1. Content Management Systems
The pros and cons of using
Content Management Systems

2. Ease of Use
Creating a website without a CMS, no
matter how trivial, requires some
technical knowledge, which is hard to
find and expensive to buy. Content
management systems allow us to
publish content without getting
wrapped up in technical details. A
CMS is a website maintenance tool for
non-technical people.

3. The Whole
Shebang
Some content management systems allow
us to build an entire website, including
web applications, database access, and
transaction processing. As you might
expect, though, the more flexibility and
functionality a CMS provides, the more
difficult it is to use. There's always that
tradeoff. However, for blogging purposes
there are a bunch of CMS's that are easier
to set-up and use. For more in-depth
information, check out our coverage
on choosing the best blogging platform.

4. Low Cost
Free is my favorite price!
WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal are
the most popular CMS's. There are
free versions of all three. The
ancient reluctance to use free
software is almost gone, but we
must still consider availability of
support when deciding what to use.
All three of these are popular
enough that we should be able to
find support without too much
trouble.

5. Consistent
Appearance
Many CMS's provide
templates that can be used to
format new and/or existing
presentations. This separates
formatting from content,
allowing staff to specialize in
one or the other. This
specialization suggests better
productivity at a lower overall
cost.

6. Collaboration &
Versioning
Version control and collaboration
between multiple authors are
supported to one degree or
another in many CMS's. Some
provide a check-out / check-in
process to prevent multiple
updates overwriting each other.

7. Other Considerations
…Just before you proceed to choosing
your CMS

8. Extensibility
Some CMS's allow anyone and
everyone to create add-ons or plug-ins
or modules or what-have-you. This
was a good business decision because
specialized features can be made
available more quickly if it's not up to
one single organization to do all the
work. However, wading through the
thousands (or hundreds of thousands)
of extra features is too daunting a task
to make it worthwhile. Word-of-
mouth recommendations and
critiques are especially helpful. One
point to remember: Just because it
exists doesn't mean it's good (or safe).

9. Dependence on
Ve n d o r
With the dynamic nature of
the Internet, any tool we use
must be updated on a regular
basis. For security purposes,
updates should be installed as
soon as possible after they are
released. If a CMS supplier
ceases to exist, the company
using the CMS will face some
unique and immediate
challenges.

10. Unstable URL's
Search engines assume that
URL's don't change. If a CMS
changes the content's URL, it
will take some time for the
search engines to catch up. In
the meantime, part of your
intended audience will not be
able to find your content.

11. Security
Do you need to control access
to your content? Check out
the features built in to the
CMS to see if they will help
you in this regard. Many do.

12. Performance
A CMS can slow down your
website. Or maybe it can
speed it up. This is a much
bigger topic than can fit into
one paragraph, but it's
something we need to
investigate before selecting a
CMS.

13. Scalability
How big will your website
become? How do the
CMS's support this growth?
Example: If the CMS
requires everything to be
on one server, scalability
may become an issue down
the road.

14. Multilingual
Support
If your website requires
multilingual support, make sure
the CMS simplifies the process.