When designing your website, you will of no doubt of heard of using a Content Management System (CMS), some of the more common ones are Joomla, Drupal, Xoops, WordPress, and so on.
Before going straight into using a CMS, you should consider some of the following points.
1) Does your site need other users? or are you happy to be the only content contributor.
2) Are you happy putting content on using HTML?
3) Have you had any experience with a CMS? If not, are you willing to learn one or pay someone else to set one up for you on your domain?
4) Which CMS are the easiest to use?
5) If you do choose a CMS, what would you mainly use it for?
6) Some things you might use a CMS for include:
- Having an easy way to write new articles.
- Allows other users to log on, and submit new articles (depending on their membership level)
- Allows the owner to specify the membership level of a user (eg. reader, writer, publisher, editor, admin)
- Allows for a good organisation of articles, by date, category, or other sorting system.
If you are creating an information website, where you are not continually adding new articles, then you most likely would not need a CMS. However a CMS, can still be used for a one page site if you like.
Some disadvantages of a CMS includes:
- There is a learning curve as to how to install it, configure it, and modify it to be the site you like. (Most control panels allow for simple installation of the major CMS’s though)
- There are usually at least a few updates to the script each year for security and other reasons (The better ones handle this with a simple one-click upgrade)
- Compared to a static website, by allowing users to log in, you are reducing the site’s security, and there is a chance your site would get spammed (especially if you allow comments)
- The website may load slower than a simple webpage.
After looking at the pros and cons of having a CMS, I hope that you are now more aware of whether getting one for your site is what you need or not. It really comes down to the use of your site.
If you are constantly updating your site, then a CMS may make the updates easier, especially if you are not comfortable with HTML and other web design languages.
If you want other people to write articles for your site, and would like those people to be able to publish them themselves, then a CMS could be exactly what you are looking for.
If you are doing a blog, then a CMS specifically for blogs would work best such as WordPress.
If you would like a forum on your site, then you don’t really need a CMS, as you can get forum scripts that are independent of a CMS.
1st step. decide on your site’s content, and how you would like it updated and used.
2nd step if you think a CMS is right for your site, choose which one.
3rd step Make your site.
Good luck!
Content Management System or Not
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