One of my first jobs as a webmaster was to build a series of intranet sites for Applied Materials. I had already been building sites for a few years at that time, but never had a task as large as this one. I built the sites, gave a few some makeovers, and was given one final request before my contract came to an end. Can you create a way for us to input new content without knowing how to build a web page? I was asked to design my exit plan.
Content Management Systems
One of the great things about blogs, content management is what they excel at. Experience in building a website? Hardly, my Mom could manage one. Actually, she’s pretty good with a computer though. I mean even my Dad could manage one. Blogs and websites are different though, and most business sites are not made in a blog format. They do however, need to make the occasionally changes, and add content to their sites. This is where CMS (Content Management Systems) kicks in.
CMS gives the site owner and/or the webmaster the ability to add or change the content of a website without having to change a whole website. Why code a whole new page when all you want to do is add an “About Us” page or something like that. Why pay a webmaster to change the date on your home page when you could do it yourself in ten seconds? Why buy web designing software to do those changes when it could be done from an online control panel? The advantages are time and money, time and money. Every site should be designed with CMS in mind, and if it’s not, your just asking for pain in the future.
Who Offers CMS?
Any good webmaster or web design company should from the start. What if you already have a website? Depending on the site, it should be easy enough to convert. When I was doing it for Applied Materials, I had the unfortunate luck of converting a site with over 1,000 pages, with what I think had just as many authors. So, it’s not always easy.
Though I am not looking to take on any CMS projects myself these days, I know of one company, Toronto Website Design, that I am sure would be more than willing to take it on. Here is a direct link to the (Removed link 11/17/2008, page removed) Systems page. Make your site do the work, not you.
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You’re right Robert. CMS is the standard today, all webmasters should offer CMS as a solution to their clients. I come across far to many potential clients who have been held back because of the high costs and inflexibility of other options. What Content Management Systems do you recommend? Are their any CMS systems that you do not recommend? In terms of scalability how does the site size impact the type of site that you create?
Additionally, how do you integrate your focus of site design and usability with the larger marketing needs of your clients?
Joomla has been getting very popular these days. Here’s the link: http://www.joomla.org/
Nice article about cms systems! Everyone shoud use this systems today. It is making life a lot more easy