CMS stands for the abbreviate form of Content Management System. CMS provides an interface to publish, edit and modify the content.
Content here can be anything from pages, posts, articles, images, videos, pdfs etc that will be a part of the website.
How does CMS work
Basically, CMS creates a database where all the content of the website resides. It refers to those data stored in database to perform all the activities such as adding, deleting, updating.
Normally a hierarchy of user is created within the CMS so that the different responsibilities and authorities are assigned to the users. It is called the Roles. Based on the roles a user is allowed or restricted to do different tasks.
Normally administrator is the highest in the hierarchy. For example different roles within wordrpress cms are administrator, editor, author , normal users etc. Administrator is allowed to do everything within the CMS whereas others' roles are restricted.
CRUD
CRUD stands for creating, reading, updating and deleting. CMS revolves around this concept.
So at minimum CMS allows to:
- Create or add new entries which can be pages, post, images, other documents such as pdfs, images, videos
- Read and display any of those entries
- Update or edit entries
- And if needed delete or deactivate entries
Business Benefits
So what does CMS brings to the business. The main thing it bring to business is flexibility. As mentioned above CMS at least supports CRUD. Hence this means CMS provides a platform to update the existing site content easily.
The main purpose of CMS is that once its installed it doesn’t require a geek to work around site. Any person with limited technical background should be able to do those stuffs with ease.
Wordpress as CMS
One of the most popular and easy to use CMS at the moment is Wordpress. It provides a platform to create and maintain website in an easy and flexibile enviroment.
Advantages of wordpress are:
- Its easy and user friendly
- Its flexible and easy to customise
- Its evolving and always improving
- And yes on top of that its free
Conclusion
Its better if you thinking of launching a site, a good option will be to choose a CMS. Initially it might start with a 5 page website but you never know it might grow in the future. And rather then going through series of changes to adapt the new addition to the website, its good to rethink and decide if using CMS before hand might be a good alternative.