Understanding Content Management Systems? : How Does It Work?
In the current connected world, businesses require a strong online presence to attract, nurture, and delight potential customers.
This necessitates creating and managing pages and content on the internet.
However, not everyone has the technical capabilities to create and manage content and pages on a website.
This is where a Content Management System becomes handy.
In this entry, we’ll walk you through:
- What is a Content Management System?
- Components of a Content Management System
- How a Content Management System Works
- Examples of Popular Content Management Systems
- Various Types of Websites You Can Build With a Content Management System
- How to Build a Website With a Content Management System
Without further ado, let’s get started.
What is a Content Management System?
A content management system mostly abbreviated as CMS is a software application or a set of related programs that allows you to easily manage digital content and create a website without prior coding experience or not knowing how to code at all.
In simple terms, a CMS is a software that enables you to create, edit, collaborate on, publish, and store digital content.
A CMS also lets you build a website without writing the code from scratch.
Rather than creating your infrastructure for creating web pages, storing images, creating posts, and other important functions, a CMS takes care of all the basic infrastructure for you so that you can concentrate on creating content and attracting your ideal buyers.
Now that you know what is a content management system, let’s delve into its key elements and how it works.
Components of a Content Management System
A CMS has two core parts that make it easy to maintain your website. These are:
- A Content Management Application (CMA) — this is the part that lets you add and manage content on your site. It is the graphical user interface that allows users to design, create, modify, and delete content from a website without coding skills.
- A Content Delivery Application (CDA) — this is the part that takes the content you input in the CMA, stores it, and makes it visible to your visitors. It provides the back-end processes that support the management and delivery of the content once a user adds it to the CMA.
How a Content Management System Works
A CMS has a graphical user interface with tools to create, edit, and publish content on the web without writing the code from scratch.
To grasp how a CMS works, you first need to understand what it’s like to build a website from scratch.
You start with a blank HTML on which you add text, images, navigation bars, and other key building blocks of a website.
You then add CSS to style those elements to match the distinct look and feel of your brand.
You finalize by writing some Javascript to add more advanced functionality to your site.
Then you have to upload this HTML file to your server to be filed in your database.
Each time you want to make changes — even simple ones like updating content — you will have to download files from the server, open them, and change the HTML code manually.
All this time you have to ensure you don’t break any links or something else before re-uploading the files.
Sounds overwhelming, Yes?
Building a site from scratch is ideal for developers and other advanced users with experience in website development.
For those who are not tech-savvy or those who won’t have the time and resources to build a site from scratch and maintain it, using a CMS is the best option.
Let’s explore how.
How To Use a CMS
A CMS is made up of two key parts: a Content Management Application (CMA) and a Content Delivery Application (CDA).
Together these applications handle all the code, database queries, and infrastructure in the back end so you can concentrate on the front end of your site.
Instead of starting with a blank HTML page, you’ll open the content editor and be able to bold and italicize text, add links and CTAs, insert images, videos, and tables by dragging and dropping some modules or clicking a few buttons compared to writing out HTML, CSS, and Javascript.
You just have to navigate to the appropriate section in your admin panel to make changes to your site, like changing the permalink link structure, and installing extensions or themes.
This is CMA acting: all these changes are accomplished in an interface that hides the code from you the end user.
After making changes, the CDA will take the content you entered into the CMA, assemble the code, reveal it to your front-end visitors, and store it.
This implies that, when you wish to publish a new blog post, you first hit the publish button rather than manually uploading a page to your server.
Since now we know what is a CMS, its various components, and how it works, let’s explore the most popular CMSes and the various types of websites you can build with a CMS.
Examples of Popular Content Management Systems
WordPress is the most popular content management system.
Whereas there are other content management systems in existence, WordPress has the biggest market share on websites with a known content management system.
Note: We are referring to WordPress.org and not WordPress.com.
WordPress.org is the website where the actual open-source WordPress content management system is stored.
Besides the self-hosted WordPress software, the other popular content management systems include:
- Drupal
- Joomla
- Magento (e-commerce)
- Hubspot
- Optimizely CMS
- PrestaShop (e-commerce)
- Squarespace
- Contentful
- Wix
Various Types of Websites You Can Build With a Content Management System
Most content management systems are flexible but some like Magento and PrestaShop focus mainly on eCommerce stores.
You can use a CMS to build essentially any type of website.
For instance, you can use WordPress to Create:
- Blogs
- Forums
- Social networks
- eCommerce stores
- Membership sites
- Online courses
- Portfolios
- And so on
Finally, let’s take a quick dive into how to build a website with a content management system.
How To Build a Website With a Content Management System
Do you want to build your website with a content management system?
If so, the overall process takes the following four steps:
- Purchasing a web host and a domain name.
- Installing a Content management system of your choice on your web server.
- Configuring the CMS to dictate how your site looks and functions.
- Start writing content using the CMS interface.
Conclusion
A content management system is a software application that allows you to build a website and manage digital content without writing a single line of code.
It has a content management application that enables you to add and manage content and a content delivery application that takes the content you add, stores it, and makes it visible to users.
The most popular content management systems include: WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla.
To create a website with a CMS you only need to purchase a web host and a domain name, then install your favorite CMS on a server and configure it to your desired look and feel.
Finally, kickstart writing content in a WYSIWYG interface.
Over to you…
Which is your preferred content management system?
Let us know in the comments.
