Selecting the Best Content Management System for Your Business Website

The content management system (CMS) powering your business website significantly impacts its capabilities, performance, and ease of use over time. With web developers today spoiled for choice between open-source CMS options like WordPress and Drupal or proprietary systems like Adobe Experience Manager and HubSpot, the evaluation process proves daunting for companies. When embarking on a website project or redesign, stay focused on your organization’s unique needs, resources, and business priorities when weighing the pros and cons of various CMS platforms.

First, take time to thoroughly consider what types of content, assets, and functionality matter most to your brand and audience day to day. For example, blogging, news publishing, and journalist teams center heavily around text creation and workflow. Multimedia creatives and marketers, however, need robust digital asset management and organization. Let your web designer align technology recommendations to your primary content focus and goals.

Also, realistically assess the technical skills and resources your team brings to the table for effectively managing the CMS if opting for an open-source platform like Drupal or Joomla. While extremely powerful, these systems demand solid web development expertise to customize, which represents an added cost. Simpler tools like WordPress may suffice.

Evaluate prospective CMS options in regards to built-in workflow capabilities as well, like approvals, permissions, and multi-channel content publishing abilities out of the box. Understanding your collaborators’ needs and shaping real-world content operations keeps implementations smoother. Select CMS tools accordingly.

Importantly, test and ensure any short-listed CMS easily integrates with your other vital back-end systems like e-commerce engines, CRM platforms, marketing automation tools, etc. An experienced website designer already familiar with related integrations will recognize any limitations or hurdles.

Lastly, the ultimate CMS decision should effectively balance your desired functionality wishlist, the readiness of staff resources to leverage the platform fully, and sufficient ease of use for non-technical folks who will actually manage content. With an expert website designer guiding the process holistically using these criteria, your ideal CMS solution match for current and future needs emerges.