What is a Content Management System (CMS)?

CMS is short for Content Management System. A Content Management System (CMS) is a software platform that allows users to build and manage one or many websites without having to create (code) it from scratch.

There are two types of Content Management System (CMS) platforms - Traditional Content Management System (CMS) and Headless Content Management System (CMS). This article will focus on traditional Content Management System (CMS).

With a Content Management System (CMS), you can create, manage, modify, and publish content in record speed. You can quickly customize the design and functionality of your site, you can host multiple brands from one Content Management System (CMS), you can have multiple users working in the back-end of the same tool — and much more.

What are the benefits of a CMS?

There are countless good reasons for leveraging the power of a Content Management System. We compiled a list of the six most common reasons brand or enterprises go with a CMS.

1. No need to code or hire developers

By enabling people within your organization to build websites without any coding or developer experience, CMS platforms have helped transform web design by putting the creation element back into your hands. The days of relying on external agencies to fully grasp your companies’ vision/mission/products/concepts are gone. The people who are passionate about your company are the people who work for you, now you can unleash their creative genius to establish an online presence for your business.

You can create and manage content, customize the design of your site, and install extensions to add functionality to your site — all without coding. (It's important to note that most platforms do allow you to add custom code for more granular control over your site, too.)

This results in users being able to build a powerful website for their company, even if their time and technical resources are limited.

2. Website Development and Collaboration

It used to be the case that only one person could work on your website at a time, this means that you couldn’t have your marketers producing or publishing content at the same time as your developers are adding customized code, luckily this is no longer the case.

Multiple users can access and work in the back end of a CMS at the same time. This means your marketers can be producing content, your IT professionals implementing security protocols, and your developers can add customized code to your theme. The best part is, they can all be working on the same landing page at the same time. In a nutshell, a CMS can help increase productivity and improve workflows across all departments.

3. User Roles and Permissions

Allowing the right people to have the right permissions is a must when managing a CMS, after all, you don’t want a marketer mistakenly deleting a plugin that could be critical to your site and the way it runs.

A CMS has a set of user roles and permissions that comes out of the box, often, you can customize these based on your specific business needs.

As a result, this allows your teams to work safely and collaboratively on the same CMS.

4. Templates

Most CMS platforms come with a selection of predesigned templates you can use to quickly customize the appearance of your site. They can also affect the behavior of your site.

Choosing a responsive template, for example, will ensure your site looks good on any device, without requiring you to write a bunch of code. Not only do templates save you design time before launching your site, but they can also make a website redesign much faster and simpler down the road.

5. Fast and Easy updates

Keeping up with an ever changing and evolving world means you need your website to produce dynamic and relevant content on a day-to-day basis, this means your website must be agile, flexible and user friendly.

A CMS gives you the power to quickly and easily make large and small changes on your website, this can be anything from a small image change on the homepage to a full website redesign.

6. Easy Access

With a CMS platform, you can access and edit your site on virtually any device with an internet connection.

That's much easier than the alternative of building a site from scratch, which requires you to be on a device connected to the server or connect remotely.

Plus, most CMS systems have a single dashboard or control panel where you can access your site's content, theme, plugins, settings, and more — all in one place.

If your site is growing, you may need to upgrade to a CMS to meet your needs.

Why a CMS?

Using a content management system to build and manage your site can help you grow over time. Not only will a CMS store all of your web content in one place, but it will also support collaboration across teams, allow for quick and easy updates, and offer templates and extensions to customize your site.