Content Management System: Beginners and Novice Guide: In this article, I will walk you through the complexity of Content Management systems and break them down for you to easily understand by discussing every part of CMS, the many types of CMS out there, the best one to use, and what makes them unique from each other.
What is a Content Management System (CMS)?
A content management system, or CMS, is any program or piece of software used to design and develop websites or blogs without needing to write any code.
Typically, a CMS enables you to design a website without having any web programming skills. In the early days of the web, you needed to know and understand some programming languages that made the internet work, such as HTML, PHP, CSS, JavaScript, and Jquery, to create a website and post your material online.
That used to be very challenging, but the Content Management System (CMS) has made it much simpler. Instead of coding your website from the start, the CMS software performs everything for you using an easy-to-understand drag-and-drop Graphic User interface (GUI).
Think of it like driving a vehicle. You don’t need to comprehend the physics behind how it all works. Instead, you utilize a simplified dashboard, steering, and gears to instruct the automobile on what to do. With a robust CMS platform like WordPress, you can log in to your website dashboard and utilize a simplified interface to design your web pages, add content, and adjust the look and feel of your website or blog.
Then, the CMS performs the heavy work of developing the code for you. With the correct Content Management System (CMS), you may establish a blog, launch an eCommerce business, make a Learning Management System (LMS), create portfolios, and more.
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A few decades ago, the only option for you to design a website was to write all the HTML, PHP, and CSS codes by hand. These days are, however, gone, owing to the current and fast-evolving content management systems. This article will be a quick beginner’s guide on how content management systems work.
You might have encountered beginner guides in Blogging materials but didn’t know how they work; here at SlikkyHelp Academy, we want you to understand everything about Content Management Systems CMS completely. I will explain what CMS is all about and offer examples of prominent content management systems out there.
A content management system will make your life as a blogger much easier, as you will not need to be an expert in HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, and MySQL to develop a very professional website or blog.
Writing the code for an entire website by hand is still a fantastic approach to constructing websites because it will enable you to create unique and personalized sites.
Of course, if you don’t have the time or patience to study web development languages, content management systems are the right solution for you – particularly if you are a newbie!
Content Management System CMS: What is it?
A CM system is not a piece of software or application you can install on your PC but rather a content editing system that you may access on the web or maybe through WAMPP or XAMPP servers installed on your PC.
WAMPP and XAMPP mimic the World Wide Web server, except such servers are hosted on your PC, which enables you to do what you can do on the web right from your laptop, except such websites hosted on your PC Localhost cannot be accessed from anywhere except on your computer and may be local Network.
I’ll create an article about WAMPP and XAMPP servers later because they might be useful in setting up your testing ground to guide and assist you in learning more about content management systems without the need to buy a domain name or hosting. You’ll host your files on your laptop and be able to access them on your laptop browser through localhost or 127.0.0.1.
Click Here To Learn More About WAMPP And XAMPP, including how to set up your Personal computer.
A Content Management System (CMS) will enable you to “create” your website or blog, utilizing various themes, plugins, and add-ons available for the various platforms. Content management systems may be considered a giant box of Lego bricks – You can then pick what exact bricks you want to create your website or blog from.
Another way of expressing what a CMS is is to consider it as a typical text editing program like Microsoft Word, where you can write text and input photos straight from a conventional control panel. Consequently, you will not need technical programming abilities to design, develop, and run a website or blog.
In addition, you can obtain ready-made themes and readymade plugins for your CMS website or blog, to which you can subsequently add content. Some themes and plugins can be obtained freely from the CMS repository, while some are freemium or Premium. Using these readymade themes and plugins, you can create a website or blog in just a few days or even hours, like me.
Types of Content Management Systems CMS
- Open-source (free) content management systems
- Non-Open-source (Paid or Freemium) content management systems
Now you may be wondering ”Which one am I then to choose? Are they all equally good?”
It depends on your specific demands, which one you should select! Most content management systems offer much, even if they are 100% free. So the solution must be to test a few of them out – it won’t cost you a dime anyway!
To assist you in selecting a couple of CMS to test, we have compiled a shortlist featuring a summary of some of the most popular content management systems out there – Maybe one of them is suitable for you!
Note: This Article selects some popular CMS around at as of writing this article in the year 2023, which we will always revise and update accordingly as technology moves forward.
WordPress Content Management System
WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems on the market right now, and we highly encourage you to stick to this. WordPress is a clear, basic, easy-to-use CMS enabling personal blogs and complete websites. WordPress plugins and themes are abundant, making it easy to develop huge and intricate websites or blogs. Best of all – Everything is free! Except for some premium themes and plugins, WordPress CMS itself is free.
WordPress is nonetheless renowned for being a blog Content Management System, and consequently, it does not do as well on some complex website design aspects. They might be prone to slow speed because of the server scripts running in the background, some plugins or themes not fully optimized for speed, and many more.
Some aspects, like SEO, are not 100 percent ideal with WordPress – This is nonetheless a widespread issue across content management systems. That said, it probably won’t take long until problems like this are fixed with a simple plugin.
WordPress still remains the best out there, but there are some other CMSs you might even want to consider. Read on to learn more below.
Use the Below Links to Checkout Some Premium WordPress Themes And Plugins that developers timely update.
Drupal Content Management Systems
Drupal is an extraordinarily strong and all-around system. It is constructed utilizing modules, which may be changed for all your specific requirements. There is also a vast range of plugins and add-ons available for Drupal. Drupal will take a little longer to grasp than other content management systems. For that reason, it is not the greatest option for website developers and bloggers searching for a fast and straightforward solution.
Joomla Content Management System
Joomla is a widely popular CMS/content management system. It is an open-source system, meaning you don’t need to pay anything to use it. If you are prepared to spend a little money, then there are a lot of professional themes and plugins available for purchase on Codecayon; I will add some links for you to check these Professional Plugins and themes out at the end of this topic.
Joomla may be used to develop a wide variety of various website kinds. Static websites containing blog features, polls, news feeds, and search capabilities are relatively straightforward to manage and install on Joomla CMS.
The system is “ready to use,” and you don’t need an IT expert to get it to operate. However, you should be prepared to install additional plugins and features to obtain your desired appearance and functionality. As not all expansion plugins perform as they should, this may create a lot of difficulties later on.
Use the Below Links to check out Some Premium Joomla Themes And Plugins that developers update in a timely update.
Slikky Advice
In every CMS software, always try as much as possible to limit your use of plugins as they contribute to many vulnerabilities such as virus attacks, Trojan horses,s and back doors. They also affect your blog speed, and speed is an essential factor in Google Page Rank and retaining your visitors.
Not all theme and plug-in developers are security conscious and some security vulnerabilities might happen when users failed to timely update their plugins or use old dependencies of PHP servers that are already reported to be vulnerable to certain exploits. For each and every update, developers tend to patch and fix any reported vulnerabilities which is why timely updates are always recommended across the tech space.
Concrete5 Content Management System
And suddenly, an underdog…
Concrete5 is an up-and-coming content management system filled with a lot of promise. Concrete5 has tremendous capabilities and a highly user-friendly control panel, making it very straightforward to use – even for novices! Unfortunately, Concrete5 does not have as many users as Joomla and WordPress. Consequently, not as many plugins and extensions are being created for Concrete5.
The user base is increasing quickly, and this issue will probably correct itself! – Anyways…Try it out and judge for yourself!
Content Management System Features
Like any software, there are several different alternatives out there when it comes to CMS systems. We have compared all the greatest CMS systems on the market. While a huge range of CMS software exists, they all share some capabilities. Here are a handful of the more prevalent ones.
Website Dashboard
A decent content management system lets you utilize a simple user interface to develop your websites or blogs. As the website/blog owner, you may log in to the dashboard to modify your website. The dashboard may also be termed the backend or admin part of a website or blog.
Themes to Customize the Design
CMS systems normally enable you to customize the appearance of your website or blog by picking a template or theme. Themes are pre-designed templates that enable you to modify a website’s layout, colors, fonts, and other design features.
WordPress has hundreds of free and paid themes available. Different contributors on the WordPress theme repository have produced professional, ready-to-use Free, Freemium, and Premium themes ready at a click of buttons.
Content Editor
CMS solutions feature a content editor that you can use to build and publish your web pages. Text and block editors like the WordPress Classic Editors and some Gutenberg Block editors are frequently termed WYSIWYG editors, which stands for What You See Is What You Get. As you update the text, you can see precisely what it will look like on your website or blog instead of looking at many codes. Think of it as using an editor like Microsoft Word. CMSs also enable you to add pictures, graphics, tables, and other media assets to your website or blog.
Plugins and Extensions
Many CMS systems enable you to add new features and change your site differently by installing plugins. Plugins on a website are like applications on a smartphone. You can quickly install them to add new features and functionality to your website or blog. You may use them to add features like a contact form or social network integration.
WordPress comes with approximately 57,000 free plugins. I will write a separate article to discuss extensively some lists of the must-have WordPress plugins and how to set every one of those plugins up to equip you with the necessary information and guidance you need about these plugins.
After my next article, Beginners Step-by-Step Guide on How to Setup And Install WordPress, we will discuss more on must-have plugins.
User Management
With a solid CMS, you can allow other individuals access to post material on your website. Set up different roles to manage your blog effectively; roles like Editors, SEO Managers, Moderators, Admins, and many more are ways to manage your blog with your team. You may also give another type of user role with privileges on what each role could access on your blog.
For example, you might employ an SEO Manager and Editor, and your SEO manager will only have access to everything that has to do with your Search Engine Optimization without giving such manager administrative privileges on your blog. The same rules apply to other roles, such as Editors.
Benefits of Using a CMS
CMS software makes it easy for novices to develop websites or blogs easily. They open up the Internet for non-techy people by letting them design and develop their websites or blogs, publish materials on the Internet, and start online companies without employing developers. Here are some advantages of utilizing CMS software to design your website or blog.
No-fuss publishing:
A CMS enables even users without technical abilities to publish posts and articles, design fascinating websites or blogs, and edit and optimize content using a simple dashboard.
Convenient content scheduling:
Content Management Systems enable site managers to publish content with a button. You may plan articles to be published to meet calendar deadlines, company events, or product launches; you can schedule each post or draft them for later re-editing. Isn’t that awesome?
Works with any size business:
Whether developing a website or blog for a huge, recognized company or simply beginning a business, you can utilize a CMS. With the correct CMS and web hosting plan, you may develop any kind or size of website or blog you want.
Affordable and simple to control:
A CMS enables novices to administer sites of various sizes without depending on high-priced web professionals for site upkeep or regular updates. A content management system lets you determine who gets access to your site, as I explained above while discussing ROLES.
Ability to Personalize:
Updating your website design or customizing it with your logo, colors, and styles is simple. Using inbuilt, readymade WYSIWYG customizers, you may also use plugins to add functionality and modify your typography. Add custom CSS and JavaScript to override your theme’s predefined functionalities and feels.
Which is the Best CMS platform?
If you’re contemplating launching a website or updating the one you currently have, you should look at your CMS’s cost, ease of use, flexibility, and scalability. There are several CMS alternatives out there to design a website or blog. I’ve already discussed these various CMS systems like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and Concrete5 above, but we have more and more CMSs tailored to specific needs.
Squarespace, Weebly, Wix, Site Builders, and more are some popular CMSs. Some big e-commerce stores also allow users to have their store on their platform; these are made possible because of their CMS, for example, Facebook Market Place, Facebook Pages, Ecwid, Strikingly, Squareup, Freewebstore, and many more.
WordPress is the most used content management system in the world. It powers more than 38 percent of all websites on the internet.
Slikky Advice:
We feel that WordPress is the greatest CMS available, hands down.
Unlike some other competitors, WordPress offers the greatest selection of drag-and-drop page builders, has free and paid plugins, connects with hundreds of other programs, thousands of free and premium themes to pick from.
Giving you power over your website or blog without limitations like some other CMS I mentioned above, you’re the god of your website or blog, the referee, and the umpire. You can simply do anything you want with it.
Whether you’re searching for a basic website builder or the greatest blogging platform, you can’t go wrong with WordPress. You may use it for all types of websites like blogs, small company websites, enterprises, and even eCommerce shops.
Since WordPress is utilized by almost a third of the web, there are a lot of tools out there to help you design your website.
We employ you to go for WordPress as a beginner. It’s simply the best.
What is the cost of a CMS Platform?
After reading about the advantages of utilizing a CMS, you may consider how much a CMS website costs. Some CMS systems might be pricey, depending on the features you pick. Many have subscription fees that may go into hundreds of dollars a year. But WordPress CMS software is 100% free and open source.
While the program is free, you’ll need to acquire web hosting and a domain name, which I’ve already explained in my previous article Here: How To Choose The Best Hosting For Your Blog and How To Choose A Great Domain Name For Your Blog.
Your cost to create a WordPress website might be as cheap as $100 or as much as $10,000 or even more, depending on your choices. If you’ll be interested in working with me and my team to develop your WordPress Blog for you at a reduced fee, please reach out to me on my Personal Telegram handle or SlikkyHelp Academy Telegram Channel with Subject Slikky Help Academy Discounted Blog Design & Development.
Your demands will differ if you’re interested in launching an online shop. You’ll need to be able to handle payments and keep your customer’s data safe, and you may wish to add more complex features to your site to enhance your sales.
We’ve concluded this article, I believe I’ve been able to guide you in your journey. Our next guide will be:
