HOW TO CHOOSE A CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (CMS) FOR YOUR WEBSITE!

A website’s content management system (CMS) helps users create, manage, and modify content on a website. It forms the backbone of a website’s infrastructure and helps manage everything with little to no programming skills.

Some of the most popular content management systems include:

• WordPress: the majority of websites run on this platform
• Joomla: Another popular choice. They have lost market share over the past few years
• Drupal: They used to be a popular choice for larger projects but have lost market share to WordPress and other platforms
• ExpressionEngine: Yes, there are still sites running on EE but maybe not for long
• Magento: The king of e-commerce for giant online stores
• Squarespace: pre-built website templates and drag-and-drop elements
• Shopify: A great Magento alternative for e-commerce stores with annual revenue under $10 million
• Wix: Can upgrade your website for free
• Typo3: CMS popular with overseas developers
• BigCommerce: Another great Magento alternative for larger online stores
• Sitecore: One of the leading .Net CMS platforms for e-commerce
• Adobe Experience Manager: A platform popular with Fortune 500 companies

Choosing the right CMS for your needs requires careful consideration. Discover what you need to consider when choosing your CMS!

1. Determine your needs from the CMS

It’s important to understand what you will need from your website to help determine the best CMS for you. You will be:

• Sell items from the website
• Payment must be accepted
• There will be a login or membership aspect to the site
• Is it necessary to a/b test marketing channels?
• Is there a website that currently exists and you will need a CMS that you can easily migrate into
• Is uptime and backup important?

Determining your website’s business needs will help you start to narrow down your list. For example, Magento CMS would not be well suited for a website without an e-commerce component.

Identify usage scenarios

Be specific and write down different usage scenarios for your website. What can admins do on the website? What will different customer experiences look like? What is the ultimate goal of the website? Knowing the specific needs of different people using your website will help you when deciding on a CMS.

2. Narrow down your choices

Once you have a clear idea of the end goal of your website and what the different use cases are. Then you need to start looking again at different CMSs and see which one fits your use case.

Some CMSs have ongoing fees and you will have to pay monthly costs. These costs may change over time. Some CMSs are great if you want to do it yourself and don’t mind minimal customization without coding skills.

Other CMS may require expensive developers to make updates. Others may have a large pool of developers with the knowledge needed to keep everything up to date.

These are all things to think about when you’re narrowing down your choices.

3. Confirm internal capacity or potential agents

Is your CMS shrinking? Will you build the website yourself or look for an outside company? Different CMSs have different coding requirements and knowledge required. In general, developers of some coding languages can command higher hourly wages. Some things to keep in mind when choosing a CMS. Because websites are not static and will eventually need technical support.

If you plan to build an internal website, talk to the potential development team and confirm that you have developers who can design it and make it happen. Do they feel confident that they can satisfy different use cases, keep the site secure, and stay up to date with the latest trends?

When building a website, it’s not just about building the code to match the design. SEO and marketing channels need to be kept in mind. If your company’s focus isn’t website building or digital marketing then your team can technically build the website but they may lack the details that an outside agency Offering.

When looking for an outside agency to build a CMS. Confirm their level of experience with CMS, see if they have team members who keep UX and SEO in mind. Choosing the right team to deploy your CMS can be the difference between having a beautiful website and having a website that converts visitors into business for your company.

4. What is the best CMS platform?

There is no single best CMS system to use as the foundation for your website. Each CMS has pros and cons and can be designed for specific use cases.
At BEIT, we have researched and based on actual customer needs shown that WordPress is the perfect choice for many use cases. From e-commerce to membership sites, our researchers have the coding background to bring vision to your website. The following reasons are why we think WordPress can work as a CMS in most situations.

Developed for many years

WordPress was first launched in 2003. Since that time, the core code has been continuously refined and updated to keep up with the latest technology. It is adopted by the majority of websites around the world, which results in a stable, modern, well-supported system that you can feel confident in.

When choosing a CMS, you want to feel confident that its core code will be well supported for years to come.

Codebase if open source

The code that compromises WordPress is open source. That means it’s free and accessible to anyone. This allows developers to easily change code when creating websites. They can also suggest code changes to the WordPress team. Changes to the code by the public are not necessarily approved (the WordPress team must approve any changes to the core codebase), but a large community has grown around the codebase with many public Large companies are regular contributors to improve the code base.
Having an open source CMS has contributed to the creation of an ecosystem where many people and companies have a vested interest in continuing to improve the code base.

Easy customization

WordPress CMS is just the backbone of a website. That doesn’t mean all websites have to be the same. WordPress can be easily customized to a variety of themes or third-party custom themes. Theme refers to the code that controls the look and feel of your website.
Many companies have written APIs so that third-party software can communicate with the WordPress CMS and extend its functionality.

Large development community

There are many forums, blogs, freelancers, and development companies built around WordPress. The large development community means you can often find the answer to your question with a simple Google search.
The WordPress community is one of its strongest assets.
The team of developers and companies that can build or update very large WordPress websites. So if you are no longer with the company that built your first website. Finding another company or developer to take over won’t be difficult.

EPILOGUE

Choosing a content management system (CMS) is not just a technical decision but also an important part of your website and business strategy. A CMS is a tool that helps you easily create, update, and manage content on your website. Choosing the right CMS can shape the way you interact with customers, optimize user experience, and even influence your business performance.

Remember, there is no perfect CMS choice for everyone. The key is to clearly understand your goals and needs and then look for the most suitable CMS. The time and effort you invest in this process will greatly benefit the future of your website.

If you are considering choosing a CMS for your project, do not hesitate to consult an expert or person with experience in this field. They can provide useful information and assist you in your decision-making process.

We wish you good luck in choosing a CMS and hope that your website will grow successfully and meet all your goals.