Alliance Technologies

How easy is your website to update? Do you have to break out the HTML editor to add new pages, text, and pictures? Or do you have a Web Content Management System to make it easy to change and update your website?

If you already have a WCMS, this article isn’t for you. You already know how easy they make updating your website. But if you’re one of the hundreds of clients we have that still use an old fashioned static HTML website: please read on so I can tell you about Web Content Management Systems.

A Web Content Management System (or WCMS) is an application built into a website that makes it easy for non-technical users to add and update content. Basically, if you can use Microsoft Word, you can add content to a website using a WCMS. This is great, because it means that your business can have a website filled with ever-changing and informative content (good for your customers and for Search Engine Optimization) without paying a web development company every time you want to change something on your site.

Alliance Technologies even uses a WCMS called Drupal to manage our website so marketing guys like me can update content without bothering the Web Team. When I had this article ready to go, I used to WCMS to easily create a new page and get it ready to include in the newsletter. All I had to do was log in, select a new page from a dropdown menu, paste in the text of my article, and click submit. Instantly there was a new page on the Alliance website. No coding required.

Right now, if Alliance used a traditional static HTML website, I would need to use an HTML editor like Dreamweaver if I wanted to create new content for the Alliance website. Although some HTML editors are more complex than others, there are still things I’d need to go into the code to accomplish.  But with our WCMS, I don’t need to code to create, manage, update, or reorganize our content.

Here are a few screenshots of our system. Notice how much like a word processor the text editor looks? If you can use Word, you can use a WCMS.

Of course, setting up a new WCMS isn’t easy. Most platforms need a professional to install and configure. After that, it’s best to get a professional trainer to train your staff to use the platform so you can be sure you’re getting the most out of your investment. However, once that’s done, updates, new content, reorganization, menus, and many other tasks can be easily accomplished by your staff. This usually works to out make a WCMS a better long term solution than a traditional static website.

So, are you interested in learning more about WCMS? Here are a few popular WCMS examples to check out. You’ve probably heard of some of them before:
Wordpress
Drupal
DotNetNuke
Joomla!
And you can find a comprehensive list here.

Of course, if you’d like to talk to our web team about a WCMS for your website, we’re happy to meet with you for a free consultation. Our web team is very experienced with a number of different platforms, so we’d be glad to sit down with you and discuss your needs.