Content Management System (CMS) Return On Investment (ROI)

CONTENT MANAGEMENT (CMs)
Wayne’s article (The Simple Joy of Website Updates) already discussed the merits having the power to make your own edits. What you may not have considered is giving your customers or community the power to submit content to you! Editing and publishing content submitted by your users is a great way to stay customer or user focused.

SYSTEM (cmS)
In a CMS, the page organization and links are managed by the system, because of this you can organically grow your site and re-organize its structure to fit your business as it’s needs change. The cost of setting up an tailoring the system for your business creates additional overhead for new sites but is mitigated quickly as you save money in navigation/structure/interface edit costs.

Built-in Base Level Search Engine Optimization
Content Management Systems (CMS’s) provide basic formatting that makes it easy for Search Engines to find you and “Spider” your content. Search engines use programs that check websites for new and updated content. Organizing your content is key for search engine placement. They also provide basic tools so you can improve search engine placement. One of the many things we teach customers who participate in our marketing programs, is how to effectively use these tools each time they edit or add a page to the system. Our periodic review of statistics will help you make good decisions in improving the search-ability of your site. In some cases we can produce better results through a fine tuning process called Search Engine Optimization.

Design Independence
Content Management Systems (CMS’s) “load” a web design. This means that your design is separate from the system or the content. When it’s time for a new design, we simply create it and load it in. Unless we are changing the structure of the site, no changes to the system or content are required. This represents a huge savings and empowers you to compete visually.

Plugins for Additional Utility
Content Management Systems have a plugin architecture that allows the developer community to write add on programs to extend the functionality of the system. There is seemingly limitless potential for custom development. Custom development of course is expensive, but most commonly used programs have already been written. As long as you are willing to accept the way these pre-written plugins operate, you can have amazing functionality for relative little cost. Examples of the more commonly used plugins include:

• Community Management Tools
• Calendar and Event Management
• Photo Galleries
• Shopping Carts
• News and Blog’s
• Multi-Admin/Editor Management
• Custom User Experience Based on Role or Group