What is a Content Management System?
A CMS is a tool that allows you to add content to your website without having to write code. Instead of having to build your own system to build pages, store images or other functions, a CMS provides the infrastructure that allows you to do this. This allows the user to focus on adding content.
How does a Content Management System work?
To build a website without a CMS you have to code HTML pages yourself and upload them to a server. For many people this is quite difficult because they do not have the knowledge or time for this. With a content management system you can easily build your content in a user-friendly interface.
Screenshot of a blog article in Craft CMS
Managing assets through the media library
There is also an interface for uploading and managing media so you don't have to deal with the server directly. So you can easily upload images, videos and documents yourself to the CMS to then use on different pages.
Screenshot of the media library in Craft CMS
Easily manage and automate SEO
A CMS makes it easy to read fields via code and thereby generate meta tags to optimize SEO. Almost all content management systems also offer a comprehensive SEO plugin to easily manage all aspects of SEO on your website.
Wordpress has the well-known Yoast SEO plugin and Craft CMS the very robust SEOmatic plugin. These plugins offer everything in terms of functionality to easily manage the SEO on your website through an interface. From setting all meta tags to automatically generating sitemaps for search engines.
Which CMS should I choose?
Most content management systems today are quite flexible. While there are some that focus on a specific use - such as Magento and eCommerce - most popular content management systems can be used to create any type of website.
Some examples of popular CMSs:
Now which one is the best CMS? This is a bit like asking, "Which flavor of ice cream is best?".
Everyone is going to have their own preference, both the user of the system and the developer who has to work with it. Our personal preference is Craft CMS because this system is very flexible to build custom projects with and highly scalable to the future.
How do I start building my website with a CMS?
To use a CMS on your website, you must have it installed on your server. Installation is usually very simple. The most popular systems have created interfaces to guide you through the installation process, including creating a database and changing file permissions. To make it even easier for you, your hosting provider may have already taken care of most of the configuration options with a "1-click install" feature.
Some systems are a little more difficult to install on a server, such as Craft CMS, and are best left to a developer. Once installed, they are easy to use and usually more convenient for a developer to work on in the future.
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Maxime Pardon
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