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A content management system is a piece of software that manages the content of a website. It allows the user to input new content, edit existing content and delete old content through a user interface without having to edit any code. The are several different content management systems available, ranging from simplistic to extremely complex, free to excessively expensive. There are some for specific jobs like forums or blogs, some for basic static pages, and others for much more complex sites.

The benefits of having a content management system vary depending on the type of system you choose and the type of website you are managing. There are some benefits that apply to most content management systems though, so lets deal with these first.

A CMS will allow you to build your site without the need to edit any code. That means that people who don't know how to write raw code can still build and maintain a website. It usually also means that the processes involved in building and maintaining the site will be much less time consuming. Creating your site becomes quicker and easier. They are usually easy to learn to use, and don't require more than basic computer skills.

A lot of CMS software includes advanced features that make it easy to customise your site and add extra functions for your visitors. Depending on the type of CMS you are using, there might be options to undo changes, allow more than one person to log in and edit the site, track who has changed what, alert you to problems, check that your links work and so on.

CMS solutions designed for blogs can alert other web services when your blog has been updated, schedule posts to be added in the future and so on, as well as basic features such as automatically creating a page and adding links when you post something new. Forum CMS software allows you to set up a forum in minutes with everything you need for your visitors to sign up and start discussing. There plenty of choices to fit your exact needs.

There are CMS options that let you build a site with static pages, forms, blogs, forums and anything else you can imagine, all from one interface. To build a site like this from scratch could take months of coding, testing and debugging.

There are enterprise level CMS programs that can get extremely complex. They can allow multiple people to edit different parts of the site, and allow a complicated workflow involving several stages where different people are required to create, edit and approve the content before it can be published to the site.

The main advantages then of using a CMS is that you can add, edit and remove content from your site without the need to write any code, which saves a lot of time. There are also disadvantages however, which also vary depending on the CMS you're using. The main disadvantage is that you are not in control of the code that is created by the system. You may be constrained to a particular structure for the site or for the individual pages, which could conflict with your creativity.

Overall though, if you pick the right system for your particular site, a CMS will make life a lot easier for you.

Learn more about this author, Kate Hudson.
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