What is a Content Management System (CMS)?

Choosing a Content Management System (CMS) can be tricky.

With a variety of options each jockeying for market share, rolling out new features and competing to be an all in one resource how can someone choose one platform over another? We put together a CMS comparison table to help in the decision process.  

From a high level all CMS do that same thing, they allow end users to manage content and maintain quality websites without having to coordinate with web developers or designers. From posting news and events to updating a blog or rearranging website content any CMS will allow a user to make basic changes and updates without much hassle. Now we should caution that just because these platforms offer templated solutions with integrated design and development doesn’t mean your website will stand out, run smoothly or rank well for search. To have a truly curated, smooth running and high-ranking site it takes a bit more than a solid CMS. It takes strategy and  but we can cross that bridge a little further down the road.

A CMS should consist of a few key features. The platform should allow you as a website administrator to add content, organize pages, menus and edit information easily. A good CMS will also allow you to manage what kind of content you add and automate when and how it is published to the site. A CMS should also allow you to preview these edits and content additions prior to pushing them live to the site.

Media is also a core piece of a good CMS. Adding images, videos and audio should be easy, intuitive and well organized. A great CMS will also have a seamless tool in the WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get editor field much like editing a text document) or content editor that allows you to not only add media but organize and style it to fit your site design. Additionally, a good CMS platform will take all of this content you have created, styled and emplaced and couple it with proper SEO practices (Search Engine Optimization) and top-level analytics as a minimum to increase search results.

Content will always be the meat of a site but without practicing or emplacing some level of SEO and Analytics reporting you as a site administrator will have no way of knowing which content and pages are most engaged with missing a critical opportunity to reorganize the sites layout, reposition content or create new content aimed at engaging users where they are already searching for information.

Finally, security and updates are a key component of a modern CMS. As online security becomes a larger issue it's important to protect what you’ve worked so hard to build. As a site administrator the security of your site should be a chief concern. A good CMS will offer protection against DDoS attacks, offer various steps of user authentication and work to constantly explore and fix its own critical vulnerabilities.

The platform we recommend for your migration and administrative needs is . WordPress is a CMS with all of the core features we’ve already touched on. WordPress is also one of the largest CMS currently available with over 30 percent of the CMS market being comprised of sites run by and managed with WordPress. WordPress isn’t slowing down either as more and more users flock to the platform it remains poised as the industry leader in open source CMS options. From a wide array of available plug ins it’s easy to manage, style and curate content to drive site traffic to capitalize on what performs well all from within the WordPress platform.

Scalability has always been a struggle in CMS platforms and with WordPress you gain the unparalleled ability to add plug ins, organize content and add or subtract features. The scalability is one of the most compelling reasons to use the platform as it can be tailored to meet a company’s needs down to the smallest detail. Add onto this that Watermark has extensive experience in the platform and truly understands how to custom tailor a sites design, user experience and layout to not only meet a company’s specifications but also seamlessly integrate SEO efforts and it becomes a clear choice in why WordPress simply works for companies and their agency counterparts. 

Make sure you’re headed in the right direction with your Catalyst to WordPress migration! For more information on the site migration process, reference or to get started!