One would think that choosing a Content Management System, or a CMS, for your web design wouldn’t have to take too much work. Many people choose to go with WordPress, because it’s the most common and familiar CMS available online.
There’s nothing wrong with using a CMS that you’re familiar with, but it’s good to be informed of the options that are available to you. You may never know, you might find a CMS that suits your needs better than WordPress does. To help you find the right CMS for your web design, keep these tips in mind.
Functionality
Obviously, the first thing that you should look at when considering a CMS for your web design is whether or not the CMS you’re considering can handle the amount of work that you’re going to need out of it. Look into different CMS platforms, and compare to what functions are absolutely needed for your website.
Usability when it comes to handling content
As a CMS, these platforms are supposed to make handling content easier for website owners. However, some CMS’s are less flexible than others. For example, some platforms do not allow you to export content to another system. This will be difficult to use in the event that you want to transfer platforms in the future. Make sure you research the CMS that you’re considering very carefully.
Do you have someone in your team who can work with it? If not, is it easy to learn?
As much as possible, you don’t want to spend any extra time learning how to use the CMS. Ideally, you’d want a CMS that your team can readily develop. However, if nobody has worked with that system before, it’s best that you go with a system that can be learned. CMS’s are designed to make content management easier, so if it takes too long to learn and understand, then maybe it isn’t the right system for you.
Maintenance
It’s often been said that building the website and creating the web design is the easy part, and the hard part comes after the site launches. When considering a CMS, you need to take a look into how well it handles updates, publishes content, adds more pages, expansions etc. It should be fairly easy to carry these out with a good CMS.
How does it work with my other software/needs?
Chances are, the CMS isn’t going to be the only software that you’re working with in your web design, and it isn’t focused solely on web development. The CMS that you choose has to work well alongside your other software, and is easily used by other departments for their needs as well. These include marketing, social media, and customer support, to name a few.
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