What is a website content management system

A content management system (or CMS) is in principle a database that sits behind your website, that you (as the website administrator) can access via a user id and password.

Once you have logged in, you will then see a list of all the pages on your website. From here you will be able to go into your pages and edit the content, which, when saved, will immediately update the content on your website.

For businesses this gives you several massive benefits:

• urgent business / marketing decisions can be implemented immediately (for example changes to product prices)
• you wil avoid any more charges from your web designer as simple content changes can be made by yourself instead of them
  
• because everything can be changed instantly there will be no waiting for typing mistakes or errors to be corrected
  
• you can plan your updates in an efficient manner as changes can be made when you want them

The best website cms's also provide a range of features that help to improve your rankings in the major search engines

• adding a specific individual title to all of the pages on your site
  
• customisation of all the url slugs or extensions (website address of each page)
• addition of specific introduction text that the search engines will display when your site comes up in their listings
  
• a dynamic XML sitemap which allows the search engines to inspect your site efficiently
  

However, just because you have access to a CMS it does not mean you, as an individual, have to take on all the burden of updating the website yourself. The responsibility can be shared with other people in your business or your website team – this is another benefit in that website CMS’s are so easy to use that multiple people can all contribute.

In conclusion, content management systems should be a must for anyone investing in a new website. With the speed of modern business it is essential that you have complete control over as much of your advertising and marketing as possible.