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November 14th, 2011 - by Mohamed Adel
This question is always arises to anybody who is thinking or about creating a website. Most of web developers, or business owners asks themselves this question whenever they are about to create a new website. Some companies or web developers rely only on one single content management system (CMS) for all their websites maybe because they are comfortable with it, they may find it just enough for their customers, or maybe someone has suggested it, and they find themselves using it and comfortable with it, regardless that there might be cheaper, and more reliable alternatives they can use. Selecting a content management system (CMS) shouldn’t be built based on just the reputation of it, or because someone I trust said that its good content management system. Selecting a content management system (CMS) should be built according to my customer needs, budget, community support, and the most important thing which is; Will it be easy to the customer to use it and administrate it??
In this article we will learn how we can make the correct decision to select the best content management system (CMS) that we can rely on.
What is content management system (CMS)?
Before proceeding any further we need to know what the content management system (CMS) is. The content management system, CMS, or WCMS is a software system that provides website authoring, collaboration, and administration tools designed to allow users with little knowledge of web programming languages or markup languages to create and manage website content with relative ease [Source Wikipedia]. From this we can understand that in our selected CMS we will at least need the following:
- Being able to create/edit/delete pages, or articles (and it might include images).
- It must be very easy to people who have limited HTML or programming language.
- All the functionalities must be understandable to anybody, as same as you’re writing on a piece of paper.
Is it really important to use CMS?
In most cases, Yes it’s really important to do CMS instead of creating just static HTML website, the importance of the CMS comes from the requirement of editing the content. Consider that you’ve delivered a customer of yours a static HTML website, and his phone number or address has been changed. In this case he will have to do one of the two things, one of them is contacting you for this adjustment, and the other is to get someone to do this for him, using a CMS will guarantee that the customer will be able to do this by himself.
How to select the most suitable content management system (CMS)
Selecting a content management system (CMS) must be built over some factors, regardless its price was high or free. When selecting a CMS we will need to make real focus on:
What functionality it will provide?
Will it provide the functionality easily, and smoothly?
What efforts should be made to make it as same as my website design?
By knowing the content management system (CMS) we will know how to select, when to select it, and also we will be sure that we made the correct choice. In the next few lines I’ll explain the most important factors that you should rely on when you’re about to select your correct content management system (CMS).
Simple user interface
One of the most important factors is how much the CMS is easy to edit, and administrate. As you know one day you’ll deliver the entire project to his owner, and since then, the customer will be depending and relying on himself for adding, editing, or even deleting content. It’s very important to make sure that the CMS has a simple user interface from customer’s prospective (Not yours), and also it must has a very good WYSISWG (What you see is what you get) interface.
Images and file management
Images and files management is factor that you or your developer might think that it is not important, because you’re mainly using FTP to upload content images, and maybe files. For customers this is not true, an image or a file upload might be a big maze for him. Consider that you don’t have the upload feature (I mean FTP), what will you do? Simply you’ll find yourself lost in the same maze, but at least you have a light and know what else you can do. When you select a CMS you must make pretty sure that it allows files and images upload in its editor, otherwise you should be expecting a lot of calls from your customer asking “how can I add images to my content?”.
Look and feel customization
For myself, I consider this is the first thing anybody should focus at when selecting content management system (CMS). The importance of this factor comes from, how much it will be easy for my developer, or front end developer to implement the web design (PSD File) to HTML then to the CMS. Most of CMS’s (If not all of them) can be customized and you can change the way the content is being presented, but selecting one CMS that is easy to be themed will be performed a way better and quicker than a complicated one.
Extensibility (Extensions, plug-ins, or modules)
One thing you must always put into consideration, there is no CMS has been invented and doesn’t require any additions… ever! When you’re about to select a CMS, you must ask yourself this question.
What else other than content population it will provide me, and how much will it cost?
When you’re comparing between CMS’s you must pay attention to where will you be able to find extensions for it, and how much will it cost. I’ve passed by many CMS’s that it is free of charge, but to find a simple addition you’ll have to pay for it, and it is really expensive.
Security
Nobody would like to risk his website, nether its content. This also applies on your customer, if his website has been hacked, he will get back to you asking for help, or support. In most cases this will be a nightmare for the customer, and probably for you. When you’re about to select a CMS make sure it has good security treatments, user groups, and of course everybody who is working on it has his own username and password.
Documentation, and community support
When you or your developer falls into a trouble with the CMS, and you don’t know how you can solve it, you’ll be doing one of the three things:
- Contact the CMS’s Support.
- Look in the manual or the documentation of the CMS.
- Find the solution in the community support (Forums), or post your question there.
It is pretty important to make sure that you’ll lost alone in the dark when you face a problem, before deciding to use a CMS you must make sure that they have a good documentation that you can find solutions through it. Also you must make sure that there is a good base of users who is using this CMS as well, because mostly you’ll find a lot of answers through the support (Forums) of the CMS.
Things to avoid when you’re selecting a content management system (CMS)
As I’ve mentioned above, there are some important factors that you should place into consideration when you’re selecting your CMS, but in the other hand there are some items that you must avoid, in order to make a correct selection:
Going with popular CMS
When you’re looking for a content management system don’t put you focus only on popular ones, you might find a CMS that has some limited features, but in fact it has a real focus on these limited features and they will be just enough for your customer. Knowing your requirements is the first thing you should know, before even looking for a CMS, after that you’ll need to find one that covers all your requirements. Just remember best is not necessarily complicated.
Neglecting the real purpose of the CMS
There are many varieties of content management systems, and each one of them has a specific purpose that it has been designed to serve.
For example vBulletin has been designed to act as forums, ZenCart has been designed to act as a shopping cart, or e-commerce software, also this applies on WordPress, it has been originally designed to act as blogging tool, or articles management system (regardless most of companies, and developers are using it as content management system). All of these systems can be considered as content management systems, but each one of them has been designed for a purpose. First you must know what your customer’s requirement is, then start finding the proper CMS.
Build selection of a friend’s opinion
Building a selection of a content management system based on a friend’s advice is a big and common mistake. When you’re about to make a selection of a content management system, this has to be built from your own conviction, according to a good study of alternatives, and requirements you’ll really need. Always remember this word; your friend’s choice is not always the proper choice.
Not doing research
This is another common mistake that most of people falls in it, before selecting a content management system; you must go through a number of scientific steps:
- What are the requirements that your customer’s need?
- What is the content management system that will cover the main requirements?
- If you’re about to add more extensions (Plug-Ins, modules), where will you be able to find them? and how much will it cost?
- Finally, Will you be able to find someone who will be assisting you if you had any troubles?
Doing a simple research before selecting a content management system will save you a lot of hidden costs, surprises, and time delays so make sure you do it before even looking for a CMS.
Allowing the developer (or the technical guy) to select the CMS
As a matter of fact the developer has a very limited knowledge about business knowledge, and also they can’t measure how much a user interface is friendly. Allowing your developer to select the content management system will assure you the best functionality, but you’ll sacrifice the friendly user interface. Selecting a content management system must be built according to a user experience, just internet user, and not an internet professional.
Just focus on the what not the how
When you’re looking for the most proper content management system, don’t just trust what they are saying in their features page, you’ll need to examine how much is it easy to do it, put yourself in the customer’s shoe and see will it be easy for him administrating the website, or will it be a nightmare taking hours from him to add or edit a page, or a news post.
Conclusion
It is pretty easy to select a content management system (CMS), but using the scientific way will save you the risk of time, money, and reputation. Also selecting a good CMS will get you more satisfied customers. It is really important, don’t neglect it. Now the choice is your!
If you have any comments, additions, or even corrections please post them in the comments in order to spread the experience to everybody passing by this article.
Your feedback is really appreciated!
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on Monday, November 14th, 2011 at 3:49 pm and is filed under Content Management Systems.
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November 19th, 2011 at 4:09 am
While i am not a qualified person in your career or profession but i can tell the way of your expression are excellent
thanks Mohamed