Using a Content Management System (CMS) for your website makes it easier for your website to be truly great - it lowers the barriers to entry and makes it much easier to launch your new website, to keep it updated and get more out of it.

Here are the top 5 reasons your business should be using a CMS to manage your website:

1. Low-cost

As noted in a previous post, there are so many Open Source CMSes available today. When software is Open Source, it essentially means that it is free for you to download and use. Okay, so there's more to it than that, but for the purposes of this Tip, the essential point is that, in these Open Source CMSes you have available some of the most powerful platforms on which to build a website. And it won't cost you a penny. Contrast that for a moment with having a website hand-coded for you. As with any other industry, when you pay for someone's time to make something individually, it usually costs a lot more.

There are also, plenty of proprietary CMSes available too but, in a similar way, you'll pay for licences - usually for as long as you use the software and you're tied to the vendor of that CMS for as long as you use it too. With Open Source, you pay for nothing other than the support and the skills of whichever developer or agency you ask to customise and fine-tune the system for you. And you're also free to have the code developed for you, in whatever unique way your organisation requires.

2. Ease of use

Most CMS software is easy to use - it's kind of the whole point. Admittedly, some can be a little tricky to set-up and configure in the first place, but you can get help with that for a whole lot less than you might pay for a hand-coded website (see above). And, once it's set-up, using it, adding new content is usually as easy as sending an email or clicking and dragging to rearrange and reorder menus, posts and items.

3. Accessible anywhere

Most CMS software can be managed online by logging into your own website. And most of the platforms available today allow you to add additional users to whom you can delegate the administrative tasks (and only the tasks) that you want them to handle. If you get into a jam, you can allow a professional developer to access your site so that they can fix problems or help to add new functionality. (But please, do make sure you back everything up first - it's your website, so take the responsibility yourself and ensure that your website is as safe as it can be). 

4. Search engine friendly

Most CMSes make it incredibly easier to optimise your website for search engines: they're 'search engine friendly'. Better search engine visibility usually means more visitors which can result in more enquiries, sales and, ultimately, clients. Of course, you have to do a whole host of other things right too - but that's all detailed for you in our other Tips. 

5. A complete solution

Using a CMS is a solution that can streamline everything from the layout and design of your site and site pages all the way through to acquiring new visitors, converting visitors to customers and even ensuring new customers are invited back to strengthen their relationship with you.