In today's busy world one thing is important, being able to do something yourself. That way you're not waiting around for other people.
That's why it can be important to have a Content Management System (CMS) integrated with your website. This sounds as though it's complex and daunting, but all it means is that you can log onto your website and make any changes that you need to in the content.
Imagine if you noticed a misspelling on your website, if you didn't have a CMS in place, you would have to wait for your web developer to become free to change it, and they might even charge you for the privilege. But with a CMS, you can log on and correct it yourself.
There are many different CMSs out there - WordPress, Concrete5, Joomla, Umbraco - but here at Roseblade Media, we've chosen to use one called Silverstripe. Although it's mostly unheard of here in the UK, we think it's the best one out there. So let's take a look a why we use Silverstripe for your website.
1. Powerful and flexible framework
When you first install Silverstripe onto your website, it comes with a range of essential functions and features. These functions and features mean we can spend less time on boring things and more time on the features and functions that will make your website come to life.
It also means we can keep our costs low because we're not spending as long making all of the nitty-gritty details.
The flexibility also means that the basic framework can be built on to. So if you're looking for a feature that doesn't come as standard, we can build it.
While you might not need any additional features now, you never know what the future's going to hold. So it's always good to be prepared for when your business grows and you find yourself needing to sell your products online.
2. Easy to use
Unlike other CMSs, Silverstripe only shows you the features you need to use when you need them. There's no need to go scrolling through endless menus to find the option to change your text size.
But there's another bonus to this ease of use, if you're not looking through endless options, there's less likelihood of you choosing the wrong one and messing up the whole look of your site.
We know you're busy running your business, so we don't want you to be spending a lifetime trying to correct any mistakes accidentally made.
With Silverstripe's easy-to-use content blocks, you can change the look of any content on your website. Want to include an image? Add an image block. Think your text looks better in columns? Would you like three columns or four? It's really that easy.
3. Easily adapts to your needs
This was touched upon earlier when we said that the base framework can be built upon. Silverstripe can be customised to your business needs. Whether you need to have a contact form, a gallery or digital downloads, Silverstripe can handle it all.
All you need to do is decide the functionality you need from your website, and Silverstripe can handle the rest.
This is on top of the built-in permission manager, history and change tracking, file manager and simple interface.
It even comes with automatic image cropping and resizing, just to make life that little bit easier! Don't believe us? Look through our website, all the images in circles were automatically cropped by Silverstripe.
4. Built-in user and permission manager
You may need to grant access to multiple people within your business so that they can add content about their specific area of business. But what if you don't want them to be able to access everything?
For example, you want members of the marketing team to be able to update the content on your website, but you want members of your sales team to be able to access your bespoke booking system.
This is where user permissions come into play.
You can decide who can see and change what.
If the built-in permissions aren't quite right for you, you can even have custom ones built to suit your needs.
5. You can view and edit
When you're editing content, you don't want to be doing it blindly.
When you're using the content editor, you can split the view so that you can see the changes as you make them, even before you make the changes live, which makes it a piece of cake to manage.
6. Features that improve your Search Engine Optimisation
There's no point in having a website if no one can find when they're using a search engine. This is where Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) comes in.
Silverstripe can't do it all for you, but it does have some handy features which increase the chances of your website being found. While I won't bore you with all the details like included sitemaps and different levels of headings. It's just important to know that these features are there.
Is that all?
There are many more reasons why we love Silverstripe, but many of these are behind the scenes. So, in line with our jargon-free promise, we certainly won't bore you with these details (although you're welcome to ask!)
If you like the sound of Silverstripe, let us know, and we can have a chat about your website today.
