We're constantly on the lookout for ways to help make the world a more web & design-savvy place. This page is dedicated to compiling the resources we discover in our travels, and also a place to put the ones we've created for our clients. We've made them available to you (for free!) whether you decide to work with us or not (though we'd love to work with you), just 'cause we're cool like that.
Website Content Management Systems
What is a Website Content Management System (CMS)?
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: “A website content management system is a tool designed to simplify the publication of content to websites, allowing authorized users to submit and edit content without requiring any technical knowledge such as HTML.”
What are the benefits to having a CMS?
A CMS gives you direct control over the content of your website. This means:
- You save money in the long run by avoiding hourly updating fees from your web developer.
- Your site gets updated more quickly because you don’t have to wait for your web developer to get around to it. (View our screencast to see a quick intro)
Once these barriers to updating your site (cost & time) are removed, it will naturally get fresh content more often. This is good for your users, plus Google also loves it and will reward you with higher search engine rankings.
Other advantages include:- The design and content of the site are separated, which ensures a consistent look and feel throughout the site. For example, a page headline is going to be the same size and color from page to page. It also means that when it comes time to re-design the site, this can be done without affecting the content (ie, re-designs become simpler and cheaper).
- Most CMS’s are modular, which means you can add functionality to the base system as required. Need a photo gallery? Mailing list? Video player? Registration forms? These are just a few examples of add-ons that can be hooked into the system, enabling your site to grow along with you.
- Responsibility for website content can be spread out over a number of authorized users. For example, each department in a company can have someone assigned to keeping their section current. You can also set up a content control system where various people can submit content, but it doesn’t go live on the site until approved by a higher-level administrator.
Idea Market uses a popular open-source CMS called Joomla! We have immersed ourselves in this system since its creation in 2005 and we now use it as the basis of the vast majority of the websites we produce. Why did we choose Joomla?
- It’s open source. That means no licensing fees, open access to the code so we can make custom modifications as needed, and a huge online community of almost 200,000 people ready to help with problems or future enhancements to the system.
- It’s easy for non-technical people to use. A simple, browser-based interface enables users to add or edit content, update images, manage specialized functionality, etc. If you’re familiar with how to use programs like Microsoft Word, you’ll have no problem with the Joomla editing system.
- It has literally thousands of add-ons available for almost any situation. Examples include:
- dynamic form builders
- business directories
- document management
- image and multimedia (audio/video) galleries
- e-commerce and shopping cart systems
- forums and chat software
- event calendars
- blogging software
- email newsletters
- banner advertising systems
- polls and surveys
- It’s an award-winning CMS used all over the world by organizations large and small. A few live site examples include: Nikon, Danone, and Olympus (Australia).
Want to know more?
Read more about Joomla at www.joomla.org.