April 16, 2018
Managing your own website used to be a real chore.
In fact, sometimes, it was downright impossible, thanks to page designs that could only be altered if you were the original designer or had a degree in web development.
Now, we live in the wonderful world of a content managed web. And that means, providing you have access to the internet and a laptop, tablet or desktop PC (and, in some cases, even a smartphone), you can make amendments to your website whenever you need to.
Today, we’re going back to basics, and considering what we believe to be the five most important reasons your business needs a content managed website.
Unless you want to make wholesale changes to the way your website looks, operates and feels, a content management system (CMS) will enable you to add blogs and news articles, and make changes to text and imagery on pages without calling in an expert.
Modern CMSs are smart and swap the need to input any form of coding with an editor you’ll immediately find familiar if you’ve ever used Microsoft Word.
Chances are, you’ll have several people within the business who need to contribute to the content on your website, and if you don’t have a CMS, you’ll struggle to collaborate effectively.
Most CMSs give you the ability to have multiple users so that various people within the business can access the website independently and look after their own patch.
They’re also great on the go, therefore if a member of the marketing team is at a conference and fancies publishing a quick thought leadership piece on their experiences as a blog post, they can do so from the comfort of a tablet.
Pick the right CMS and external marketing firm to guide you through its use, and you’ll benefit from better rankings on search engines such as Google.
This is because CMSs like SilverStripe (our personal favourite) include the ability to fine-tune page content so that it’s as attractive as possible to Google and capable of ranking for the most relevant keywords and phrases.
The headlines are never short of news relating to cybercrime these days, and with security so high on the agenda for businesses and consumers, it’s vital you have a website that’s protected against hackers.
A content managed system - when properly maintained and kept up-to-date - will offer you just that, and will be built on a foundation that takes a security-first mindset. Constant testing by developers and marketing experts also means your CMS will benefit from regular updates that keep it aware of and protected from the latest hacking techniques.
Hands up if you skipped to this one straight away?
No problem if you did - as a savvy business owner, you’ll want to keep your costs to a minimum, and no one wants to be saddled with a website that costs a fortune in developer and design time whenever you want something changing, updating or publishing.
As noted earlier, unless you want big changes making, a CMS will save you considerably with lower on-going costs for maintenance.
If truth be told, you probably already have a content-managed website, so common are such platforms in the digital age, but there’s a strong chance you may have one that’s cumbersome or custom-built for your needs and, as a result, beginning to age.
If that’s the case, or if you’re just starting out and need a website you can update yourself, talk to New Edge. Our team has the answer.