3 Pros of Updating Your Website With a CMS
If you have a static website which you have updated by an external agent such as a web designer or webmaster, then you'll be familiar with the problems inherent in such a system. You are about to launch a new product, you have an amazing piece of news to tell the world or you have had a new set of pictures taken of your company or your products and you are aching to get them online and let the world see them. But your web designer is on holiday. They don't get back for two weeks, by which time your amazing news has been usurped by someone else's amazing news and by the time you get it online it's old news. Not a great situation. This is where a content management system (CMS) is an ideal way to keep your site up-to-date without the need of a third party's intervention. Here are three ways in which a CMS could help you keep your site at the top of its game.
1. Regular, timely updates
The web is a fast-paced environment. Users thrive off new information while search engine's crawlers are always on the lookout for fresh content to index, thus improving your site's potential for moving up the search rankings. If you have a piece of breaking news that is about to shake the world, then it can't wait: it has to go online as quickly as possible. With a CMS this is possible. Like you would write an email or prepare a press release in a word processor, you can immediately update your site with the latest news and keep your visitors informed, building or maintaining your site's reputation for being at the cutting edge.
2. Simple user interfaces allow for more people to get involved
With the dawn of CMS systems you are no longer reliant on someone well versed in the languages of XML, CSS or PHP to keep your site up-to-date. In fact, most modern CMS systems use an interface not dissimilar to the more popular word processing packages on the market, with the same text-manipulation tools and image-placing buttons as you'd find anywhere else. Now, your whole team is able to update your site, and from anywhere they can access a computer. You could have someone on the other side of the globe at a conference with a burning piece of information that you know your clients will love upload a story with pictures, even video, with a few simple steps.
3. Optimising your site
Everyone with a site to promote knows the benefits of maintaining fresh content. Not only does it keep visitors hooked to your updates, it also satisfies the web crawlers' desire to find new things to index. As well as keeping your blog or latest news pages up to date, by analysing the way people are finding your site you can adapt your pages to suit new demands. Say someone has come across your site with a particular search-engine term that you hadn't considered, but one which sums up one of your services, you can quickly create content that caters to that need and then optimise those pages to potentially give you better search-engine results for that content.
Content management systems have transferred some of the power away from the web developers and placed it in the hands of ordinary consumers. By having your site designed to incorporate a CMS system you could harness these benefits and reap the rewards.
Dom Wint is the owner of Clean Page Design Limited, a web design company based in Saddleworth in the UK which specialises in getting small businesses, clubs and charities online. For more information, visit http://www.cleanpagedesign.co.uk/web-design-saddleworth-2.
Category Article Updating, Website
