Today I think is an interesting topic in itself. Content management systems or CMS platforms. You probably heard of the term before, or even used them, but don’t know some of its history–which I found out myself. We will learn how its made it easy for almost anyone to create a website today.
I’m going to explore what is CMS, how it works, and the benefits or why its a good platform to use as well as examples that are popular and well known today.
Let’s get into the article shall we.
What Is CMS?
As I stated before CMS stands for content management system. Reading that simple title alone can give us an idea of what a CMS does. CMS are usually referred to online web software applications.
Surprise!
According to searchcontentmanagement, they define CMS as software that creates and manages digital content. Personally I love wpbeginners definition which says explicitly
A software that facilitates creating, editing, organizing, and publishing content.
If you ever explored a CMS it does just that.
In todays world wide web there are now 2 types of CMS
- ECM: Enterprise
- WCM: Web
What’s the difference? Well ECM is more of intranet CMS platform, so it works within a private, or local network, for a specific organization that helps to collaborate with others in the workplace.
WCM really refers to the overall idea when you think of CMS, web based.
How Does CMS Work?
So now that we have the understanding of what a content managment system is lets get some insight on the inner workings of how this bad boy can function.
A CMS has 2 componenets…
- A CMA
- A CDA
I know talking about all this feels like I’m speaking in code, but no worries it will make sense when its all said and done.
So a CMA stands for the content management application. In other words this is the interface a user will interact with to upload and edit all their content they would like to place on their website. As well the design of it.
A CDA refers to content delivery application. This is the backend of the system. Since WordPress is one of the largest CMS platforms we will talk about them throughout the post, I mean I’m using them right now as I’m writing this post, thanks WordPress! WordPress uses php in order to handle everything on the server side.
Sorry if I’m butchering the terminology for you back end developers, what can I say I’m a front end developer and still learning about the wonderful world of backend. I think I will do a post on backend developers more thoroughly.
Anyways to put simply CMA can be considered as your personal front end developer and CDA as your back end. : )
Some of the core functions of a CMS are indexing, search and retrieving, and revision control. So what does this mean?
The CMS will index (organize, record, store) all your data for easy access when it comes to search and retrieval of your files. This search and retrieval really comes in handy when users come to your site and can look up things based on document attributes or keywords.
Moreover, what I think as the primary function and what wpbeginner clearly states, is the format (design and placement) of your files and giving you complete control of the design of your overall site. Especially if you have a blog revision can aid in the maintenance and constant publishing capabilities you require.
Because of a CMS you now have full access and control to all of your files in one place online.
Which leads to my next subject
How Does This Benefit You Or Why Is This Important?
Did you know before platforms like wordpress, it was almost impossible to have your own website. If you did it was more of a static structured HTML site. Think of craiglist. Why, because having or owning a CMS would cost an arm and a leg where only large companies could afford such features.
Not so good for the small businesses.
Now since wordpress is an open source software it is now easier for the average user and small businesses to have and create a website. More importantly, not only can you have a site but you can even build it on your own because a CMS does not require an individaul to be a techie or a web developer to create the site.
However, being a front end developer can always add to the enhancement of your site for any specific features you would like.
Anyways, you do not need to know any HTML, CSS, or Javascript in order to create a website today. WordPress has literally changed the game for any and everyone looking to create an online presence or business.
Statistics report that 18.9% of the web is made up of WordPress. Just to give you more perspective with a number that you can grasp. 74.6 million sites are built with WordPress. That is a lot of websites! Cudos to WordPress. They saw a need in the market and with full force met that demand and now have definitely made an impact and left a foot print on the web.
Along with the management of your content there are some other benefits to using CMS. There are plugins that can help with such things such as SEO, which is search engine optimization if you don’t know.
CMS also has minimal server requirements. In fact, a lot of hosting providers have dedicated servers just for WordPress. Another example of how WordPress made a mark.
Lastly, as stated before, a simple benefit is search capabilities, it is important to have on a site searching capabilities and CMS platforms provides just that.
So as you can see there are many benefits for having and using a CMS, especially if you are trying to create an online presence for yourself or your business.
Some Examples Of CMS Platforms.
So with all this talk of CMS and what it is, here are some sites that are, or can be, considered as a CMS and make it easy for the non tech, or techie, to create faster and focus on what their primary goals are rather then the how.
Some you may have known of due to their popularity and some not even I have heard of, but enjoy.
- WordPress
- Shopify
- Joomla
- Sharepoint
- Oracle web center
- Opentext