looking for.  This would be a much more tedious process in WordPress, but ExpressionEngine allows for this kind of optimization through the admin site, making it much easier to make multiple changes at once.

Drupal – The larger a site gets, the more difficult it is to manage information on the site.  Drupal is designed for large sites that feature dozens of pages of individualized content.  The Audubon Institute website is a site we have worked on that uses Drupal.  There’s a lot going on with the site.  With more than a dozen locations throughout the New Orleans area, the Audubon Institute’s website faces the challenge of presenting a ton of information in a clear and easily understandable way.  Drupal allows site administrators to go in and monitor each page’s content and mix in a variety of different dynamic elements.  While WordPress and ExpressionEngine typically do not require much training in order for the average user to master the updating process, Drupal is more involved but can really pay off for larger sites.

Adding a CMS into a project estimate definitely ups the initial cost.  That’s why we make sure that you need a CMS and if you do, we pick the CMS that’s right for you and gives you the biggest bang for your buck.