Beginner Guide to Content Management Systems

February 13th, 2008 dawhoo Posted in Web Management |

Choosing the Right Content Management SystemContent Management Systems are exactly what they sound like, they are platforms to manage your web site’s content. Sounds simple enough. But don’t confuse simplicity with ease of use or lack of features. CMS are supposed to make your life easier and lessen the time you spend on your website. CMS is geared to make your time spent working on your web site, more productive; and many content management systems do. Choose the right CMS and you will enjoy your site, choose the wrong system and you will be fighting a loosing battle.

what do your users needFirst, you must decide what features are going to best benefit your site and your users. Many systems come with the basics every site needs and many systems provide ’simple’ methods for adding additional features and functions for your users. When you’re trying to decide on a content management sytems, you have to figure out what your customers want: forums, galleries, blogs, shopping carts, classifieds, etc., et all., ad nauseum. This is no easy task, particularly for the beginner web manager. Be practical and see your site from your user’s point of view. A website where people are going to share recipes probably will not need a picture gallery and a website selling cars has little need for a forum. Ask yourself a few questions before you begin and you will save a lot of time and frustration.

choosing a content management systemYou wouldn’t use a spoon to dig a well, and choosing the right CMS is no different. Each content management system does something better than other systems and that’s important to know. If your main need is a gallery, focus on a CMS that has an easy to use gallery or has plugin for third party galleries. If you need a classified or swap-meet style website, choose a CMS based on which has the style classified you find easiest to use. Do you need members to sign in or pay for membership, these are very important questions when choosing the right CMS for the job.

So, you know what your users want, you know what you want in a CMS and now, the fun part - choosing a content management system. In case you don’t know, the ‘fun’ in choosing a content management system is about as fun as a root canal. There are literally thousands of CMS available. Which to choose? Well, you need to know your hosting platform. Huh? Yes, your hosting platform, what your host company uses to serve your web site. Are you hosted on a Linux or a Windows server, which version of PHP, ASP, SQL… The good news, you can call your hosting provider and they should be able to answer these questions for you. Write them down, you’re going to need them.

Search Engine Optimization is something you will have to address. Nearly all CMS are much better at SEO than they were in the past, but still, some are much better than others. Do a few searches for “search engine optimiaztion + CMS” and find a web management system that meets your search engine requirements. If your site is already popular and you have good traffic, poor SEO could hurt your site, so choose wisely. Many CMS have SEO plugins to have greater control for every page of your site. Good SEO practices make it easier for searchers to find exactly what they’re looking for on your site.

Check for compatability with your host for your CMS, focus on platform compatability between server and the CMS. Most CMS will work on either Windows or Linux, but not all. Some features may not be available if your host is using a particular versions of PHP or ASP. All hosts are not the same. GoDaddy, in particular, can be particularly touch when serving PHP protected by .htaccess files. Once you find a system to work on your hosting platform, then you are ready to install.

installing a content management systemIf you’re on a Linux server, chances are you have something on your user control panel called “Fantastico” or “SimpleScripts” both of these will automatically install any content management system available on their server. You will usually find the big name CMS avaiable to install with only a few forms to fill out and a couple of buttons to press. While this may be a very easy approach, I recommend always installing the software yourself rather than using a web defined script. Updates provided on these type of installs are usually slow. Once the update is available, those scripts occasioanlly will erase everything you built on your site. When you see an entire year’s worth of posts, users and products disappear with script update, chance are you won’t ever use one again for updating. It’s always better to install from scratch with the latest stable release. By installing it yourself, you’ll become more familiar with the structure if the web site and you’ll have a greater knowledge of your system in the long run.

Most CMS are not terribly difficult to install and many come with easy to follow, step-by-step directions and lots of pictures for the visual learners. You need only a cursory knowledge of FTP, the ability to find your SQL server (remember when you called your host?) and the ability to follow instructions. The 3 most important things to remember when installing a CMS: follow the instructions, follow the instructions and follow the instructions. Nearly every problem I’ve seen with someone installing a content management system came from either the system being incompatible with the server (which is usually in the instructions) or not following the installation instructions. I always recommend printing out the instructions and crossing off the steps when you finish a step. It helps.

adding content to your new web siteOrganize your structure and content. An easy to follow trail of navigation will keep users on your site. You can have the best content on the web, but if it’s hard to find, the user will leave your site. Users are looking for easy to find informatino. The average user looks at your page for only a few seconds. If there’s not an intuitive naviagtion system, users move on to the next site. Choose as few categories as you can and name them accordingly. When choosing category names, be aware category names can be as important as the content. What names you need will depend on what you have. Be vague, but exact - easy huh?

Depending on which CMS you chose, you’ll follow the directions of the particular CMS you’re using for adding actual content and copy. Using a CMS, adding content is usually much easier than making a page by hand, which is the reason you chose to use a CMS in the first place. Now when it comes to what content to use, that’s up to you and your users.

and we are finishedSome simple rules to follow for choosing management components is “simplify, streamline and identify”. Pick the top three user needs and choose your system based on the criteria your users most want. Make sure your CMS has the feature your users want and eliminate those features you don’t need. Make it easy for your users to navigate and find your content and you will keep your users happy.

Good Luck

[Ask] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Google] [LinksMarker] [MySpace] [Newsvine] [Propeller] [Reddit] [StumbleUpon] [Yahoo!] More »

Leave a Reply