Choosing the right CMS (Content Management System)
Content management system doesn’t only mean creating, organizing, editing, and deleting web pages. Content management system must have more elements than just the above mentioned stuff. It is the set of different procedures used to manage the flow of work in a collaborating environment. Content management system allows large number of people to contribute, manage and share stored data. List of different kind of material and application can complete this system; here are few important things in particular.
Core functionality
Create a list of functions you need for your website now or in future as there are lots of things, which you may not need now but you may need them in future. A proper list of functions allows you to choose easily the content management system you require. When you choose a content management system, which is multiple in nature than do test it before purchasing.
Editor
The editor is the most important feature which needs attention. The traditional editors WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) with majority of content management systems doesn’t work properly with the design and content, as they mix them together. The editor is the important feature with which content can be added and amended. The latest editors allow the user to mark up lists, headings, links and other elements. Check your list of features that includes editor with latest approach in the content management system. This editor should also handle the external assets like files, images and downloadable.
Asset Management
Some CMS badly manage the images and downloadable files which frustrate the user with poor visibility and usability. Ensure that your CMS allows the user to add
Search
More than half of the users proceed with the search feature of the website to look for the things they required. You need to ensure that search function work properly with its speed, freshness, customization and ranking.
a. Speed:
Your search engines should be speedy and take less time to complete the search.
b. Freshness:
If your website changes regularly than you must see how often does the search engine index your site?
c. Ranking:
You have to see how the search engine determines the result ranking. You have also to decide that either the owner of website or the user can customize it.
Customization
Presentation is the most important element today as it provides clarity and makes you content effective. You must look for a content management system which allows flexibility in presenting the content. Content must not be dictated by technological codes as this can restrict accessibility and produce constraint on design. Flexibility in presenting the content allows the user to check the news in reverse chronological order, display events in calendar, and display the recent user comments on home page. Customization and Versioning are similar in importance.
Versioning
Your system’s ability to let quickly revert to a previous version of the web page, allows you to recover data if you post or delete something accidently. Most content management systems have this feature so you must look for the one which has versioning feature. Multi website support is another feature same as important to versioning.
Multiple Website Support
It is the must-have feature for your content management system as it allows you to run several multiple website with single installation. Targeting narrow audience and a different market can in future force you to have more sites than you current have so this feature is very important. As the technology is moving fast, you may want to have a mobile device website in future so it is again very important. User interaction in different websites is effective for achieving targets.
User Interaction
Hosting communities and gathering user feedback are very effective these days. You must also need these things and for that your CMS must have functions like forums, chat, ratings and comments. It is important for you to check your CMS that how it works on gathering feedbacks, sending emails, and collecting data.
Another important thing to look for in CMS is that what tools are there for communicating with customers? Can you send newsletters? What about news feeds and RSS? Finally you have to see the ways to reset user passwords and set permissions.
Permissions and Roles
When the number of users increases, you must need to control them by permitting some to edit the content and some to join different groups. Here your CMS must support permissions. Further enhancement in content must needs a content manager and you must permit him for content editing and checking. The important thing here is that your CMS must support multiple roles and permissions. In future you may require multilingual support too.
Multilingual support
At present you may not require this feature but in future you may want to target some markets with multilingual support feature on your website. It is very important that your CMS grows with your business and fulfilled the needs. Language is important element with which you can get direct feedback from different markets.
Features are very important for your website and more important is the availability of these features in your CMS. Keep you feature requirement minimum with an eye on the future needs.