So what makes a good web content management system (CMS)? What should you look for when scouting around for a CMS?
1. Templates: These include both web page templates and content templates. When looking at templates, make sure that your software allows you to customize them or create your own from scratch. It would also be a good idea to check if these are compatible with the latest software versions and platforms (browsers, mobile and desktop computers and devices) and, moreover, that they can be viewed on a wide range of platforms.
2. Security features: These are important as they are what determine who is allowed access to the “behind the scenes” side of your website. These should have authentication features that ensure that only authorised personnel can publish data on the site, for example.
3. It is compatible with your existing system and software.
4. It doesn’t require that you or your staff go back to school just to learn how to use it.
5. It has the ability to manipulate text (such as editing and formatting). At the same time, it should allow for addition of such file types as audio and video. And these should be easy to do, even for the novice.
6. It should have the capability to monitor such things as author’s name, date and time of submission, when articles need updating, etc. More than this, it should be able to generate a report.
7. It should be able to prevent simultaneous editing of data, for instance. This is especially helpful if many “outsourced” authors are uploading their work.
8. Ability to easily monitor and manipulate content uploading and removal. Things like informing the administrators and authors when is a good time to upload the content. Or when it’s time to change the data.
9. Links: This is a good feature to consider as links help to generate more “hits” to the site. From the administrators’ point of view, it should be able to add or delete a link accordingly (when a page is added or removed, respectively).
10. A nice feature would be one that allows the creation of online polls and surveys. It would even be better if these allow for the results to be easily published.
So when buying that all-important web content management system, check to see that the one you’re choosing has all these features. But most of all, know which ones are useful and which ones are not. Otherwise, you may just be buying something that you don’t need.