As a business owner, your website is often the first impression that consumers will have of you and your company. That means keeping up with your website is one of the most important things you can do to market yourself to potential clients. But with all the other duties you have to contend with, building and upkeeping a website is just one more job added to the stack. Thankfully, with modern advancements in technology and web development, you have more options available for website creation and management.
Most developers will build a site using HTML, while others may use a CMS, a Content Management System. It is up to you to decide which method you’d rather use, but if you’re a novice you may not know what either of those things is. Why use a content management system over HTML? Keep reading to find out.
HTML: What is that?
HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language, which in layman’s terms means it is the system through which we tag files to create different effects for a website. These tags can change fonts, colors, graphics, hyperlinks, and more, to give your website the desired look and function. Essentially, if your website is a specialty dish, the HTML code is the ingredients that make it up.
Basically, without the right ingredients and all of the spices, the recipe of your website will be incomplete and bland.
CMS: What is that?
A Content Management System is a relatively newer trend in web development. Essentially it is a software that does the heavy lifting of website creation. Usually, a CMS will offer templates and user-friendly features to help the average joe get their website up and running. This means that if you haven’t built a website before, or don’t want to hire on a developer, a content management system will partially act as your toolkit and as a developer itself.
Some examples of CMS’ are WordPress, Squarespace, and Wix.
Why Use a Content Management System?
If you don’t want to hire a web developer, building an HTML site from scratch can be both time consuming and incredibly difficult. However, if your website doesn’t need constant updating or maintenance, it is a great option if you want something fully unique and customized. If your website needs consistent content updates, changing graphics, themes, or whatever else, it is probably wiser to go with a CMS.
Something to keep in mind is that every website is constructed from a combination of HTML and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) coding languages. Therefore, the benefit of having a CMS is that you don’t have to write all of that code yourself. There are website templates that you can access and fill in with the information you want for your site to make the process easier. It also simplifies updating as most come with features to streamline editing, publishing, and adding new features, forms, and content to your existing site.
There are also features that allow you to add multiple accounts, so several people can work on a site at a time. These extra users can contribute to, moderate, or edit content. Furthermore, it takes the hassle out of previewing and testing your site as it enables you to open previews in a separate window to see what needs fixing.
All in all, a CMS streamlines most of the creation and management aspects of having a website for your business. With it taking care of most of the heavy lifting, you can focus on having your website accomplish what it should for you and your company. After all, a good first impression is important, and a CMS can make a good first impression into a great one!
