CMS stands for ‘Content Management System(CMS) is a software application that lets its users build, create, edit, modify, archive, and publish websites and digital products using the built-in features integrated with it. With CMS you can do anything you like using the WYSIWYG interface in the editing dashboard of your content even though you don’t know the basics of coding, HTML, and CSS. The software application is built in such a way that it integrates with it all the necessary parts and parcels, namely, the interacting and editing buttons. So, all users can use it to build, edit and publish sites, pages, posts, or any digital products by using the custom built-in functionalities. No need to be a code master.
In the earlier days of web invention, it was a hard task to design a website for people who had no knowledge of how to code a site from scratch. Web designers used HTML to design web pages. Later on, they had to apply CSS(Cascading Style Sheet) to give the web pages a good feel and look in visual appearance in color, pattern, layout, and style. Now, using programing language like JavaScript makes it more advanced in features. However, gone are the old days of relying on webmasters to design and create websites by through going a number of coding steps. Thanks to CMS platforms and their makers!
Nowadays, there are about 1 billion websites on the world wide web and merely 10-15% of these are active. All of these websites are not designed and built on the same platform. However, most of these hosted sites use a certain type of CMS platforms to customize their structure and manage content.
We are talking about Content Management System(CMS) and don’t mingle it with WCMS, although both the terms relate to each other. However, the former is used to create, edit, publish and manage content while the latter, namely, WCMS( Web Content Management System) used to develop web-based content. The line of demarcation is too thin to differentiate.
How Does CMS Work?
We will now discuss How CMS Works. However, before going to discuss it you should know what are its core components of it. At a technical level, Content Management System consists of two parts, namely:
- Content Management Application(CMA) and
- Content Delivery Application(CDA)
CMA lets you add, edit, manage or modify contents on the editing dashboard or in the control panel of your website and here you work as a back-end user. When you work via CMA, you can see what you do onboard. Writing content and adding a heading to a web page or post on your WordPress site are practical examples of CMA.
On the other hand, CDA assembles the texts or codes entered into a content, stores the data in the database, and makes an output that you can see or interact with in visual, aural, or audio-visual appearance. The web pages or posts you wrote once get published can be seen on the front-end scene. This is what CDA makes possible.
Had there not been CMS(Content Management System) out there, it would not have been possible to create websites, add, edit and publish posts and and other contents in the world wide web in a short span of time, non-tech savvies could not have made their appearance in such an easy manner as now it is seen.
Now, you don’t need to create an HTML page or post and upload it back to the server manually in order to publish it. You just add a page or post, add contents therein and hit the publish button to make it available for visitors and readers.
What Are the Features of a Content Management System(CMS)?
Content Management System(CMS) is popular with its users owing to its easy-to-use features. Go through the following points and you will know what are the features of CMS:
- Security: Security is the top priority that should be taken care of. Whatever CMS you use does not matter if you take up proper steps to defend it against all kinds of attacks, threats, and malware. If you use it to build a website, then you can use a security protocol to encrypt the transmitted data that involve web servers and browsers. HTTPS must be enabled and the CMS must support it. You can set up two-factor authentication(2FA) and other security measures.
- Support for Multilinguality: About 75% of Internet users don’t understand English and in such kind of cases the content must be translated to their native language. A popular Content Management System provides multilinguality, namely, it must have the ability for (1) site architecture in the global market as WordPress has, (2) text import or export in XML or another supported format,s, and (3) Unicode support.
- Global Distribution of Content: Nowadays, another important feature of the Content Management System is that it supports headless CMS and decoupled CMS. In headless CMS, you can publish the same content on a website, web app, and on any device through the Internet of Things. Decoupled CMS allows you to create and edit content as a back-end user. Once the content is made, it is got transmitted via an API and then you can publish it to any device.
- SEO-Friendliness: SEO-Friendliness is another notable feature that provides most of the CMS. The SEO-friendly features that they provide are as follows: (1)SEO title, (2) Metadata, (3) SEO-friendly URL, (4) XML sitemap, (5) Alternative tags, (6) Breadcrumb navigation, (7) Fast loading of content, etc.
- CMS gives support through independent experts or forums.
- Another important feature that Content Management System should provide is mobile friendliness. In other words, your CMS must be mobile responsive. It is possible by applying CSS3, the latest cascading style sheet that supports animation, drag-drop layouts, rounded corners, etc.
- Integration with others: Integration with others implies that your CMS should have the ability to work with third-party themes, plugins, addons, etc as WordPress does. Having this feature lets you install and set up themes and plugins on your site.
- Database management too should be available.
Benefits of Using Content Management System(CMS)
You can ask why to use CMS. What are the benefits of using CMS? These are some queries that may arise in your thoughts. I trying to elaborate on it in the following section. It not only gives you the ability to create a website and content without writing any code but also manages it with multiple options, tools, and users onboard. Go through the following points to know its benefits:
Coding Knowledge not Essential: Introduction of CMS has brought about a revolutionary change in the field of content management and web design. Unlike the earlier days of web invention, you don’t need to code a website using HTML and CSS. You can design and build a website just by using a CMS, and further customize it as you like with the proper themes, plugins, and other add-ons. It lets you add posts, create pages, upload images and publish though you don’t have any technical skills in coding and programing language.
You can easily install themes and activate them. Similarly, you can upload and install plugins in a CMS like WordPress.
Multiple Users and Collaboration: Many users can log in and access your site to perform a required functions like writing content, implementing security protocol, and adding custom codes as back-end users simultaneously. That’s why servers are running yet the technical crews repairing them without any disturbance in working. Some users administer it while the rest access it as viewers but not as editors.
SEO-Features: In the modern CMS, you can get a lot of SEO-friendly features such as adding SEO title, meta description, SEO-friendly URL, XML Sitemap, Image alt tags, breadcrumb navigation, AMP-enabled pages, etc. These features give your website extra indexing and crawling features that search engines can use and provide rich snippets in the search engine result pages(SERPs).
Use of Predesigned Templates: CMS also gives you predesigned templates that you can customize and use to create, edit and manage content. It looks attractive in outlook and feels as though you haven’t added any code. It affects user experience(UX).
Update: Another major advantage of the popular and best CMS is that you can update your website including its contents, themes, plugins, and other add-ons from within the control panel(cPanel) and editing dashboard of your site. You don’t need to hire a webmaster or coding expert. It saves your time and money.
