Content managed website – choosing the right website type
Before you think about how to choose the right website type you may be wondering “what are content management systems?”
The simplest way to describe a CMS website is a website that you can update and edit yourself as easily as you would send an email or edit a Word document.
We often have clients coming to us who are unsure of whether they need just a brochure website, a CMS website or an all-singing, all-dancing e-commerce site and usually this comes from then having been told conflicting information from serveral different sources.
At PoLR we don’t try to sell you the biggest package we can, we provide you with the most appropriate website for your business and your needs.
To help you make your decision, you should ask yourself these following 2 questions:
1) How often do you plan on updating the content managed website?
With a CMS (content managed website) you have the ability to update your website as and when you want to without having to wait (or pay) for your web designer to do it for you. This is ideal for companies who may update on a regular basis but it may not be suitable for you. A content managed website will generally cost you more initially and while this is worth it if it will save you money in the long run, it may work out as the best option for you if you only need to update the website once a year or so.
If you go for a ‘brochure website’ then you may find that you want to update some information some months after it goes live. Now, because you can’t update a brochure website yourself, you would generally pay your web design company an hourly rate to come back in and make the changes. If you end up making a lot of changes throughout the year and paying the web design company an hourly rate, it may have been more cost effective to buy the CMS website from the start.
2) What do you want your content managed website to do for you?
Do you want just a few pages to sell your company and what you do, or do you want to sell a product? If you do want to sell a product, is it just one or an entire catalogue of products?
If you’re selling online then of course you want e-commerce but what variation would be the most suitable? If you are only selling one or two products it may be better to add a buying funciton to your website (such as on this website) rather than going for a complete e-commerce shopping cart such as with haircareshop.