Are you eager to build a website, but not sure where to start? Don’t worry, this is common for many business owners who are experts in their own field, but new to the world of HTML, CSS and web development in general.
That’s how content management systems came to exist in the first place: to take care of all the technical side of things like coding and formatting, so that users can focus on style, designs and content.
When you build a website from scratch, you need a professional who is well-versed in complex programming languages like Javascript and has access to website building software. You also need to register your domain name, choose a website hosting provider, design the website, and so on.
Needless to say, this is a lot of work – especially if all of this jargon is completely new to you! So what is a CMS, and what are its benefits?
When you opt for a CMS (or content management system), building a website becomes a lot easier. Basically, the professional web developer/designer is built into the system, along with all the website building software. Most content management systems will register your chosen domain name for you (if it’s available), and the company behind the CMS is your web hosting provider.
Just like that, the nitty-gritty stuff is taken care of! Your website can be live within minutes of selecting a CMS. Don’t do that though, because you want to make sure your new website looks fantastic before anyone sees it!
Unless you have a very specific and unique layout in mind for your website, you’ll find that most content management systems offer countless design templates that should tickle your fancy. Users can simply drag and drop text, images, video and other media into their chosen template and go from there.
For businesses that plan to make additions and changes to their website over time (or have their own blog, which we recommend by the way!) a CMS is definitely the way to go. You might find that your business evolves over time and your website needs updating, but websites that are coded from scratch can be extremely difficult and tedious to update and amend.
For this same reason, a CMS is better for previewing and testing out new web pages, as it can literally be done with a click of a button. With a HTML-built site, the process is much more complex and time-consuming.
For all the above reasons (and many others), perhaps it’s no surprise that almost half of the trillion+ websites currently live on the world wide web use a CMS! WordPress is by far the most popular, with more than 27 million live websites. Wix, SquareSpace, Shopify and Joomla! are also excellent choices, depending on your type of business.