Internet nowadays has a wide range of impacts on the distribution of content throughout websites. While the volume of digital content in the world is rising at an exponential rate; these website content pieces are increasingly becoming vulnerable to theft, plagiarism, infringement of intellectual property rights, etc. It’s therefore crucial for webmasters to create, store and manage content in a systematic and secure way. Having a Content Management System (CMS) can get all these done easily.
A CMS is a computer application enabling users to create, modify, collaborate on, publish, store or delete digital shreds of content that extract the stress of managing your content. With the aggressive growth of digital content creation over the last few years, website owners are realizing the inflating need for Content Management Platforms.
But what does the future of CMS look like? Well, this comprehensive blog has elucidated it through a critical analysis. So, stay tuned and read the blog till the end.
A Content Management System (CMS) is a software application that enables you to manage the development and modification of digital content. In the simplest terms, a CMS refers to a specialized tool that facilitates you building a website without writing codes from the scratch. Instead of creating your own system for creating web pages, storing images, and other functions, the CMS coordinates every basic infrastructure stuff for you so that you can focus on the forward-facing aspects of the website.
Any basic web content management solution helps you write or upload the content, format it, add images or headlines, and do several backstage things such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). However, in a user-centric, multi-device world, it’s not enough. With the rapid evolution of digital marketing, its focus is now more on customer experience while assimilating the Internet of Things, Mobile Apps (eg: social media apps),as, and much more. All these depend on a robust content management system.
A CMS is generally used for Web Content Management (WCM), and Enterprise Content Management (ECM). ECM supports several users in an integrated environment by collaborating on document management, record retention, and digital asset management. On the other hand, WCM collaborates with the authoring for the websites that include text, embedded photos, videos, maps, audio as well as program codes that lay out content and interact with the user. Therefore, ECM includes a function of WCM.
Content in a CMS is stored in a database and displayed in a presentation layer based on different sets of templates just like a website. The biggest advantage of using a CMS is its “Collaborative Nature” and “Integrated Functions”. In addition, it reduces your hassles of writing web pages manually in JavaScript, HTML, and CSS programming languages.
The first and foremost objective of a CMS is to ensure that the procedure of content storage and management is simple and efficient. Here is an explanation of how a CMS works at a glance:
Managing your website with Content Management Software is a brilliant way to streamline the workflows seamlessly. It ensures the mess-free organization of a website’s content. Nevertheless, there are many CMS platforms available with diverse features. But the fundamental benefits of each of them are the same. So, here is a quick list of the benefits of CMS:
What webmasters want is simple, easy-to-use content management software that doesn’t need much technical knowledge to use. Most CMS platforms such as WordPress, Drupal, etc., are user-friendly and this is exactly one of their unique selling points (USP).
The majority of content management software programs have a plethora of options for customization. You can adjust the design, layout, menu locations, basic colors, etc., with new themes as well as plugins.
A CMS makes it easy for several users to work collaboratively on a single piece of content. When it comes to content creation and integration, it’s your one-stop shop. For instance, the content writer can write the blog post, and then the graphics designer can insert videos, images, etc. Furthermore, the content manager or the creative head can check it and publish it.
Having a content calendar helps you strategize your content in advance so that your website displays the desired mix of content. A content management program enables you to draft your content and organize it for publishing later in a few days, weeks or months.
When your business has a website, online security has to be your main priority. A CMS’s rigid security features prevent the attacks of hackers and keep your content safe.
There are tools and plugins in the CMS library that helps your website rank higher in the search engines like Google, Bing, etc. Of course, these tools can’t replace the digital marketing team, but they help a lot in implementing basic SEO strategies.
It’s true that website maintenance is expensive enough, especially if your website is static.
Using content management software as the platform for your website offers a myriad of benefits which are all game-changers. As more and more businesses are shifting to digital workspaces, having an easy-to-use and well-designed website has become more essential than ever. Since customers typically do product research before making the final purchase, featuring your services and products using content management software on your website makes your business a center of attraction for the target audience.
Scalability should be taken into consideration while choosing the digital assets that will be most effective for your business. You'll be able to stay up with how the world of digital experiences and Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) is fast developing. Serving up the relevant material and contact points at the right time is crucial in today's digital environment.
It’s nothing surprising that the majority of websites employ content management systems in some capacity. In fact, a recent study has found that the global market for digital content management solutions reached $4.9 billion in 2017. In addition, it’s predicted to reach $14.2 billion by 2024.
To any business, content is an asset as it creates an impression for your business. Once your website is developed, it’s essential to review and manage it from time to time. There are so many websites in the world that never reviews or evaluates their content after launch. Eventually, the issues of wrong information, old facts, grammatical errors, etc., start coming forth. From the perspective of a user or a reader, it’s really frustrating. Many of them don’t even go through the full content after in such cases after opening the website and hitting the “Back Button” resulting high rate of bounce-backs and a sharp decrease in lead generation.
Your website should be both well–designed, easy to manage, and intriguing enough on the backend. It’s pretty obvious that manual implementation of changes on your website can be quite time-consuming and labor-intensive. Having a CMS for your website allows you to exercise control over your content starting from creating the content to changing or deleting any pieces of it such as text, audio, video, or images. As a result, majority of the website owners these days need to use content management software in order to handle everything.
The features of CMS platforms may differ from one to another. So, it’s advisable for webmasters to check the following characteristics while researching content management systems:
A Robust Content Editor with options for visual, coding-based editing, drag-and-drop builders, etc.
Although it’s evident that CMS is a crucial resource to webmasters, it has to solve many more issues than simply managing a website both today and tomorrow. A customer journey in the modern days consists of a range of touchpoints apart from traditional websites such as social media, online ads, QR code synergies, self-service, and podcasts. As a result, this sort of omni-channel reality asks for more of a CMS: more integration, more development, more systems, and more management. The trend, therefore, is fragmentary which entails that content editors and developers must work closer together.
As explained previously, the digital experience world is offering more channels and platforms. To be where your audiences/users/customers are temporally and spatially, all you need is a future-proof CMS to build a future-resistant customer journey. Following are the principles; the future CMS platforms should incorporate somehow:
Making decisions regarding what type of CMS should be used is a super confusing point for those who have just begun their web development journey. One wrong choice and your website project will be doomed. This is where the name, “Self-hosted/open source CMS platforms” arrives.
Let’s check them out:
Websites that are self-hosted or open-sourced are the ones that are housed by the web hosting company according to your choice. The website is completely under the control of the website owner, much as if he/she had a physical server of his own in a data center. If you select a self-hosted option, you are in charge of configuring the server and ensuring the safety of your website.
There is a wide range of benefits when it comes to a self-hosted site. It gives you the full customization features and flexibility you would like to have over your website. Your options for custom domain names, custom design features, and plugins are limitless.
On the other hand, the concept of open source CMS is pretty simple. These are maintained and managed by its developer community instead of being developed and owned by one company. The source code is open to all which means anybody can modify it and do what they like with it.
The most prominent benefit of an open source CMS is that it’s supported by a large base of developers and is accessible to anybody. Anybody can update the code and improve the modules. As a result, it’s always evolving into a better version thereby keeping pace with the requirements of the users.
It’s advisable to use a self-hosted, open-sourced CMS platform for some amazing reasons. That’s because such platforms are characterized by relatively lower ownership costs backed by self-hosting and server less infrastructure. After all, there is no complex structure to manage; also lesser people are needed to operate and maintain.
Furthermore, your data will stay within your own data center which means they are stored safely and securely. Now, if the self-hosted CMS is open-source, it becomes absolutely easy to adapt and modify things pertaining to your needs. You can edit the codes and do necessary improvements to your website as and when required. Every webmaster should therefore use a self-hosted/open-source CMS platform to manage your website content in a cost-effective and systematic manner.
The leading content management systems in the market eliminate the need of learning programming languages during building websites. Without a CMS platform, otherwise, you would have to create web pages writing codes on CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. This is considerably difficult and sometimes impossible for webmasters who don’t have relevant knowledge of coding.
Today, the market is flooded with tons of content management software; however, some of them are the most popular with startling features. Read the top picks below and decide which one would work best for you:
WordPress.org is the #1 choice for the best CMS platforms and is the most popular CMS software powering 38% of the internet. It powers everything from the biggest fashion blogs in the world to small personal blogs. However, people often get confused between WordPress.com with WordPress.Org. While the former is a blog hosting platform, the latter is an open-source CMS designed for blogging.
As an open-source, free CMS platform, WordPress functionalities are limitless. You can literally control nearly every aspect of your site and get no restrictions on customizations. Plus its library of 57,000+ unique plugins makes you add different functionalities to your site easily.
Here is a sneak peek at the top features of WordPress:
The Benefits of using WordPress are as follows:
The drawbacks of WordPress are elaborated below:
Drupal is another open-source, free content management software that’s considered to be a feasible alternative to WordPress. Being a sought-after CMS to marketers, developers and agencies, it helps webmasters manage content items across a number of industries like e-Commerce, healthcare, FinTech, retail, media, government, travel, etc.
With powerful content management tools, track record for consistent innovation, and sophisticated APIs, Drupal is one of the best open-source, digital experience platforms (DXP).
Some of the best features of Drupal are as mentioned below:
The Benefits of using Drupal are as follows:
The drawbacks of Drupal are elaborated below:
Similar to WordPress and Drupal, it is a free and open-sourced platform that advertises itself as an "enterprise-class CMS." TYPO3 is the go-to solution for content management for industry giants like Sony and Mercedes-Benz. This free enterprise-class CMS encircling PHP combines open-source code with genuine scalability and reliability.
It may function on a variety of operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, and OS/2, in addition to other web servers, such as Apache, IIS, or Nginx. Because code and content are managed independently, TYPO3 is praised for being very versatile. Without creating any computer code, additional functions may be added. It describes itself as an enterprise-level CSM based on its capacity to handle a corporate setting.
Let's examine some of the additional interesting features offered by this CMS in more detail: Free, open-source software.
The Benefits of using Typo3 are as follows:
The drawbacks of Typo3 are elaborated below:
Based on the PHP and Laravel web application framework, October is a self-hosted CMS. It supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite for the database backend and uses a flat file repository for the front-end structure. The October CMS provides a range of features including users, themes, permissions, and plugins as a more user-friendly substitute for WordPress.
The platform is created with the intention of having a minimal learning curve and a template system that is simple to manage with version control systems. Developers are upset with how difficult and confusing it is to create websites using code editors or specific IDEs. However, you are taken back to the fundamentals and around to the easier side using October CMS.
Take a look at the core features of October CMS below:
The benefits of using October CMS are as follows:
The drawbacks of October CMS are elaborated below:
With the help of the potent web-based design tool Webflow, you can create, construct, and publish responsive websites without writing any code. You may progress from the original idea to finished products using this platform for all-star-level design.
The design of Webflow is flawless. It bridges the gap between applications like Squarespace and Wix and WordPress, the most widely used CMS in the world. As per the viewpoints of Webflow users, it’s the next-generation tool for creating and launching websites by newbies and pros throughout the web. This is quite a success story due to its design flexibility, lightning-fast performance, and ease of use.
Let's examine some of the interesting features offered by this CMS in more detail:
The Benefits of using Webflow are as follows:
The drawbacks of Webflow are elaborated below:
Wix is one of the most trouble-free website builders available today on the market. Because of its simplicity, it’s a popular choice amongst non-technical users who dream of developing their own website from the scratch. Its intriguing drag-and-drop building tools help you add various elements to your website and manage the content having zero knowledge of code. What’s more? With Wix, you can keep everything on track as you add content to your site such as seeing which is your best-performing content on SERP, how many people are viewing your site, etc.
Undoubtedly Wix is simply a great choice for beginners. Take a quick look at the features Wix does offer to the users:
The advantages of using Wix are as follows:
The drawbacks you are likely to come across while using Wix are elaborated below:
Squarespace is a compact website builder. But unlike other competing CMS solutions, Squarespace offers a special selling point: gorgeous designs. Squarespace has the best templates available, several of which have won awards. The requirements of your website may be entirely tailored using these. It’s a well-liked content management option for artists, musicians, and innovative workers, thanks to its contemporary designs.
Let's examine some of the interesting features offered by this CMS in more detail:
The Benefits of using Squarespace are as follows:
The drawbacks of Squarespace are elaborated below:
What about building a high-converting website along with a sales funnel from a single online tool? Well, Click Funnel offers you such type of feature but it has many more things beyond that. A sales funnel builder, ClickFunnels help you create standard websites, landing pages, opt-in pages, landing pages, squeeze pages, membership websites, webinars, and a lot more using ClickFunnels. Additionally, it enables users to create sales funnels using a variety of ready-made, customizable designs.
Here is a checklist of some of the interesting features offered by this CMS platform:
The positive sides of using ClickFunnels are as follows:
The drawbacks ClickFunnels are elaborated below:
Unbounce is simply a tool for creating landing pages. It enables you to create landing pages for email collection, sales growth, and other purposes. It’s one of the greatest landing page builders available which also offers a very potent conversion optimization engine. With its wealth of AI-powered capabilities, Unbounce makes it simple to increase conversion rates.
The best thing is there is no requirement to hire a developer. Their drag-and-drop builder makes using it really simple. Sticky Bars and Popups are only two of the many landing page support elements they provide. Unbounce is assisting marketers in being more shrewd and quick, from creating campaign optimization at the flick of a switch to creating pre-optimized landing pages and enticing text.
Take a quick look at the features Unbounce does offer to the users:
The Benefits of using Unbounce are as follows:
The drawbacks of Unbounce are elaborated below:
A CMS organizes and manages your content so that your website gets a clear structure and visitors easily find out the information they are looking for. Content management software serves a wide range of purposes in this regard such as customization, collaboration, scheduling, safety, etc. On top of that, CMS optimizes the SEO of websites thereby driving traffic and potential leads.
With rapid progress in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Automation, the demand for a comprehensive CMS platform is becoming necessary among the webmasters. Indeed, the future of content management is secured with CMS.
Webskitters Technology Solutions is your go-to destination in terms of building high-quality, creative, and functional websites. We have skilled teams for website development using CMS platforms such as WordPress, Wix, Webflow, and Squarespace using which we provide with captivating and customized websites. Have a word with our experts today and get your desired solution.