Content Management Systems
Content is one of the most important elements of your web site, because it can organically improve
your search engine rankings. But that only applies if the content is well written, interesting, and
focused. If you have a web site that’s hundreds of pages in size and those pages change regularly
because of your content strategy, managing all of that content can be a nightmare.That’s where content management systems (CMS) become very useful. A content management sys-
tem is a tool used to create, update, publish, discover, and distribute content for your web site.
This piece of software is usually very easy to use, and it quickly becomes one of the most useful
tools you’ll find for developing your web site.When should you use CMS?
Content management systems are hugely helpful for web sites that have hundreds of pages of con-
tent to manage. If your web site is smaller than that, should you use it? The answer to that question
is “It depends.”What it depends on is how much content you actually have that needsto be managed, how much
time you have to manage it, and how much of your budget you want to invest in managing it. For
the last point, there is good news. Some content management systems are completely free. Drupal
(http://drupal.org) is probably one of the best-known free systems. It’s open source, which
means that the software is both free and can be tweaked by you to meet your specific needs. It’s
through this collaborative development that open-source software applications are improved for
everyone involved.If you feel you need a CMS that’s a little more expensive than free, you can find those out there,
too. The cost of the most basic CMS software starts at around $1,500 and increases to more than
$7,000 for the initial license. More complex versions can cost as much as $500,000 for the ini-
tial licensing. Fees for additional licenses, extra features, or monthly maintenance fees may also
apply.But price should not be the main reason you choose a content management system. Instead, your
CMS decisions should be based on your corporate need. And that will vary from one organization
to another.Choosing the right CMS
If you decide that a content management system is a tool you need for managing your web-site
content, you should take some time to investigate the different options that are available to you.
Like any other software, not all CMS systems are created equal.189
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