Choosing the Right Content Management System for your Website

Is one Content Management System (CMS) better than another? This is a question Keystone Click receives more often than you would imagine (full disclosure, Keystone Click primarily uses the Drupal content management system. Here is why we primarily use – and love – the Drupal CMS). If you talk to fair-weather developers, the correct answer is two-fold. First you must understand your end goals, not just with the design/functionality, but really find out your dream website would all include.

We recently had the pleasure of doing business with Lloyd Brown of Inflect Strategic Solutions, a Milwaukee business advising company. He did an audit on Keystone Click, and was able to look at what we were doing well as well as areas for improvement. One weakness that was uncovered was our focus on being the best Drupal CMS developers. He posed these questions, “Does a specific content management system really matter? Are your customers seeking out software, or digital marketing solutions? Wouldn’t it be better to focus on the results of a CMS, rather than the software used?”

The questions posed made us look at our approach from a new perspective.

We receive a few inquiries to develop in a specific content management system but a majority of customers seek an agency that can design and develop a high-quality website. There are 2 main items that most all need for their site:

Get site visitors to convert – whether it is submitting a webform, email address, picking up the phone etc.
The ability to update your website without knowing code (aka a content management system).

There are also additional development requests such as an e-commerce website, responsive design, login portal, HIPAA compliant sites etc. that focus more on finding a development team with the skills to execute these tasks.

Our advice for choosing the right content management system for your needs

There are a lot of differences among each CMS. You must keep in mind your end goals and the functionality you would like from your website. In particular, find out the scalability of the CMS. Ask these questions:

How secure is the CMS?
How easy is it to edit site content?
If I were to add a feature (insert your request here) to the site, can that easily be done?
How many different user roles can I have?
If I want to move my site to a different host, how will that work?
If our relationship goes south, how easy will it be to obtain all site files and move to another vendor? (It’s better to be safe than sorry right up-front prior to doing work with a company).
Should I choose a Proprietary or Non-Proprietary CMS?

There are many more questions to ask that are specifically tailored to your business as well as the type of site that you are looking to build but the ones above are key to all new website searchers.

Contact us today if you are wondering what CMS is right for you or to learn more about your CMS possibilities.