Choosing the right web content management system may be tricky for an eCommerce business. Businesses are usually attracted by fancy functionality that they will never use without having a clearly defined set of requirements. Therefore, in this article, we discuss various features of WCMS that we need to consider while choosing one for your application.
What is a Web content management system?
A web content management system (WCMS) is a program that allows maintaining, controlling, changing and reassembling the content on a web page. Businesses can manage digital content on their websites by publishing and maintaining content without prior knowledge of web programming or markup languages. Typically, WCMS uses a database to store page content, metadata, and other information assets that might be needed by the system. A presentation layer displays the content to website visitors based on a set of templates, which are sometimes XSLT files. The administration is usually done through browser-based interfaces.
Pros and cons of a web content management system
Pros
- Simple and easy to use: Thanks to the simple design of the admin IU, everyone can create and maintain content without specializing in coding.
- Workflow management: Users can set up and control their own workflow to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
- SEO: Many editing tools for SEO are available so that every published content has the best SEO results.
- Customizable: Users can create custom font ends based on the various original layouts.
- Not expensive: Businesses of any scale can afford it.
Cons
- Security issues: The system can be attacked by hackers unless it is patched properly and regularly.
- Latency issues: If the business does not update it regularly, it will be slow when the cache files grow large.
- High cost when implementing in large: large companies often have to pay more for training employees and maintaining the system.
Necessary features
Here are the key features of a WCMS:
- Organize websites to provide effective access to content.
- Control and prepare content for publication, including controlling content evaluation and approval before publication on the website.
- Automate some parts of the publishing process.
Some additional features of a WCMS are:
- Automated templates: There are many standard and preset templates that users can use to change all their content’s appearance.
- Controlling access right: It can restrict a webpage on the website to one or more users. Only authorized users can access the content.
- Editing tools: Even non-technical users can create and edit content.
- Workflow management: WCMS provides workflow management to make the publishing process easier for creators.
- Versioning: Users can check pages in and out. Editors are allowed to retrieve the previous versions of work and work at any selected point.
- Document management: It provides a means to manage a document from initial creation time, revision, publication to destruction.
- Scalable expansion: Users can expand a single implementation across several domains subject to the server settings.
Top web content management systems
There are many available WCMSs on the market today, but here’re the effective systems you shouldn’t miss.
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WordPress
WordPress is a web software platform to create and manage websites, blogs, and apps. The first thing to look at WordPress is that it has no limitation on the type of website you will build, whether an online store or a membership site. Secondly, there are many themes and plugins such as contact forms or photo galleries to customize your site. The platform also enables you to create categories and tags for posts. Finally, you can easily move to a new system when you want because it allows downloading content in XML format.
However, because it has too many options for users and a high level of flexibility, you will be confused at first. One more thing, you have to make sure you are holding your own site as WordPress only permits users to deal with security and backups on their own.
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Drupal
Drupal is a web content management software with standard features, such as easy content authoring, reliable performance, and excellent security. Compared to WordPress, it is more flexible and modular. Drupal provides users with many options to customize their content type, add modules and plugins to the site. Also, It offers a built-in management system so that you can approve new roles and control their rights. Drupal is a good choice for you when you expect more than content management since it integrates with marketing automation tools to send abandoned cart emails or group visitors.
Nevertheless, like WordPress, it’s difficult for beginners to use. Besides, some themes customized by developers take your cost higher.
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Atom8
Atom8 is an automation platform powering eCommerce businesses’ web content management. With Atom8, your content management process will be both effective and productive. Because it is more than a system for creating and maintaining content, it is also a solution for productivity with the powerful automation feature.
For example, you can schedule a time to publish or unpublish content, landing page, price list, and change themes, banners, etc.
Another point that makes Atom8 stand out among various web content management systems is its multifunction feature. You can manage order fulfillment, manage inventory, marketing, customer service, etc. Everything is in one place. Last but not least, Atom8’s interfaces and operations are simple, thus you will run it quickly and easily.
The disadvantage of Atom8 is that it is only available on BigCommerce, Shopify, and Magento (coming soon). Thus, not every business can apply it. You can register for a demo here:
Conclusion
Choosing the right web content management system for your online businesses requires a deep understanding of how well solutions can fulfill your demand. We hope the article has helped you make clear what is a web content management system and useful solutions for your content management success.
