CMS The choice of the correct web content management system can be critical to your aspirations. As margins are so thin these days your site design, appearance and rendition can often make the difference between success or failure. The website is your shop window to the world and it fully reflects your professionalism. You have but a fraction of a second to create that first impression to start off with and once the visitor is at your site, you must make sure that they are able to navigate and interact according to your intended purpose. Choosing the correct web content management solution is a process of narrowing down your choices. There are many hundreds of different options available to you and your choice will be dependent on your needs as well as budget.
As flexibility is demanded in the marketplace these days, your WCM platform should enable you to rapidly respond to your market conditions and in general you should seek to simplify and not leave yourself at the mercy of technical paralysis.
For many webmasters, the choice between open source or commercial hinges largely on cost but you should know that whereas open source is invariably free to procure and to install, you may come up against costs on the backend should you run into problems. Top quality support is not always available right when you need it.
Above all else, your web content management system should be easy to use and control, enabling you to specify your branding with little or no technical restriction. SEO should be almost second nature and your system should come with the tools to make it so. As there are so many different ways of presenting your site these days, different browser standards and, lately, internet-enabled mobile devices, strive for flexibility within your system so that it may be optimized and rendered according to your visitor’s choice. Note that within a good content management system your site’s templates will be separate from content and you should be able to maintain total consistency throughout. As the site will be easy to update, it will be possible to refresh content more frequently and in response to your particular market pressures.
There are many highly specialized providers in the field of enterprise specific content management and you can further zero your selection based on whether you want to focus on Java or Microsoft.NET technology.
Within the open source options, Joomla, Mambo, Drupal and WordPress are front and center.
Joomla is a highly flexible CMS which allows you to create numerous modules and components within a fresh and progressive framework. The latest version, 1.5, marks a considerable improvement, yet while you may be able to install this CMS in less than 30 minutes, you may spend some time getting the hang of it.
Mambo is similar to Joomla, is quite powerful and is simple to use. Its control panel is user-friendly and the system is backed up by a growing community of forum support.
Drupal is considered one of the top open-source CMS systems available, especially as far as its architecture is concerned. This system may be more for developers though, so you’d need to tread warily. Some users find Drupal more functional than Joomla or even WordPress, but unless you are somewhat experienced you may be better off sticking to the others.
Wordpress has long been known as the blogger’s platform and it is at the very head of its game without a doubt. It is very simple to use, but remember that it is fundamentally not designed for extensive modification and may not be the best platform if you require considerable e-commerce functionality, for example.
Do you have any experience with other CMS systems?
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