Content Management Systems

There are many different content management systems available. Whether you use one of these available or you decide to go with a bespoke custom CMS depends on your needs. Making the wrong choice is a real headache after the fact, so make a complete list of your needs (for instance do you need to track work-flow and have an approval system?) and then call us to discuss them. We will help identify the best route for your needs.

It doesn’t really matter from a functionality perspective which code platform you choose. The only determining factor is the compatibility with your host operating system, i.e. If you are not running a Microsoft-based server then an ASP based content management system is not the best choice.

Content Management Systems store all the content in database fields and populate the relevant page as required by the website visitor. Older and less search engine friendly systems will display the page name as a code, i.e. www.yoursite.com/default.asp?p=12 ; whereas more modern and search engine friendly cms systems will populate their content into real page names, so the same page as highlighted previously will be represented as www.yoursite.com/content-management-system.asp.

Additionally, non SEO-friendly CMS solutions will have no provision for the inclusion of unique per-page metadata, which means that at worst you may have to settle for one global set of metadata or at best this information will have to be hard coded into every page, which means that you will not be able to totally manage the creation of new pages or the editing of existing ones.

Non SEO-friendly content management tools will typically be cheaper, but they will cost you in the long run through lower rankings and lost business.

Not only are there a myriad of different content management solutions, but there are also different ways to pay for them. Some are sold to you like any other product and you then own a license to use it forever more. Others allow you to pay a small monthly fee, but once you stop paying you might also lose your site or at the very least the ability to edit it in any way.

Some very basic CMS solutions allow only text to be edited. Mid-range CMS systems will allow all page content, including images, to be managed. While the top-end and best content management systems even allow simple control of some of the website’s graphical design elements. Which one you choose depends on your needs, but in most cases we have found that businesses will need to manipulate all content on a page including the images.

You might have a very flexible CMS Solution from a content perspective, but if it isn’t design flexible then you are going to end up with a website that looks and feels like a million other sites out there. The DG Group implement systems that will integrate into any design so that your website can be as unique as you need it to be. If you decide to choose a content management system yourself, get a list of websites that use the system from the provider and review them. If they all look very similar then choose a different CMS.

The whole point of a Content Management System is to allow any person with limited computer knowledge to be able to update a website themselves. We have a very simple rule in that any system we implement must be usable by any person as long as they are able to create and print a letter out in Microsoft Word. This means that anyone from your marketing director to your receptionist will be able to use a The DG Group content management system with less than 2 hours of training. Not all CMS solutions are as easy and intuitive in their use, so review the interface thoroughly!