Conventional Web Development Vs Content Management Systems
Posted on Wednesday, Mar 23, 2011 in "CMS"
Creating user friendly and informative web pages is perhaps the most important aspect of being a successful webmaster and online business owner. After all, visitors come to your website for one of two reasons only – to find useful information or resources, or to possibly purchase a product or service. Either way, you’ll need to ensure that site navigation is simplified and user-friendly in every way possible in order to maximize conversion rates and turn site visitors into customers and/or long-term clients. Of course, there are several ways to accomplish this; you can create basic HTML web pages, or you can utilize a content management system to automatically generate template-based pages that can be quickly designed and changed within a user-friendly backend interface. If you’re having trouble deciding which method would be most effective, consider the information contained within the following paragraphs.
Saving Time and Money
The above statement is somewhat redundant, as time actually equals money in the busy world of e-commerce. By utilizing a content management system rather than manually creating HTML pages, you not only save a lot of time (which directly equates to profit), you’ll also eliminate the need to pay a professional programmer to provide ongoing assistance and maintenance. You can easily invest the amount of money saved into new websites and online business endeavors, which you’ll have more time to promote as you’ll no longer have to go through the tedious outsourcing or coding process associated with creating HTML web pages. In fact, the content management system like WordPress it is possible to create an entire website within just a couple of minutes using predesigned templates.
Overall Site Performance
By using a CMS you’ll not only save time and money, you’ll also increase your overall web development capabilities and enhance the functionality of your websites in general. Content management systems can be expanded instantly with the addition of plugins, which are basically extensions that improve existing functionality or create new features within the user interface of the CMS. These plugins can aid in a variety of webmaster tasks, including search engine optimization, content organization, and even automated website promotion. Not only will your capabilities as a webmaster be improved, but the capabilities of your visitors in relation to site navigation can also be enhanced. For example, content management systems allow you to add widgets and sidebars that make site navigation and browsing a more enjoyable experience.
Customization Capabilities
Content management systems allow you to use templates that automatically change the design of every page on your site, without changing the content of the pages. Thus, it is possible to customize your site to your likings by repeatedly applying different templates and previewing them within the backend interface of the CMS. You can even tweak individual themes by going into the theme editor of your content management system and making slight adjustments to the CSS stylesheet. Alternatively, you can utilize one of the many user-friendly theme design applications available, which let you utilize drag-and-drop and point-and-click functionality to create your own custom themes.
