CONTENT MANAGEMENT
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ECOMMERCE
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CONTENT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
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WEB DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT
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WEB CONTENT MANAGEMENT
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Does Your Web Site Have a Content Management Problem?
Part 2: Some of the Most Common Web Site Problems Can Be Solved by a CM System
Customer
* Customers can't find what they need
If you have a lot of content, it can often be very difficult for your customers to find it. Taking control of the content helps provide navigation systems that make sense.
* When they find it, it's outdated or just plain wrong
Knowing that your content is valid and correct is important on a content driven Web site. But without a review process and management, most content will get away from you before you know it. And with each redesign, you create more outdated content.
Contributors and Publishers
* Content is overwritten accidentally
With multiple developers writing to one site, you're bound to have problems with overwritten files, causing extra work and stress. Most CM systems include revision control to prevent those problems.
* Previous versions are unavailable
If the site needs to be converted back to an older version, it has to be done manually. With CMS you can have version control to easily roll-back the site.
Design and Layout
* The navigation differs from page to page on the site
This is most commonly seen when a site is redesigned. No matter how diligent a developer is, she will miss pages, and those will be the ones that the customers will write in about years later.
* The homepage doesn't truly represent the site
Since the homepage is the page that most customers are going to see, it's vital that it be clear and act as a gateway to the other elements of the site. Having the content under control provides a clear plan for how to design the homepage.
Site Management
* Content is not updated quickly
If there is a bottleneck at the IT department or Web developer, this can slow down the production of a site. CM systems provide templates and layout so that once the content is written it can be up on the Web site.
* Content cannot be published and removed at specific times
Items such as press releases often have a very specific time when they should be live on the site, but often Web developers are hampered by software, development time, or simply the actual time of publication. Content Management systems offer the ability to specify when a page should be put live on the site, and when it should be taken down.
* Once the content is in a format, it cannot be changed
If a content manager posts a page with a Word document, unless the developer takes the time to convert it, it will not be available as HTML, a PDF, or for wireless transmission. Many CM systems offer the ability to convert documents on the fly.
* Products, articles and news are all separate
While a site might have articles that relate to products, unless the developer links them manually together, they will never be associated. And once those product links change, the article is instantly incorrect. Content Management systems have database backends to allow for associations between various content elements on a site.
Access
* Access control problems prevents some managers from putting their content online
It is important that certified partners and vendors have access to files that the public not see. But without good access control, many content owners will choose to maintain their proprietary content themselves: spending money on burning CDs and sending them through the mail. Content Management tools help control where the files are and who gets access to them.
* Content cannot be tailored to the specific customer
Content appropriate for the press is different from what would be shown to an end-user custoemr, but without a CMS many sites resort to a single form of access to the information.
Staffing
* Web marketing is too hard to do
If the time to publish content is too long, staff members will go to some other avenue to get their messaging across. Web sites with CMS allow the site to be published efficiently and allows staff and customers to see the value in Web communication.
* Web developers are expensive
With large sites, it is often necessary to have huge, distributed teams to handle all the aspects of manually posting and maintaining a Web site. CMS puts the content posting back into the hands of the people developing it.
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| Related Topics: Bespoke Software Development | | Performance Management | Print Shop |
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