Website CMS

Why Content Management Systems are vital for the success of your Online Business

June 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment

If you own a business then you will know that it is really important to keep your
finger on the pulse. Any technological advancements that can help
your business move forward require your attention.
What people are looking for right now online is fresh
and varied content, so take a brief look at
web content management systems.

Why content updates are so important

People are increasingly using the internet as a source of information.
They look at sites for new and interesting content that captures their attention.
Because of this, businesses are under pressure to make sure that they are
churning out fresh material on a regular basis. This can be time consuming
and require a high degree of knowledge and skill.

As such, businesses are looking for ways of increasing efficiency so that they
are able to update their sites more frequently but with less hassle.
A web content management system is a way of doing this so that you can update the content on your website as
frequently as you need to without needing to hire a web developer and incur the associated costs.

Why Business invest in CMS

Lots of businesses have started to invest in the content management systems and have reaped the rewards.
Firms of all sizes are tapping into the advantages that a web content management system can bring to the table.
One big plus for companies is that web content can be changed in a much shorter period of time.
The process of uploading the content can also be shortened and made more efficient. In terms of financial gain, costs can be saved because no website developers are needed, who can be very costly to hire. The number of visitors to the website can be expected to increase because the content is changed more rapidly. When people find that a site changes and updates frequently they
will visit more to stay updated.

Competitive Advantages
Importantly, the content from suppliers and other sources of information can be syndicated automatically, which is useful if you are selling products over the internet, which rely on the availability of stock from a supplier. In terms of competitive advantages, one key factor is that your site can be updated quickly in response to changes on a rival’s site. This is crucial because without a content management system, the content would lie stale until a developer could make the necessary changes.

Increasing Efficiency
The efficiency of the publishing process can be enhanced through a content management system, which is essential when content is published from a number of people. Access to the management system means that people can simply tap in and publish their own content themselves, which increases personal responsibility and ownership. This accessibility prevents the responsibility of publishing fresh content from falling on one individual, causing backlogs and delays in updates. Restrictions can still be put in place, however, so that users can be given limited access to make editions etc. There are also controls that can be put in places so that content can be scheduled and published at a later date if needed.

The overall message is that there are numerous advantages for any business, in terms of financial savings,
competitive advantage, and increased efficiency.

How to upgrade your website or integrate a content management system

Our Colleagues over at Next Generation websites can upgrade your website so that its powered
by one of the top open source platforms like wordpress

These Open source CMS are more cost effective to deploy, which puts the latest technology
in your hands at a fraction of the cost of alternative proprietary systems.

2. Once it is gone live, you are in control of your content. This allows you to keep your website up
to date without incurring the cost of hiring or waiting for an external developer to do this for you.

3. If you can react quickly to news, product changes, latest developments, this can put you
ahead of your competition online.

4. Your website is powered by a platform that is constantly evolving and has a network of dedicated
enthusiasts around the world constantly working on improving it.

5. They can transfer all of the content from your existing website over to the new platform and
there is no need for any downtime.

See their advanced dynamic website upgrade Packs here:

How to upgrade

Our associates over at Next generation websites offer an upgrade service,

See their website By clicking here

Filed Under: Content Management System, Website Content Management Systems Tagged With: CMS, Content Management Systems, Website CMS, Website Content Management Systems

The pros and cons of dynamic and static websites

January 29, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Ultimately, the decision to use a content management system depends on your budget
and what you require of your website. Simply put, if you’re looking to build an online
brochure that rarely, if ever, changes, a static site will save you time and money. Such
sites, however, don’t take advantage of
all the flexibility that the Web has to offer.

If you expect that your site will be updated frequently,
interactive and easily maintained, CMS is the best choice.

It will cost more up front in terms of time and
money, but you’ll save big in the long run over
a static site that needs to be updated regularly.

Here’s a closer look at the advantages and disadvantages of each type of website:

Planning & Deployment
To make administration easy and to support customization, CMS sites require more
planning and deployment work than static websites. One or more databases must be
built and connected to the CMS software, which must be installed on the server that
will host your website. Once that’s done, you will have to think about what theme to
use across the site, how users will navigate it and what features will be available. That
initial expenditure in time, thought and money will pay off in the future, however.
Once the site is running, new content can be added easily through an administration
page. There’s no need for the administrator to know HTML, CSS or any other Web or
programming language.

Static sites are easy to set up, as long as you are familiar with HTML and Web servers.
You can write a page in a basic text editor and post it to the server. The complexity of
the site is dependent on your or your webmaster’s proficiency with HTML and
programming languages (for advanced functionality).
As long as the site is small and unlikely to be updated frequently, the static option can
be a quick, affordable way to establish a Web presence.

Advantage: Static site for small, simple and infrequently updated sites; CMS
for larger sites that require frequent updates and advanced features

Maintenance
The biggest selling point of a CMS site is the fact that no special knowledge of HTML or
programming languages is required to update the site. If you can type and click your
mouse, you can administer a CMS. You or an employee can easily add new products,
announcements and other types of content that becomes immediately visible to your
site visitors as soon as it’s uploaded. If you decide to change the look and feel of your
site, you can switch the theme from one administration page, and it’s automatically
reflected across all your pages, whether your site consists of a few pages or thousands.

Maintenance of a static site is a challenge. Instead of a friendly interface, users must open
pages and manually adjust the links and text in HTML. If you add a page that you want to
link to across your 500 -page site, that means you must not only create the page but also
make the changes on every page that will link to it. The same is true when you decide to
adjust the overall theme of your site. The risk of broken links is very high.

Advantage: CMS

Features
Static and CMS sites can support the same features, but there’s a huge difference in terms of
the cost and the effort in implementing them. To add a feature to a static site, a webmaster
must either develop it from scratch or use existing code. Once it’s ready to be deployed, the server must be
configured to support it as well as every page that will use the new feature. After that,
the site must be thoroughly tested to ensure no other functionality was broken.

CMS offers a simpler solution. Thousands of modules are available that need only be plugged
into the site. The installation, which can be done with a few clicks from an administration page,
takes care of server-side configurations automatically. If the new feature doesn’t work as expected,
it can be just as easily uninstalled – and everything returns to its previous state. Such modules
are often available at no cost and are developed by a community of thousands of volunteer
developers. If you want a feature that isn’t supported by an existing module, you can tap this
community to get one built.

Advantage: CMS

User Experience
You are building a site for your visitors. Whether the point is to share information or display
products, you want visitors to find what they are looking for and, above all, not be frustrated,
confused or bored.

If you choose a static site, it will be designed to work with the most popular Web browsers
such as Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari. This “one size fits all” approach can be limiting.
Moreover, problems can arise when your visitors use a non-standard browser or are accessing
your site from something other than a PC.
The solution is to write code that redirects each browser or platform to pages designed for
their browser or platform. This triples or quadruples the amount of work required when
updating the site.

CMS sites, because they are dynamic, can take into account the differences in browsers and
platforms when generating each page. If your visitor is using a tablet, it will be presented in a
way that makes it easily navigated by touch. Smartphone users will see a version that’s optimized
for small screens. And PC or Mac users will enjoy a consistent feel regardless of what Web browser
they are using. All this is done with little or no work; it’s all cooked into most existing CMS software.

Advantage: CMS
Whether your site is a few pages or thousands of pages, a content management system can help
you post your content and present it in a way that will have your visitors coming back for more.

Our Website Design service
We offer a range of website development services including website
design and website redesign, see here for more information click here

Filed Under: Content Management System Tagged With: CMS, static website, Website CMS

Leverage the internet’s power with a CMS-based website

December 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The Internet has given nearly
everyone the power thoughts
and ideas with the entire planet.

It’s forever changed how goods and services
are marketed, sold and consumed.

It’s made the wealth of human knowledge available at anytime from anywhere.
But there’s a great disparity among websites: Some take full advantage
of everything the Internet has to offer while others seem to be
as flat and limited as paper brochures.

If you’re thinking about launching or rebuilding a website, take a close look at all the sites you
visit. Notice how some are constantly updated with fresh content, look consistent regardless of
what browser is used, and allow users to interact and connect via discussion boards, live chats
and social media such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. And then there are sites that never
seem to change, are hard to find via search engines and can’t be viewed on a smartphone.

The irony is that the sites that are the most feature-rich and take advantage of all the Internet
has to offer are also the sites that are the easiest to maintain. They’re powered by a content
management system (CMS), software that takes away the complexity of building and
maintaining websites.

Here are some questions and answers on content management systems, and some of the
advantages over static sites:

What’s CMS?
A CMS site is also known as a dynamic site. Its content is usually stored in a database. When
a visitor clicks on a link, the page is built on the fly based on programmed instructions and
predefined modules. Administrators manage the content and themes of the site not through
HTML but via a user-friendly administration page. Once changes are made, they’re immediately
reflected on the site. Want to change the look and feel of the entire site? With a CMS, you click
on theme you want, and it’s applied across your site – whether it has two pages or 200pages

CMS software provides full control over the structure, content and design of your website.
Many CMS systems allow you to schedule the publication time of content on your site and set
permissions to control access. All allow you to do this without any knowledge of HTML, CSS,
scripting or programming languages.

What’s a static site?
As the name suggests, a static website is one that’s not likely to change. Why is that? Every
element – photos, videos and text – is hard-coded into the HTML, which Web browsers use
to display the page. In other words, everything your site visitors see on a page is contained
within the HTML (or points to a location on the Internet where the content can be found).
To update an image or another part of the page, simply change the HTML and upload new
elements (photos or videos) to the locations updated in the HTML. If your site has hundreds
or thousands of pages, it’s an extremely time-consuming process.

How Does a CMS Future-Proof My Site?
The content lives in a database and is not embedded in individual pages. Because of that, the
a CMS system can slice and dice the content in a variety of ways, whether for specific browsers
or computers such as PCs, Macs, tablets or smartphones. If a new browser technology is made
available, it can be supported simply by updating the CMS software. Individual pages, when
they’re served to the new browsers, will support the new features while older browsers will
continue to receive pages that they can understand. In addition, most CMS-powered websites
support Really Simple Syndication, which allows your content to be distributed to your users
via RSS readers, email clients and any other program that supports the technology. Your content
can even be shared on other websites with this powerful tool.

What about Social Networking?
Content management systems offer thousands of modules that enable all sorts of features. If
you want your visitors to be able to tweet about your content directly from the site or like it
on Facebook, just install the modules that support those functions. If you’re not ready to go
social, that’s easy too: Just don’t install the module.

The power of the Internet is within easy reach thanks to content-management systems. With
CMS technology, your website can be as simple or as complex as you want. Rather than focus
on code and laborious manual updates, CMS allows you to focus on creating compelling content
and making it available quickly to your site’s visitors.

Our Website Design service
We offer a range of website development services including website
design and website redesign, see here for more information click here

Filed Under: Content Management System Tagged With: CMS, Top website CMS, Website CMS, Website Design

CMS-powered Websites attractive to both visitors as well as their administrators

December 2, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The benefits of content management systems
are well known to website administrators and business
owners. CMS-powered sites, for example, are easier and
less expensive to update than static websites.

There’s no need to have a webmaster or distract your
IT departments to update the site. Even the most
techno-phobic employee can make changes via
easy-to-use administration tool.

But there’s another benefit of CMS – one enjoyed by visitors.
They’ll vote with their mice and keep
coming back. Here’s why:

Fresh Content/Frequent Updates
With a static site, someone familiar with HTML must alter lines of code and manually upload graphic
elements for every change. Visitors are familiar with such sites – they’re rarely, if ever, updated and
quickly forgotten. Why bother coming back if there’s never anything new?

On the other hand, a dynamic, CMS-powered site is easy to update. When your company has a new
product, service or announcement, your website can let your customers know quickly because it’s
so painless for you or your employees to make changes. (Plus, there’s no need for you to have a
dedicated webmaster.)

Search Friendly
If you have a static website and want to search its content, you need to program that functionality, install
a third-party plug-in, or rely on a search engine to crawl it. The solutions can be difficult to deploy and
maintain. If something breaks, you need to dig into the code to fix it.

Content management systems are much simpler: Just install a module to expose a search box on every
page. Because your site is contained within the same database that’s being searched, your visitors will
always find accurate, up-to-date information.

In addition, all major CMS platforms are search-engine friendly. They make applying meta tags a snap
so that potential customers will be pointed to your site based on the keywords you use. (A bonus: Those
same algorithms give precedence to sites that are frequently updated. The links on your dynamic, CMS-
powered site will be given precedence over your competitors’ static sites.)

Interaction
Static websites are like brochures. Information presented on them is fixed and never changes. As a
business owner designing a static site, you have to anticipate exactly what information your customers
might want and how it should be presented.

A CMS-powered site, on the other hand, is dynamic and interactive. You can allow your visitors to
set preferences for how they would like the content displayed. Visitors also can provide feedback via
discussion modules. If your business sells products, you can let your customers supply reviews. Or
as they surf your site, you can collect data on what they’re most interested in – and use that information
for follow-up marketing or even for recommendations back to the visitor.

Content Everywhere
All browsers are different and websites must take into account whether a visitor is coming via Apple’s
Safari on a Mac, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer on a PC or Chrome on an Android phone. If you’ve got a
static website, you have to keep the design simple or create unique pages for each browser and
program. You’ll also have to write a script to identify browsers and redirect visitors when they first
visit your site.

CMS-powered websites are much smarter. Because pages are created on the fly, they can take advantage
of the capabilities of the browser making the request. The result is your site will have a consistent look
regardless of the platform from which your visitors are viewing it.

In addition, most CMS-powered sites also offer the ability to generate Really Simple Syndication feeds.
That allows your visitors to grab a URL and receive updates through a reader as you make changes.
They also can take your feed and post it on their sites, which will drive traffic back to you.

These are just a few of the reasons your customers will benefit from your website’s switch from static
to dynamic content delivered via a content management system. Ultimately, though, the biggest benefit
is to your bottom line. CMS-powered sites create a more satisfying experience for your customers.
Satisfied customers will return more often – and be more willing to pull out their credit cards or click
on ads when they visit.

Filed Under: Content Management System Tagged With: CMS, Website CMS

Why repeat visits are critical to your website’s chances of success

July 13, 2011 by

Many people think that a website’s success
is built on the number of first visits that it receives.
It is true that new “hits” are important but it is
the repeat visits that can help encourage sustained profitability.

Here are a few reasons why you need to get people returning
to your site time and time again and how you can do so as easily as possible.

Why repeat visits are important
You don’t want your customers to simply look once and then go elsewhere
to buy their products and services. You want them to look at new items
that you may have added or new services that you are offering.
Repeat visits can often help to build customer loyalty and your
customers will look forward to any updates that you have made to your site.

It is equally important for you to remove outdated information as well as
add new information to your website. If your site begins to look uncared for
potential customers may feel that this same attitude will transfer over to your customer service.

How to change elements frequently
You have two choices that you can use to change elements of your site as frequently as possible.
You can either choose a content management system (CMS) that allows you to update
both text and image portions of your site. It is also a good idea to consider building a dynamic site.

This type of website will change the information that is displayed depending on the
prompts or options that your customers choose. Because they need to spend
more time exploring your website you will have a better chance for your
customers to get to know your company and purchase items based on that familiarity.
How to tell what kind of hits your website is getting
It will not do you any good to build your site and have no way of telling what kind of hits you are getting.
You need analytical tools that can assess the traffic on your website and tell whether it is a repeat visit or not.
Some analytical tools will also tell you which areas of your site are the most popular.
This can help you design a custom experience that is based around the most popular areas of your site.

Once you have the analytical tools in place and have updated your information you
can begin to sit back and determine whether or not your site is generating
a significant amount of revenue.

If not, you may need to consider changing the format of your site,
updating it on a more regular basis or even checking to make
sure that the site is completely functional.

Functionality is important. Individuals will stay away from websites if the links do
not work or the images are not visible on their computer.

Because of this it is important for you to review your site from time to time
in order to make sure that there are no glitches that you are not aware of.
Doing so can mean that you keep your site in top condition and make
it as appealing as possible to any of your visitors.

Our Website Design service
We offer a range of website development services including website
design and website redesign, see here for more information click here

Filed Under: Website Content Management Systems, Website Design, Website Development, Website Redesign Tagged With: CMS, Website CMS, Website Content Management Systems

Why Updating the content of your website on a regular basis is so important

April 25, 2011 by

Updating a website can massively affect
the success of that site in generating business.
The best websites that perform well in the search engine
results are not only designed to a high standard but
have strong content in the form of pictures
and text as well as other media.

Your visitors needs
Your site should be directed towards the needs of the people you are hoping will visit it, and so careful consideration should be made as to whether the site does this, or should be amended so that it will. Think about your demographic. Are you hoping to attract visitors of a certain age or from a particular industry?
Think about the kind of language you are using. Is it loaded with technical terminology or too complex for the average visitor to understand?

Will your visitors visit regularly?
It is good to have an understanding of the frequency with which you would like, or are expecting, your visitors to visit. If you imagine that they will visit on a regular basis then you might want to think about updating your website’s content regularly too.

Will they take action?
If you are hoping that your visitors will take some form of action whilst visiting your site then how will you encourage them to do it? Does the content call the visitor to take that action, and if not, how will you do this? The language you choose should be motivational for the visitor so that they will take the action you are hoping they will.

What language to use
Ensuring that your content reaches out to the visitors you want to attract is essential. Think about the content of your site and how you are going to do this. If you are hoping to achieve sales through your website then your content should represent this in that it should discuss what you are hoping to sell and why it should be bought.
The language you use should be informative and factual to create interest, but also persuasive and encouraging so that your visitors will want to actually buy your products.

Keywords
When thinking about what keywords to include, try out a search for something similar yourself. Try different search engines and enter different keywords. Keyword density and search engine optimisation can be complicated and many businesses employ the services of SEO firms to handle this aspect of their website’s development.

What is the competition doing?
It’s always a good idea to benchmark. Look at your competitors’ sites and what they have included in their content. Make sure they don’t have the advantage because they have included something that you haven’t thought of.

Keeping the ideas that worked
When overhauling your website to update or improve it, it might be tempting to rubbish everything you have built so far and completely make it over. Look at what you already have and take from it anything that you have found to work well. If you have aspects of your current site that are successful then it may be wise to keep them and take them forward.

As you put together your ideas for updating your website, organise your thoughts carefully so as to prioritise the different aspects you are thinking of including. Imaginative and thoughtful content always proves popular so be sure to remain as creative as possible throughout the planning stages.

Our Website Design service
We offer a range of website development services including website
design and website redesign, see here for more information click here

Filed Under: Content Management System Tagged With: CMS, Website CMS, Website Content Management Systems

Why Content Management Systems are vital for the success of your Online Business

The pros and cons of dynamic and static websites

Leverage the internet’s power with a CMS-based website

CMS-powered Websites attractive to both visitors as well as their administrators

Why repeat visits are critical to your website’s chances of success

Top website content management systems

Here is a list of the top Content Management Systems Sites

Why Updating the content of your website on a regular basis is so important

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Why Content Management Systems are vital for the success of your Online Business

The pros and cons of dynamic and static websites

Leverage the internet’s power with a CMS-based website

CMS-powered Websites attractive to both visitors as well as their administrators

Why repeat visits are critical to your website’s chances of success

Top website content management systems

Here is a list of the top Content Management Systems Sites

Why Updating the content of your website on a regular basis is so important

Our recent Articles

Our Latest Tweets

Important Links

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