It’s Called a Content Management System
Yet it does so much more than just manage your website. A content management system, or CMS, is not merely a website manager. It’s a page creator, a design interface, a word processor and maybe even your e-commerce application, and we’re just getting started. Your CMS can handle everything from a simple blog site to online sales and the best part of all is that most of them are free!
That’s right, the CMS that is normally used by GFX is F-R-E-E. After considerable study and implementation, we prefer WordPress as our primary CMS. Since WordPress is an open source application, there is no license fee to utilize it. So you don’t have to pay for additional software to get your website started.
Will a CMS Make My Morning Coffee?
No, it will not. It does, however, take the page template that we have custom developed for your specific needs, or adapted from pre-existing templates and use it to make all of the initial pages for your website. When you want to create a new page, it can literally be accomplished with just a few clicks of a mouse. Here, let’s show you the process:
Instructions for creating a new page with WordPress
- Open the WordPress administration panel in your web browser and sign in.
- Click on “New Page.”
- Select where the page will go and the page style from drop down menus.
- Create a title, insert your text and your photos.
- Click the Publish button.
And that is all there is to it and that’s one reason why a CMS is so useful and powerful.
Setting Up Your CMS
Now it does need to be set-up properly to start with and you do need to have your page templates created ahead of time. And you know the basic mantra of computing: “Garbage in equals garbage out.” But that’s why you have us. We’re here to make certain that your CMS has a quality page design to work with, uses professional formatting so that it’s search engine friendly and ready for additional search engine optimization, and that your pages are secure and hard to hack.
And if you don’t have the time or inclination to use a CMS on your own, that’s fine, we can handle it for you. With a CMS, however, you reduce the time needed to make changes or additions, and that benefits you by lowering your website maintenance costs.
While there are other free CMS available, and certainly some other CMS that you have to pay for, we find that WordPress is easy to use, has lots of customizations available and is readily made secure to protect your information and that of your clients. You can learn more about keeping your CMS secure here.