A CMS stands for Content Management System. It is an admin center on which you are able to make changes to your website and add pages without knowledge of coding. Your website can have a template CMS like WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal or a Custom CMS specifically tailored to your business. Either way, they can be quite practical if you see yourself as a hands-on website owner who will make changes often. Of course having a CMS adds to the cost of building a website so our question today is “Do you really need a CMS for your website?”

Over the years we have built hundreds of CMS both custom and platform based. What we have noticed time after time is that the site owner rarely used it. In some cases, the site owner would send us the copy writing to change and pay us to make the edits even though they had a CMS to do it on their own.

The truth about CMS is:

1. You have to learn how to use the CMS. Even though most are user friendly there is still a learning curve.
2. You will need to train a new person each time that person in charge of the CMS is replaced.
3. It will take time away from your work when you have to make changes; not just the changes themselves but styling them, illustrating the new content with compelling images (which need to be purchased too), optimizing the content for search engines, and so forth.
4. CMS need upgrades every couples of years, especially the editors inside the CMS. If you are not on maintenance plan, schedule to have your webmaster review your CMS every 24 months to be sure everything is up-to-date.
5. Some admin centers have a monthly fee for their usage.
6. Most hackers hack websites with a CMS because their malicious scripts are developed for database breach. A CMS requires a database in order to operate therefore it creates a security risk.
7. Having a website with a CMS costs more than having one without it.
8. In many instances (if you make changes about 4 times per years), it is much cheaper to pay a programmer to make the changes for you. They can do it faster and better. All you is email your rough text and they can enter it for you.

If you are still not sure if a CMS is right for you, call us at 707-794-9999 (Pacific Standard Time).