To be successful in today's online space, you need to regularly update and add new content. Content management systems (CMS) are software solutions that let you update and edit the content of your web pages without needing to know anything about programming.  With a CMS, anyone that can use a computer can update a business website!

Content management systems separate the content, design, and framework (or engine) of a website.

To update the website content, instead of coding the pages in basic HTML, you can use a WYSIWYG (‘What you see is what you get’) editor. It's a long way of saying, an editor like MS Word. With a WYSIWYG editor, you add text and images exactly as they will be seen live on the web page. You can write in bold or italic text, or change headings as you edit the page.

A good content management system extends far beyond text and images, managing a wide range of multimedia content including audio files and video.

The layout and design of CMS websites is stored in website templates. These templates place all the information in one place rather than in multiple files with each web page. The advantages here are huge. Simply installing a new website template completes a website re-design. The content is displayed with the new template design once it is selected. The CMS web pages (including new pages) all have a consistent appearance, without copying the layout and design code across files.

CMS websites are easily maintained to the latest standards of web design and security. The CMS framework (or core files) is the engine room of a CMS website. As a bonus, content management systems, regularly update the core files for added features and security, keeping your website up to date. The updates are new versions of core files which are uploaded to the website, overwriting old files. This is as easy as uploading a single zip file for the Joomla! CMS. It is important that these core files are not edited, to avoid overwriting changes with future updates. As the framework is separate from the content and template, the updates generally won't effect the appearance and content on the website.

Without a CMS, websites become unmanageable quickly. To update pages several HTML files need to be downloaded, edited, and uploaded back to the site. This is tedious (and costly) for a small website, and a nightmare for a site of 20 or more pages. Because of this, pages quickly become out of date, updates are avoided, and the appearance becomes dated and inconsistent. Content management systems save the site owners time by simplifying the tasks needed to update content.

Free open source CMS's are most popular, and not just because their free. The Joomla! CMS boasts over 200,000 community users and contributors, making it hard for other paid CMS's to keep the same pace of development.

The reliability and features of modern open source content management systems have gone light years ahead of the olden days of hand-coded Dreamweaver and Frontpage websites. Website owners no longer need their web designer to update content. If your small business website doesn't have a modern CMS, we recommend updating to a "Joomla!" based website, and enjoying your new free time, or money you saved on web designers! Learn more about the ClickWebDesign CMS.