Web content management (WCM) is used to design and update websites in a dynamic manner regularly. In this post, we will find out more about it. Let’s get started.
WCM: All You Need To Know
What is a Content Manager?
A Content Manager makes it easy and quick to create dynamic and editorial content (text, images, videos, etc.) for a website. The content manager is present at all stages of web content creation, from validating a page or article to managing publication rules.
The main characteristic of a web content management (WCM) tool is to separate the content from the container. It is thus possible to update text or image content independently of the graphic structure of the website, and vice versa.
The articles and the content produced are most often stored in a database and the page models (templates) make it possible to define the presentation and layout of the content. The content manager organizes and classifies information, associating it with metadata (such as title or author).
Content management consists of quickly creating, managing and publishing pages and articles via a simplified administration interface (back-office) so that an editor without knowledge of HTML can be completely autonomous.
Where are the content managers?
There are many web content managers on the market (Drupal, WordPress, Prestashop, Magento etc.), both proprietary and Open Source solutions. Each WCM has been developed to create and animate a particular type of website.
There are WCMs developed and adapted in the following areas:
- E-commerce sites (management of orders, payments, delivery, product catalogs, etc.), dynamic websites, brochure site, institutional site, showcase site (instant updates, interactivity with Internet users, etc.),
- photo galleries or portfolio (adding photos, managing categories, etc.),
- collaborative work platforms (intranet site, project or team management, etc.),
- private or public forums (management of access, categories and subjects, etc.),
- blogs (easy publication, management of the publication chain, management of comments, etc.),
- community portals and social networks (downloading, group and rights management, etc.).
What are the benefits of a web content management (WCM) system?
The main benefits of content management are:
- Effective content management and organization,
- a graphic unit preserved for the entire website,
- automatic generation of navigation menus and links,
- administration of users and separation of roles for each,
- decentralization of content feeding,
- a publication chain with a validation circuit (workflow),
- the ability to organize and plan the production and publication of content.
- To conclude on content management
- The use of a CMS is the preferred solution for supplying a website with content, its only defect remains a certain slowness of access to the databases perceptible when displaying pages on sites not optimized for the time of loading.
