Running a business in today’s digital age is not an easy task. You need to align your goals with changing consumer preferences and market trends. Besides, a strong online brand identity should be established to stay ahead of competitors.
The best way to strengthen your digital branding is to use engaging content. How to create, manage, and update digital content with little effort? The answer is the content management system (CMS).
A content management system (CMS) is a centralized platform to manage digital content like websites, blogs, and articles. The user-friendly interface of a CMS enables users to seamlessly add, edit, and publish content. No technical skills are required to handle content via CMS. However, finding the right CMS is crucial for the success of your business.
We have shortlisted the top five content management systems (CMS) that are easy to use, have an interactive interface, and don’t require coding or programming skills.
Let’s explore!
What is Content Management Systems (CMS)?
Content management systems (CMS) are online platforms to create, edit, and publish digital content across various channels. They have user-friendly interfaces where non-technical users can easily manage content. Besides, content from different sources can be populated on websites using a CMS.
Popular examples of content management systems include WordPress, Shopify, Joomla, Wix, etc.
Why Small Businesses Need a Content Management System?
Many users ask what is the need for a content management system. Here’s the answer.
If you are the owner of a small business, you must have a website. A full-time resource is required to publish and update new content on your website. Particularly, if your website is custom-built with a programming language, content management would involve writing a lot of code. Only a qualified web developer or IT professional can do it.
On the other hand, if your website is built using a CMS platform, you don’t need any programming skills to update content. Even a non-technical user can manage your website and make changes without coding.
Hence, you don’t need to bear the expenses of hiring a programmer. Instead, a graduate with hands-on experience on any CMS platform can do the job. As a result, you can save money and look for more opportunities to grow your business.
Choosing the Right CMS: What to Look For?
Below are five qualities you must consider to choose the right CMS for your small business:
Speed and Accessibility
Web-based content management systems are fast, reliable, and accessible anytime, anywhere. You can log in to your web browser and make changes to the website on the go with ease. These platforms don’t need complex code deployments or FTP servers.
Ease of Use
A CMS is to replace tools that require programming skills. Hence, choose a CMS that is simple, easy to use, and intuitive. Make sure the interface is user-friendly so that you can build immersive landing pages seamlessly.
Customization
No-code content management doesn’t mean no control over the design, structure, and content of landing pages. An ideal CMS offers extensive customization options along with ease of use and flexibility. Hence, always check available extensions, built-in features, and themes to select the perfect CMS.
Cost-effectiveness
Small businesses have limited budgets. They should prefer content management systems (CMS) with flexible pricing options. An ideal choice is to select platforms that offer different tiers of subscription plans. You can choose a plan per your business needs and scale up once you grow.
Security and Performance
A user-friendly and easy-to-use platform to manage digital content is helpful. Nevertheless, security cannot be compromised at any cost. Therefore, when evaluating different CMS options, choose the one that keeps your data, client information, and front-end visitors safe. Check firewall and backup features. Make sure it supports SSL certification and allows you to install security add-ons.
5 Best Content Management Systems (CMS)
Recommended below are the five best content management systems for small businesses in terms of performance, scalability, and user-friendliness:
1. WordPress
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You must be familiar with WordPress. It is the world’s most popular CMS platform. More than 43% of websites are built with WordPress.
So, what makes WordPress the number one choice for content management? First, it is a multi-purpose platform that can build websites with various designs, structures, and features. You can develop an e-commerce store, personal website, blog, registration portal, or anything you like.
Secondly, WordPress has a user-friendly interface. You can create stunning landing pages without coding knowledge. Likewise, it also offers paid and free plugins and themes.
Most importantly, WordPress meets search engine optimization (SEO) requirements. Hence, you can build engaging sites and rank them in higher positions.
2. Shopify
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Shopify is the world’s most popular CMS platform powering 25% of all e-commerce websites globally. It enables retailers and online sellers to set up, update, and manage their ecommerce stores from a single dashboard.
Like WordPress, Shopify also has a very interactive drag-and-drop interface. It offers automatic updates, backups, and third-party integrations. Additionally, Shopify also supports in-store sales.
Additionally, Shopify has Shopify Payments, an integrated payment solution for seamless payment processing. You can also purchase third-party Shopify apps for more customization options.
3. PrestaShop
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PrestaShop is an open-source CMS platform famous in the ecommerce marketplace. It combines the simplicity of Shopify with the advanced functionality of Magento.
PrestaShop offers several modules that allow retailers to add new features per their ecommerce needs. Besides, they don’t need to pay extra charges even if their business grows.
Similarly, small businesses can start with a shared hosting plan with PrestaShop. This plan is relatively less expensive and meets the basic needs of ecommerce startups.
Nevertheless, some features of PrestaShop demand basic coding skills. Moreover, SSL certification and backup are manual with this CMS platform.
4. Joomla
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Joomla is also an open-source content management system (CMS) powering 1.72% of websites. It has a user-friendly dashboard like WordPress and offers different templates and extensions.
Although Joomla is free, buyers have to purchase hosting and domain names. Experienced web developers usually prefer this CMS platform due to out-of-the-box features that no other open-source platform offers. Similarly, users cannot schedule automatic updates with Joomla.
Hence, it is safe to say Joomla is not for beginners. Only professionals with technical knowledge and coding skills can handle this platform.
5. Magento
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Magento by Adobe is a powerful open-source CMS platform. It is the top choice of tech-savvy store owners and ecommerce stores.
With Magento, you can expand your business, add new products, and handle lots of customers without declining the site’s performance. Besides, you can add new features to your site by installing third-party extensions.
Additionally, Magento can also be connected to different payment gateways.
Final Words
A content management system (CMS) is a necessity for every small business today. CMS platforms are used to manage digital content and websites to establish a strong brand identity.
Consider five qualities to select the right CMS platform for your business. These qualities are user-friendliness, speed and accessibility, customization, cost-efficiency, and security. Carefully evaluate each platform and look into both pros and cons to make the right decision.
Our analysis shows WordPress, Shopify, Magento, Joomla, and PrestaShop are currently the best content management systems (CMS). However, analyze your business needs to select a platform that gives you the best results.