A content management system or CMS is a tool for managing the data of a website. It allows multiple contributors to create, edit and publish their content simultaneously. A user can use it to make a website from scratch without writing a single code. One should choose the required CMS according to their needs.
Further breakdown of a CMS reveals that it consists of two main parts.
- Content Management Application (CMA): It allows content creators to work with content directly without knowing the codes.
- Content Delivery Application (CDA): It operates as the back-end part of the website, taking the content that you enter into the templates and turning it into a fully functional website that visitors can access.
Types of popular Content Management Systems:
1. Coupled CMS:
It is the easiest in terms of design and general functionality. With a standard content management system or CMS, users make and edit their content using a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editor, and then the CMS shows the content according to the CSS used for layout.
2. Decoupled CMS:
It is quite more difficult than the coupled CMS. The benefits of a decoupled CMS are down to the architecture that divides the front-end and back-end processes. That helps content creators to freely add the details to the content manager on the back end, whereas the front-end system maintains the layout.
3. Headless CMS:
It doesn’t have one designated front end to present the content. Data is supplied via an API through different channels rather than connected to a particular front end. Basically, the API for a headless CMS is much more flexible for providing data as it exists as a tool for any of the front-end parts to pull data from the back-end.
Some Popular Content Management Systems:
- WordPress
- Joomla
- Drupal
- Blogger
- HubSpot
- Ghost
- Magneto
- Wix
- WooCommerce
- BigCommerce
- Prestashop
- Shopify
According to market research, WordPress has the highest market share to date. It has a whopping 64.7 % market share. It is the most popular CMS out there.
Benefits of Content Management System:
- Blogging, marketing, and business require a website. But you can create a website without coding with the help of CMS. You can create, edit, and delete your content as you wish in the editor and publish it. But there is always the option for you to add another code to personalise it. Editing becomes easy in the sites based on Content management System.
- You can use predefined themes or templates to get your desired layout for the website. You can also download 3rd party themes or templates from other websites and upload them to your site.
- Extensions, add-ons or plugins are the most desired part of a CMS-based website. You can extend the basic features of your site easily.
- Some CMS comes with built-in security layers, whereas some give the option to add it via plugins. Sometimes updates and security patches are provided to make it more secure or reduce vulnerabilities.
- content management system or CMS comes with a mandatory blogging module, whereas some provide such options via plugins. So you can start blogging anytime.
- You can also set a post-scheduling. It helps bloggers automatically publish their posts at a scheduled time.
- SEO is another thing that comes with CMS based website. You can check the SEO score, generate XML sitemaps, and get to know SERP results. You can get a boost in the ranking in the search result. To get such a boost, you have to optimise the SEO properly.
- Overall the ease of access and use of a CMS-based website can be helpful for beginners, non-techies or even techies.