What is a Content Management System (CMS)?

Create a website is time-consuming and often very complex. Design technology has evolved and now offers simplified creation tools to improve our understanding when building our site.

Others CMS gradually invaded the web, from the 2000s, to help us during the design, management and maintenance of our sites.

But concretely, what is a CMS and how does it work?

Definition of a CMS

CMS is an acronym meaning Content Management System, which can be translated as Content Management System. It is a type of software generally in open source which makes it possible to design, manage and update web interfaces.

This tool helps separate content from formatting on the authoring platform. Thanks to this separation between content and form, it is easier to edit the content!

You have on one side the administration interface, which plays the role of content manager. This includes visuals, texts, menu structure, etc. And on the other hand, the visible part of the iceberg, which makes it possible to display the layout of the site. This is the part that is accessible by all Internet users, like the one on which you are reading me now!

The CMS is also called editor WYSIWYG. It literally means What you see is what you get, which translates as "What you see is what you get". No need to say more, right? The CMS allow us to directly observe, during modifications, the visual result of our site, in FrontEnd view, or in "customer" view, if you prefer.

The best known CMS on the market are: WordPress, Joomla, Drupal or even Typo3.

At Tremplin Numérique we have a big crush on WordPress! It is considered a complete CMS and allows you to create fully customizable and professional sites when you have the skills to use all its features.

To summarize, a CMS is software (installed on a web server) used for the simplified design of dynamic web pages. This software in question, deals automatically and autonomously with the tasks of displaying your pages and updating the content.

It thus makes the link between the front-office and the back-office without you having to manipulate any code. Most CMS systems use databases (PHP + MySql), but some exceptions work without.

Management of complete CMS

This category of CMS is characterized by its flexibility and great flexibility. With CMS such as WordPress, it is possible to do (almost) everything!

You can create a portfolio, a blog, a showcase site, but also an e-commerce site! Everything becomes possible!

The total management of a CMS can be divided into two distinct parts. At first, you have the installation of the system. This is the part that involves building the framework of your site. Once the skeleton has been designed and its tree structure perfected, the installation continues with the implementation of the graphic aspect.

These tasks are generally carried out by knowledgeable people, because this step requires web development skills.

Then, in a second step, you have the insertion of the data. This consists of publishing the content on the website. It will be necessary to add the texts, insert the images, the videos as well as all the elements constituting the content of your site! These tasks can be carried out by the editors themselves, because this management does not require specific skills.

The difficulty of setting up this type of system depends on the originality of your design, but also on the desired functionalities. The more functionality you want, the more web language skills you will need, because this category is certainly the most powerful, but also the heaviest.

The extensions

Thanks to extensions, also called "plugins", you can install a multitude of features on your site. They are not directly included by default in the CMS. You have to select them and set them up according to your needs. These plug-ins can range from security management to displaying SEO performance to your website's backup system, including chat bots or popups.

It is also possible to create and develop your own extensions to use it on your platform. Be careful, this type of development remains complex and is only accessible to people sensitive to BackEnd development techniques.

With these features, you can let your imagination run wild and fully customize your site.

Be aware that it is common to have to make changes during the installation of the CMS. The default system is very unlikely to give you what you want. You will have to adapt it to your desires by modifying its structure. If you want to go further and get a professional result, it will require (despite the simplification of the system) knowledge of HTML and CSS code languages.

What are the advantages of CMS?

Using a CMS to create a website has several advantages.

The first is of course the phenomenal time saved by this tool! Each modification that we make on our website can be previewed in real time. There is no need to wait for an update every time you manipulate your content to know if it is optimal.

Also, the management interface of your site is intuitive! Even without being a crack in web development, optimization does not require knowing how to code if you use the interface and the native functionalities of the CMS. In addition, the ordering systems use simplified terms so that the user does not get lost. Nice no?

We mentioned it a few lines earlier, CMS have different levels of customization, more or less complete. For the most voluntary (because yes, it takes time) and the most seasoned (because it requires more skills), you can obtain a fully customizable and professional site by installing plug-ins intended to add specific functionalities to your interface. .

The big advantage of CMS software is user management. It can be managed by different people simultaneously. Also, each user can have a different role on your site.

You can choose the type of action authorized as well as the accessibility of the pages according to the users. You can authorize and separate the person who manages content (administrative) from the one who manages the design.

This allows you to establish an accessibility plan for your site and dispatch the roles within your management team according to the rights that will be granted to them.

If you want to start creating your website, beware of your level of expertise and take into consideration the expected level of your site. If it is a personal blog, arm yourself with patience and exploit the free options offered by the different CMS.

If you want a professional site (showcase or e-commerce), take into account the development elements necessary to build your site. Your users must have confidence in your company and therefore in your site. If it is poorly developed, you risk scaring away your customers.

In addition, your website will not work without good SEO. Work your SEO to climb the search engine rankings. Also take into account the user experience on the website, the keywords chosen when creating its content as well as the relevance of the latter.

This is an additional step in building your site that should not be overlooked if you want to be visible elsewhere than on your social networks!