Web Content Management System Suppliers

The general way websites are created and maintained is for a company to commission a web site design firm like ourselves, which has specialist knowledge of all the coding and specialist applications needed to create the web site.

Then, when changes and updates are necessary, the company would once again ask the web site design company to do the work. There is an alternative to this-- a Web Content Management System (CMS)

What's a Content Management System?

A CMS Site is one where after the initial design and launch of the web site, the client can then perform updates themselves, without the need for engaging a Web Site Design firm. No specialist knowledge of the coding or design applications is necessary!

A CMS website is not for everyone, as they are more expensive at the initial design stage but significantly cheaper in the long term. CMS Websites are more suitable for larger sites where the content is changing very regularly.

How do CMS Websites Work?

In a CMS Website, the “content” is generally separated from the “style”.

The look and feel of the web site is separated information actually presented. The look-and-feel of the site is created as a set of templates and style sheets. The content is stored in a style independent way, (commonly XML) and is poured out into the style sheets as the visitor views the page.

So, the Content Management System is basically a database containing the presentation-independent content of pages on a web site. This system has three main advantages:

A consistent style, look & branding across all pages on a site
Pages can be edited by clients who need have no special knowledge of web design.
You can have many different contributors to different areas of the web site at the same time.

As an example, just imagine ho a huge site like www.bbc.co.uk would function and look without a CMS system driving it!!

CMS Websites can be small and simple, or enormous and complex. A simple CMS could merely be a small conference company who only need to change one page regularly to promote its conference dates. A complex site could be one where 20 different departments all have responsibility for their own areas of the corporate web site and also need to collaborate online .