Content Management System
A Content Management System, more commonly referred to as a CMS or backend, is an interface which only you, as the administrator, will have access to where you can update the contents of a blog, ecommerce site, website pages, news and much more.
What is a CMS?
Nowadays most websites are run by a CMS as most websites and businesses now require to frequently update the website content without the need of a technical person such as a designer or developer. This means that many businesses are now opting for a CMS solution with their website and avoiding the issue of having a static website. Using a CMS is not challenging at all – an avid computer user can easily edit and create pages using a CMS. Every website has its own specially designed CMS with its own interface and functionality; however, all Content Management Systems have a similar concept. With a CMS you can edit menus, update content and add new pages. The concept is similar to filing an online form; for instance, for a page you will have forms to edit elements on the page and an editor. The editor is where you will add the main content of the page and can apply some formatting to the text itself such as a heading, sub-headings, text colour, font size and alignments. Some editors also allow to add media such as videos and images. You can all do this without having any knowledge of HTML or CSS. Without a CMS your website can easily be out of date as to do a small change you will need the assistance of technical persons that know HTML and CSS, which will increase your maintenance costs in the long run.
Online Marketing Advantages
Without a CMS online marketing campaigns will be more difficult as there will be no option to increase landing pages on the fly. Online marketing services in most cases would require to create dedicated landing pages for Search Engine Optimisation or Pay-Per-Click. These two channels would require multiple landing pages to target specific keywords and audiences. Additionally having a CMS one can easily expand in having a blog on the website. The blog will allow the creation of an online marketing campaign to drive traffic through search engines and social media. Since a CMS allows the creation of content on the fly, you can post frequent posts on your blog easily.
SEO Friendly
An SEO friendly CMS is vital for the success of your website. In general, a CMS which is not SEO friendly is also not user friendly. A CMS must create clean and short URLs for webpages which are both SEO and user friendly. There are a lot of technical issues involved with a CMS that go wrong such as meta tags, canonical tags and other specific SEO elements. So remember to choose carefully since a proper website can help your business grow.
Conrad Bugeja is a Search Optimisation Consultant and Pay-Per-Click Consultant at Alert eBusiness Internet Marketing Division - www.alertemarketing.com