Content Management Systems (CMS)

About Site Image Studios
Multiple Content Management System Logos

Content Management Systems (CMS)
for Fort Collins Business

Site Image Studios constantly stresses the importance of Open Source Content Management Systems wherever possible. Whereas custom, “proprietary” developed content management systems from custom web developers can leave you stifled both creatively and functionally, and often end up with a broken application nobody but the original developer will work on, the Open Source Content Management Systems of today allow you to control, update, upgrade, and utilize all of the features on your website for a better user experience. This translates directly into saved dollars…. lots of them… for a very long time to come.

The Many Flavors of Content Management Systems

WordPress & The Open Source Advantage

The advancement of Open Source Content Management Systems, WordPress in particular, has been exponential over the years. What was once thought of as merely a blogging system is now powering some of the most popular, not to mention largest and most aggressively promoted, sites on the web. In fact, many sites you and your clients probably frequent, including eBay, The New York Times, Best Buy, UPS, Sony PlayStation, Fisher Price, and thousands of other Fortune 500 companies.

⇓ Read About “The Proprietary Problem” Here

Site Image Studios has had many clients walk into our office, wallets lighter, heads throbbing, and hearts broken, due to a severely damaged or non-functional web application some long forgotten app developer built that no other developer wants to touch. This makes us very sad to see… and we see it happen all the time.

OK …bottom line this for me.

So, what can WordPress and Open Source Content Management Systems do for your business that a proprietary CMS can’t? Well… for starters, it is going to offer you higher quality, as it is constantly being improved upon for better usability and functionality by many thousands of developers the world over for free. This allows your site to be as flexible as your business and able to be updated and upgraded with a click to the latest and greatest thing… whatever that may be. WordPress is also a search engine’s best friend: WordPress-based web sites are indexed much more frequently and efficiently than proprietorially developed systems. Moreover, you will be sharing an open source platform that millions of websites globally are powered and tested on, as opposed to just a handful of clients.

What Are Content Management Systems?

From Wikipedia with a few minor redactions
A content management system (CMS) is a software system that provides website authoring, collaboration, and administration tools designed to allow users with little knowledge of web programming languages or markup languages to create and manage website content with relative ease. A robust CMS provides the foundation for collaboration, offering users the ability to manage documents and output for multiple author editing and participation.

Most systems use 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. Most systems use server side caching to improve performance. This works best when the CMS is not changed often but visits happen regularly. Administration is typically done through browser-based interfaces.

A CMS allows non-technical users to make changes to a website with little training. A CMS typically requires a systems administrator and/or a web developer to set up and add features, but it is primarily a website maintenance tool for non-technical staff.

What follows in the drop downs below is background and statistics on some of the most popular CMSs. While Site Image Studios usually leans towards these, we are not limited by them, and accommodate just about any content management system out there.

⇓ WordPress By The Numbers

⇓ Drupal By The Numbers

⇓ X-Cart e-Commerce By The Numbers

⇓ phpBB By The Numbers

⇓ MediaWiki By The Numbers

Still aren’t sure which content management system is the best one for your project? Call Site Image Studios today and we can hash out the details of what you want to achieve and together we will find the CMS solution that works the best specifically for you.

Call us today!        (970) 430-5155

 

Site Image Studios: Much More Than “Just” WordPress

Drupal

WordPress is by far the most popular and widely used CMS out there… but it is by no means the only one. Site Image Studios has a great deal of experience building websites based on other open source and off-the-shelf content management systems. As virtually all of our clients can attest, “anything is possible” is a phrase we use a lot; we believe that to be a profoundly true statement. Drupal has proven itself time and time again as another outstanding content management solution, which is why itʼs grown from a small open source community to a network of thousands of developers running hundreds of thousands of websites, with thousands of available modules from which to choose. Drupal is often the CMS of choice for medium-sized and enterprise-level websites.

X-Cart & The X-Payments Gateway

For clients looking for a payment system or shopping cart for their site with extended functionality Site Image Studios typically offers X-Cart with the X-Payments Gateway. X-Cart is 100% PCI-DSS compatible. This means you can accept credit cards right on your X-Cart powered web-site. It is already used by thousands of online stores, so you can be sure that it is much more thoroughly tested (similar to open source software) than a custom built system. AJAX-based components and WYSIWYG editors improve the user experience, and make adding products or services relatively painless.

For more about X-Cart and all it can provide, be sure to check out the Site Image Studios e-Commerce Page!

Bulletin Boards & Collaboration-Based Websites

Content Managements Systems are being used for a lot more than “just” running one’s business on the web. They can also make great collaboration tools on your office intranet for managing projects and internal communication. They can be used to manage the company customer support system, and provide an easy to reference history for quality assurance. You have probably used a wide variety of CMSs in your day-to-day already! Wikipedia, for example, runs on an open source CMS platform called “WikiMedia.” Many support forums for everything from car parts to psychotherapy to gardening are powered by some variant of phpBB (PHP bulletin boards), the vast majority of which are also open source. There are more open source content management systems out there than we could even reasonably list on this page! The best part about them is they are all developed by a community of passionate developers who genuinely care about the system… so much so that in many cases they do it without ever receiving monetary compensation.

At Site Image Studios, you never really have to make up your mind. In some instances it might make sense to run multiple content management systems.

We never charge for advice… if you have questions about what CMS would work best in your situation, give Site Image Studios a call!

Copyright © 2021: Site Image Studios and | Fort Collins, Colorado 80524 | (970) 420-7601
Site Image Studios Header
Web Sites That Grow
We build sites using W3C compliant CSS styles and templates that can be inserted into any web application. What that means for you is as your company and web content grow, the website we design for you will be able to easily grow with it. We save you money in the short term AND in the long run!
Web Sites Focus
In person, flexibility is a great selling point. On a computer screen, it looks like vagueness, uncertainty, or an unwillingness to commit, and leads your visitor to search in frustration for the answer to the question: "Can these guys help me or not?" Let us help you create a site that leaves no doubt.
Web Sites Target
Creating a website is only the first part of the process. For the majority of websites, it's important to continue to promote the website to your company's specific audience. Site Image Studios offers a wide range of online marketing services, including AdWords, Link Building, PayPerClick, and Search Engine Optimization.

Site Image Studios: We Know Social

Site Image Studios RSS Feed Site Image Studios: On Facebook Site Image Studios: On LinkedIn Site Image Studios: On Twitter Site Image Studios: On YouTube

Follow us and keep up with the latest web design and SEO news!

 

Call us for your FREE no-obligation web site evaluation!

 

(970) 420-7601

 

Jason@Gogela.com

Footer Image
Get Started Now!

Fort Collins Web Design Assessment