Content Management System Confusion

By Kyle McCabe | August 19, 2010

In the late ’90s content management systems (CMS) were rare. Those that did exist were either underdeveloped, by today’s standards, or just slightly customizable template systems (RIP Geocities).

Back then we hand-coded websites, for the most part, and clients had very little access to make updates to those websites. The internet gods looked upon this and saw that it was good. So, of course, they changed it.

Enter the CMS

These days you can’t throw a cat without hitting someone who wants full access to change their websites. It’s now common for clients to ask for a CMS-based website, and I can’t blame them. If you’re making a lot of changes to the site, it’s certainly more economical to do it yourself than pay someone else to.

But is it really as  simple as it sounds? That depends on a few things:

1. Do you know HTML? The CMS of today, though relatively well-developed and easy to use, still requires some level of web code knowledge to keep things together. It’s not drag-and-drop, at least not yet. Yes, you can bold text and change the colors – but creating page layouts or typography any more complex than a basic Word document takes a little more doing – usually in the “source” code of the CMS editor.

2. Do you have the time? Having access to make changes to your website might save you a few bucks, but it’s certainly not going to save you any time. Besides having to think about keeping the information on each page current (planning, researching), you also have to actually go in and make the changes yourself, troubleshoot issues that crop up while doing so, and maybe take care of the thousand other things you were already responsible for.

3. Do you have a plan? Remember Legos? I remember Legos. I played with those things until I was 15. They were awesome. I built all kinds of things: spaceships, battleships, castles, planes, trains, and time machines. I’ll admit it – sometimes I didn’t know what I was going to build when I started. Those masterpieces usually ended up looking like Frankenstein’s monster…but with more blocks.

But the ones I planned…they were *art*. And that’s the lesson here. If you don’t have a solid, ongoing plan for your website’s content, there’s no CMS in the world that’s going to make it work. It’ll be a mess, and a huge waste of time for you.

Here’s the truth: no CMS is going to allow someone with no web knowledge and a million other responsibilities to manage their website effectively. That’s not what it’s for. The CMS allows easier access to the content on a website. This does allow those with little knowledge of the web or code to make changes and updates to a website, but it isn’t – and was never meant to be – a substitute for a good content strategy and web developer.

Does your website have a CMS? How’s it working out?

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Photo courtesy of thrig

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