As all website managers know, regularly updated content is key to both good SEO and in order to engage users and encourage return visits to the site. However, this can lead to high costs as clients ask their agency partners to update content or a burden on the client team as they have to skill up and devote time to updating the content themselves. The answer to this problem is, of course, the use of an effective Content Management System (CMS) that will cut down on the time to make content updates as well as empowering clients to do this when required.
There is no shortage of website CMS systems available, so next comes the tricky decision – which one do you use? The key requirements are ease of use and reliability but with such a plethora of options on the market, it can be hard to know which way to turn.
Our website platform of choice is frequently WordPress. While it was initially developed as a blogging platform it has evolved over recent versions into a sophisticated content management system. It has become the most popular CMS on the market: of all websites using a CMS WordPress is the chosen software in a staggering 54.8% of them (17.5% of all websites).
There is a multitude of benefits gained by using WordPress:
It is open source and well supported (useful if anything needs to be fixed)
Your website will be secure (to prevent hacking or other exploits)
It is flexible and scalable (allowing for further development in future)
It’s very easy to use (you can train most users within an hour)
You can manage your website from any computer
No prior knowledge of HTML is required
Search engines love WordPress – its code is clean and simple so it is easy to read
It puts the control in the hands of customers
Sites are highly customisable from a design perspective
If appropriate it’s possible to have multiple users to avoid a burden on a single user