What is Content Management and is it right for you?

by Sean Cairns

What is Content Management
A Content Management System (CMS), is a piece of software that allows people without any knowledge of the various languages used to build websites (HTML, PHP, CSS, ASPX, etc.) to easily make changes and updates to their website, using a back-end client.

The most common type of Content Management software are the various blogging softwares, such as WordPress.  The user logs in to a special page with a secure password.  From there, they are able to write a new blog post, upload and insert images, music, and videos, and post the new content to the website – all without writing a single line of actual code!

Obviously this has a tremendous advantage for people and companies without a dedicated web person or team, and allows them to rapidly update content on their website to keep things fresh and interesting, which incidentally is the best kind of content to have on your site!

How Does it Work?
A CMS is made up of 4 distinct, yet interrelated parts: a Theme (or Skin), the back-end software, the front-end software, and a database.

When setting up a CMS, it's easiest to think of it like this: the server that the site is hosted on is your computer, and the CMS software is like a program that you're installing onto it.  The CMS's files are uploaded to the server, and then installed there, just like any other program on your computer.  When someone logs into this software using their secure password, they are using the back-end software.

The back-end is where, as stated above, only registered users may enter, and it gives them the ability to change the content on any of the pages in the site.  If it is a blog, they can also post new blog posts or schedule posts for the future.  All of the non-textual content is saved, automatically, by the back-end software of the CMS onto the server.  The user doesn't require any knowledge of how the server even works, as the software takes care of it all.  All of the textual content, along with all other important data (including old versions of each page, comments, the usernames and passwords, etc.) is stored in the site's Database.

The Database, typically a MySQL database, is used to store all of the important information about each page and user within the site.  It stores and backs up all changes made to the site (so that things can be undone), it stores all of the posts, and all of the usernames and passwords – securely!  Whenever someone makes a change to the site, the database is updated, and whenever someone visits the site, content to display on the page is pulled from the database by the CMS.  What's best is that it is impossible to access the database directly – only the CMS has the proper passwords and authentication to get to any of the information!

The Theme, or Skin of your site is the portion of the website that the user cannot change using the Back-End software.  It is either custom-coded for the end user in order to fit a certain design, theme, or set of usage specifications, or it is one of the available themes for download, as provided by the designer of the CMS software.  Many sites have the ability to display different Themes to different users, based on their geographic location, or default language settings.  The Theme is coded with special placeholders, that are automatically filled by the CMS with content provided by the user in the Back-End.

The Front-End software is what is displayed to the visitor of the website.  It begins with the Theme, which holds all of the graphical and design elements of the site.  Each of the placeholders is replaced by content, created by the user in the Back-End, and stored in the Database.  All of this content is put together by the server on which the CMS is installed, and then delivered to the visitor as a full web-page!

Is it Right for You?
After reading this brief overview of CMS, you're probably wondering why anybody wouldn't want a Content Management-powered website!  The real difference between this site and a regular HTML website is simply cost.

As you can tell, a CMS website is substantially more complicated than a regular, static site, and as such requires much more time on the web developer's side to get started.  A CMS website also typically requires the user to learn how to use the back-end, which might be difficult for people with very little computer skills.

Above even the cost, one must consider how often the content on the site needs to be, and realistically will be updated.  Clients like radio stations and stores often have new content to be shown daily, and are excellent examples of sites that should have CMS.  Corporate sites, especially those which will only have changes made monthly or less, might benefit from the reduced cost of having a static site (updated on the rare occasions that it's required by a web developer).

If you find that Content Management is something that your company would like to know more about, feel free to contact Central States Media at info@centralstatesmedia.com or on the phone at (309) 693-2345.