A
content management system (CMS) supports the creation, management,
distribution, publishing, and dissemination of information
to the World Wide Web.
It covers the complete implementation
of the pages on your site, providing simple tools to allow
you or your designated staff to create the content, publish
it, and maintain an archive of your published materials.
It also provides the ability
to manage the structure, the consistent appearance of the
pages, and the efficiency of navigation.
Why Use
CMS?
There are serious considerations
for business efficiencies that can be achieved by committing
to a CMS, including:
-
simplified authoring process
-
improved turnaround time for added
pages and changes
-
general consistency
-
more efficient site navigation
-
heightened site flexibility
-
authoring from anywhere on the Web
-
heightened security
-
greater control of information
-
improved capacity for growth
-
lower site maintenance costs
CMS can provide organization
for your business goals and strategies.
How Does
CMS Work?
The functionality of a
content management system can be broken down into several
main categories:
- content development
- content management
- publishing new content
- presenting fresh content
Content creation with CMS
In the Administration Section
of our content management system you will find an easy-to-use
authoring environment (WYSIWYG - What You See Is What You
Get), designed to work much like MS Word. This provides
a less-technical way of creating new pages or updating content,
without having to know any HTML coding.
The CMS also allows you
to manage and organize the entire structure of your site.
You can decide where the pages go, and how they are organized.
Almost all content management
systems now provide Web-based authoring , which further
simplifies implementation, and allows content updating to
be done remotely. You will be able to manage your Web site
from anywhere you can connect to the Internet.
It is this content management
tool that is the key to the success of the CMS. By providing
a simple mechanism for maintaining the site, authoring can
be meted out into the business itself. For example, your
Listings Manager maintains the listing engine, while your
Advertising Director keeps the advertising up-to-date.
Content Management
Once a Web site page has
been created, it is saved into a central database in the
CMS. This stores all the content of the site, along with
the other supporting information.
This central databank allows
a range of essential features available in the CMS:
-
Keeping track of
all the versions of a page.
-
Ensuring that each
editor can change the section they are responsible for.
-
Integration with
existing information.
-
Critically,
the CMS provides a range of centralized capabilities.
Publishing
Once the final content
is in the database, it can then be published out to your
Web site.
Content management systems
boast powerful publishing engines which allow the appearance
and page layout of the site to be applied automatically
during publishing. It may also allow the same content to
be published to multiple sites.
Of course, every site looks
different, so the CMS lets the graphic designers and Web
developers specify the appearance that is applied by the
system.
These publishing capabilities
ensure that the pages are consistent across the entire site,
and enable a very high standard of appearance.
This also allows the authors
to concentrate on writing the content by leaving the look
of the site entirely to the CMS.
The CMS fully automates
the publishing of your site.
Presentation
The content management
system can also provide a number of features to enhance
the quality and effectiveness of your Web site.
For instance, the CMS will
build the site navigation for you.
The CMS can be used to
make your site dynamic and interactive, thereby enhancing
the site's impact.
It lessens the chance for
site wide errors.
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