Every business owner has one great idea of how their website should look. On the surface, it will contain photos, text, and information about their company. Behind it, though, holds the intricacies of website codes. While more prominent companies set a big budget for an IT team to build their website from the ground up, others just don’t have the money and time. Fortunately, content management systems (CMS) can help build your website easily and quickly.
According to a report by Contentstack, the CMS industry will generate around $123.5 billion by 2026, making it a promising investment. But before investing in content management system services, it’s good to understand its benefits and what are the best practices for content management and optimization.
Benefits of Content Management System
Easy Navigation
The most apparent benefit of using a CMS is its user-friendly navigation. Most CMS software lets you insert your content by selecting elements and arranging them to how you want your website to appear. A content management system also provides pre-set templates that you can customize to make your website design unique.
Brand Awareness
Using templates makes it easier to create consistent designs to help you enhance your brand image. You can effortlessly choose visuals that make your brand more recognizable. Aside from your website’s appearance, you can also integrate built-in SEO tools to boost brand awareness.
Enhanced Teamwork
Even if you’re well-versed in code or have mastered your CMS software, working alone isn’t ideal as working with a team. CMS lets you streamline your workflow by giving your team members different page roles and assigning who can edit, review, and approve your website’s content.
Best Ways on How to Improve and Get Your Content Management Infrastructure Right
Knowing the benefits of CMS is one thing, but learning how to use them to strategize and optimize your content is the real thing. Below are some of the best content management practices you can adapt for your business:
1. Knowing the Different Types of Content Management System
There are many examples of software for small businesses, including:
Web Content Management System
A web content management system (WCMS) is the most common type of CMS. It helps an organization create, develop, and manage digital content. WCMS also doesn’t require technical web programming knowledge. Instead, it provides themed templates so it’s easy for users to edit their content.
Open-Source CMS
This type of CMS can be used without an initial fee and is accessible to all. The user only has to pay for additional features like themed templates, software updates, and technical support to boost the website’s functionality. WordPress is the most popular open-source CMS. It’s ideal for small and new business owners who want simplified content management.
Commercial CMS
Unlike open-source CMS, a commercial CMS requires the user to purchase licenses and pay for subscription fees, customizations, and technical assistance. It’s managed by a third-party vendor ideal for medium-sized organizations. This type of CMS already comes with built-in plugins and functionalities and promises more security.
2. Using Plug-ins
Plug-ins or extensions are one of the features of content management systems that provide additional functionalities to your CMS and website. These include contact forms, bulletin boards, image editing, and security features. Below are some of the best plug-ins that help optimize your website’s performance:
- Yoast – improves SEO performance by suggesting keywords and meta descriptions
- Revive Old Post – schedules social media posts
- Elementor – website builder with drag and drop capabilities
- WPForms – creates responsive forms
- UpdraftPlus – data backup and restoration
Choosing an extension is as simple as installing an app on your phone. For example, WordPress has an automatic plug-in to help you auto-import multiple scroll pages from any site. You can also select free and relevant extensions from your CMS’s plug-in menu.
3. Emphasizing on Mobile-Friendly Content
According to a survey by Oberlo, there are 6.4 billion smartphone users in the world who spend an average of almost 3 hours on their mobile devices. When it comes to where people do casual browsing, social networking, and even shopping, smartphones easily beat desktops and laptops. Hence, you should make sure your website content is mobile-friendly by choosing plug-ins and themes that are compatible with mobile phones.
4. Content Staging
It’s unavoidable to make mistakes when building a website. Thankfully, content management systems help you review your content before it goes live through content staging. It’s a test site that lets you make revisions and launch your website for testing. Content staging also spots errors that need fixing before you publish your website.
5. Prioritizing Website Key Elements
Last but not least is prioritizing web key elements. These include heading tags, title tags, meta descriptions, inbound links, and image optimization. You should also be able to implement an effective URL structure and develop a good digital web strategy to fully optimize your content and drive more traffic to your website.
Optimize Your Content Management Efficiently
Creating content and integrating it into a website can sound complicated, that’s why every business owner shouldn’t underestimate the importance of content management systems. CMS helps streamline your goals so you can come up with a solid content management plan. Once this plan takes shape, it’s much more efficient to update and manage your content based on current trends so you’ll never be left behind.
