Content Management Systems – Take Control of Your Own Site

What is a Content Management System? In our world of capital lettered terminology you may have heard of a CMS, particularly if you have a website of some kind that you’d like to be able to update yourself. Too many people feel like websites are fixed, static representations like the walls they’ve set up shop in or the ZIP Code they affix to their address, but nothing could be more from the truth. The Internet is all about changing, interactive, malleable content, so why should your website be any different?

Content Management Systems come in all shapes, sizes and flavors, but generally they should all allow you to:

• Edit the copy on any of your site’s pages.
• Add and remove images
• Control the hierarchy of your pages (ie, the sections of your website and what pages fall into each)

In addition to the defacto standards above, the CMS that I use allows you to:

• Write and update your own blog, with all of the functionality you would expect a blog to have
• Provide a search bar on your website to make finding things easier for your users
• Maintain a forum if your site could benefit from open discussion by your staff or users
• Manage a gallery of photos
• Provide user registration so that your users can become members complete with their own profile page
• Allow you to upload your own products and sell them online
• Add fun stuff like YouTube videos, Google Maps and more
• Even sell products, manage inventory and accept credit card payments

Thanks to that CMS, the open-source software that is WordPress, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Known for its stability, ease of use, and scalability, so you can have complete piece of mind that your site will simply work.