Basic Features of CMS
First, they’re easy to install. In most case, just simply copy the files into a folder and it's ready to run. Simple file manager can upload and delete images or other documents. They also allow you to edit your pages on the fly with your web browser. A preview is shown on the same page as the edit screen and user have full control over the pages.
With content management systems, you can control the complete look and feel of your pages. Also, you are not "boxed-into" certain format or required to use a theme as in many other content management systems. Basic CMS is ready to be built into existing products to add content management functionality. Basic CMS is open-source released under the General Public License, referred to as GPL. (http://basic-cms.com/)
Some Non-Essential Features
With some CMS platforms, all sites would link to one phpbb forum, however each site would have a different link to go directly to the required sub forum. A page wrapper facility would be nice but it’s not essential. Also, account management, bandwidth tracking and billing are extra features that are nice but, again, not essential. Another feature such as image uploading + resizing (which could be replaced very easily by a Flickr plugin) would be nice, but is not essential in a content management system.
Also, Wordpress, (when selected) plugins make calls to databases, which will slow down the loading speed. As a rule, bloggers are encouraged to deactivate unnecessary plugins so that the number of database calls can be reduced.
Choices For Selecting a CMS
It is extremely important to evaluate your options for a source to create the custom CMS web design based on their quality and experience. For example, an amateur CMS web designer who says that "I can do web design" is probably correct. Creating an attractive custom CMS web design may seem easy, yet creating a website that performs well attracting business and search engines is different.
Here are a handful of CMS web design service options to consider. The first 3 could be free except for the time needed to setup, manage, and update your website. Other web designer options may involve cost.
- Do It Yourself Web Design
- Trust a Friend or Relative
- Use a Free Standard Template
- Purchase a Premium CMS Template
- Hire a Freelance CMS Web Designer
If you lack experience, the first 4 options for free or nearly free web design involve climbing a steep learning curve to have a quality CMS website that performs well. With zero experience, it may take 200 or more hours just to research, evaluate, and select a good CMS software package, and then modify it to your unique look in preparation for installation and launch.
Plan B . . . and C
Hiring a freelance web designer might be the best choice, yet use due diligence to verify their quality and experience. Have them provide performance evidence for their website. Ask for links to customer CMS design projects that demonstrate quality and performance for their clients, too.
Subconsciously, inexperienced designers may exaggerate or overpromise. Many prefer to discuss what they will do for you without real evidence. This has been proven by catching the lies of firms begging for web design work as subcontractors, yet they cannot prove results for their site or their customers. If a person or company can truly provide a quality custom design solution that performs well, they will have evidence.
CMSs Help Clients with SEO
The Good
In order to get the best of both worlds (the convenience and management advantages of a CMS and the site promotion advantages of SEO), you need a search engine optimizing CMS. At a minimum, the CMS should not create URLs and content that engines refuse to index because it looks dynamic. The system should also allow you to create relevant, per-page meta-tags and titles. And, the system should present content using navigation menus that search engines will follow.
Now the Bad
Implementing a CMS can be a boon to SEO efforts, but it can be a disaster because many CMS systems were not designed with search engine marketing in mind. Some specific problems that content generated by this kind of CMS has in being indexed by search engines include:
- Dynamic URLs. Search engines are programmed to limit the number of dynamic pages they index, and the primary way they determine pages are dynamic is through page URLs with special characters (%&=).
- Bad meta tags. Meta tags are the HTML code components that search engines use to evaluate what a page is about. Many CMS systems do not allow users to assign unique, relevant TITLE and DESCRIPTION meta tags to content. These are important tools to help search engines understand your pages.
- Keyword poor URLs. Even systems that do not use dynamic URLs often do not let you create URLs that include keywords. Keyword-rich URLs are an important step in optimizing your pages to rank well in search engines.
- Search engine unfriendly design. If a page has the look and feel you want, does the underlying code matter? In a word, yes! Search engines can't see the page, so all they have to go on is the code.
How Designers Stay Informed
The most important theory that I’ve learned in my course is that CMS could help you build better and more maintainable website. But all designers should be aware that companies use all sorts of content management systems... so the concepts and theories are probably more important than the technical details.
The Blogger’s Advice
There are a ton of websites and tutorials online that can assist you in your individual education for utilizing CMSs. The best thing that a designer can do is keep your eyes and ears open and stay current with technology. It’s up to you to “keep up with the Jones’s.”
