Content Management System 101

Every business organization needs to display, create, publish, maintain and market content on the World Wide Web in the most efficient way. There are a lot of complex operations involved in every business and the customer needs are also increasing day by day, thus these organizations need a well-managed system where these operations can be performed. Content management can provide all in one solution to your website like e-commerce, digital marketing tools, blogs, etc.

What is CMS?

In simpler words, a CMS is software to maintain, publish and create web content. WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world, there are other popular CMS like Kentico, Drupal, and Joomla.

A content management system can easily organize, and store files maintain a database from where the information can be accessed. The CMS allows anyone with a computer to write, publish and manage content. No special technical skills are required, or knowledge of HTML is required.

History

1990 was the first time when HTML was used to display pages online.

1996, ColdFusion added a full scripting language called CFML, which led to the evolution of programming languages pearl and python.

In the early 2000s, the development of open-source CMSs took place like WordPress, Mambo, Drupal, and others. For the first few years, they were only marginally useful, but by about 2005, they became the most prominent Content Management Systems in the world.

Now there are numerous CMS in the market like Kentico, Drupal, Joomla, etc. And according to a report by 2020 CMS market will be worth $ 50 billion!

Introduction to CMS

A CMS provides a digital infrastructure for multiple users to manage, collaborate, contribute and design various types of content for the website.

CMS has also changed the way online marketing is done, there are various tools available in a CMS which can be used to promote the company. Website content managers should continuously update and review so that customers, as well as search engines, have up-to-date information.

The Backbone of a CMS

Let’s look at the main characteristics of a CMS:

1. Content Creation

Content can be created in many ways such as new articles, new catalog, new policy, inserting new data, etc. The type of CMS you will be using will mainly depend on data size and frequency.

2. Workflow Management

Workflow management helps to ease the setup, managing, and monitoring of organization workflows. Its main aim is to ensure automated and human workflow is continuously synced.

3. Publishing

The process through which the content of the website sends to the targeted customers. For example, it can be an email, a message, an article, which can be accessed on-demand or on a predetermined schedule.

4. Storage

Data storage and security are the most important thing for any organization. Through a CMS an admin can easily take control over the data and only authorized individuals are allowed to access it.

Types of CMS

1. Web Content Management System (WCMS)

It is the most common CMS used in the world, it lets users manage the content even they don’t have any prior knowledge of markup languages or programming.

It has several tools to design, manage, publish digital content and lets users customize a webpage with personalized design and content.

2. Component Content Management System (CCMS)

This type of CMS differs from a standard CMS because it doesn’t manage content page by page instead of that it takes photos, words, phrases & other data and stores them in a central system or repository.

So it is designed in such a way it enables content reuse and delivery across multiple channels, thus it also saves time during the writing, editing, and publishing phase.

3. Enterprise Content Management System (ECMS)

This is a complex type of CMS which is usually designed for a large audience. It collects, organizes data, and ensures the delivery of critical information to the targeted users (customers, business stakeholders, etc.).

4. Document Management System (DMS)

A few years ago, we have to store all the files somewhere and manually track every file, now after this system, there is no need for a single piece of paper, all the files can be stored and accessible on the cloud. It provides a hassle-free system to upload, process, and share documents.

5. Digital Asset Management System (DAM)

In this system, users can store, access, organize and share files, documents, videos, audio easily and it uses a cloud-based server so a user can access digital files from anywhere.

The features every CMS must have

1. Security

In the age of cyber warfare and malware, we need to secure our data from outside attacks. The right CMS will take care of the security updates and keep the data secure from malicious actors.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools

It is a very important tool to improve website visibility on the internet. A CMS has various tools such as metadata, URL correction, page customization, keywords data, etc.

3. Customer Support

Everything boils down to customer satisfaction. The customer reviews of the CMS can be easily accessed online, go through the review before you choose a CMS.

4. Seamless Integration

Nowadays people using mobile than a Desktop or Laptop to access a website, so a CMS must deliver a perfect user interface for every screen.

5. Multilingual Functionality

The world is diverse so are the customers, they come from various regions and communicate in different languages, so a CMS should support multilingual capabilities.

6. Accessibility and user-friendly

A user must be able to make changes to the website by using CMS even if he/she doesn’t have any knowledge of markup languages or programming.

Future of Content Management System

The CMS has evolved rapidly over several years, the future seems to be based on artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and machine learning.

The next CMS will be adaptive CMS where the content will be adapted and modified according to the environment. It will be able to detect the errors, threats and will adapt to your workflow and specifications.

In two main ways, AI is going to impact the Content Management System.

Increasing the productivity of CMS by the use of machine learning and graph technology, that will recommend the collaborators and users of the relevant content.

Extracting, Classification, and Analysis of the content from different files and storing them as metadata for applications like contract management, risk analysis, and customer service.

The future of CMS looks very exciting indeed. The systems which have real-time communication, peer-to-peer networks, and distributed systems are going to rapidly evolve. Perhaps the systems of the future won’t just be headless based on cloud computing but will be without any kind of centralized storage system whatsoever. With the rapid evolution of AI in the near future, it will evolve, manage, and personalize our content for us.

CMS can be a worthy addition to any online business, whether you are a multinational organization that needs a complex management system or a blogger, content writer, newbie, content management systems makes the works easier by organizing, managing, analyzing, and marketing your content.

* Originally Published on Zenesys