Building a Content Management System (CMS)
‘Think about your online presence as a digital first impression’– this quote by Mari Smith, says a lot about how you showcase your business growth digitally. However, with so much information to manage, keeping everything in one space without relying on third-party tools can feel overwhelming. Well, you need not worry— content management, here, is the answer to all your queries.
Regardless of the organization’s structure or industry, every brand has unique creativity and voice. To keep that uniqueness intact, there’s nothing more valuable than building your own CMS, which assures you’re ready to tackle any challenges.
Still wondering how the Content Management System (CMS) can seamlessly scale your business operations, handle rising traffic and content needs, and all the while keep you in full control? Let’s dive in to figure out how a CMS gives you the power to make updates anytime, anywhere– even with little or no technical expertise!
What is a Custom Content Management System (CMS)?
Picture this- you've crafted a software system, where every feature is designed specifically to fit the workflow you have in mind and meet the company’s needs. While this might seem challenging, especially when you’ve limited technical expertise, the answer is yes— it’s possible– that's where a custom content management system (CMS) comes into play.
A custom Content Management System is a web application or software platform specifically designed for creating and deploying content in a way that perfectly aligns with your business operations. It enables end-users to create, manage, and modify digital content from a single dashboard in real-time, often with limited or no code required.
From development to storage, organization, editing, approving, and publishing, it ensures the work is done through a user-friendly interface with robust backend functionality. A custom CMS is explicitly designed to meet a business’s needs, thereby enhancing its efficiency and scalability.
Need to build a content management system
A content management system enables users to develop, manage, and publish content and ensure it stays organized and accessible for effective reuse and repurposing. A wide range of content management systems options from cloud-based to a headless CMS are accessible to address every audience’s specific need.
If not using a CMS, accessing and updating your website will be a tedious, time-consuming task, since it requires more technical knowledge. Not only does CMS manage the content processing seamlessly, but also eliminates the need for users to learn web designing or coding languages like JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.
It allows users to direct their concentration on producing content and visible elements (appearance and visitor experience) since all the backend foundational coding is taken care of by CMS.
Beyond simplifying the process of tracking analytics and evaluating content’s performance, CMS also offers features that prove the necessity of CMS-
- Supports collaboration within and across teams, thereby enhancing workflow and productivity.
- Offers a quick and accessible method for updating content.
- Boosts content visibility.
- Lowers expenses in content management.
- Scalability potential.
- Unlike other solutions, custom CMS offers a personalized functionality feature to address the unique needs of users.
- Friendly and intuitive UI/UX
How To Build Your Own CMS
Versatile content management systems options like Wix, Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress offer businesses efficient tools and functionality for seamlessly managing content. Despite that, you may realize that it somehow doesn’t satisfy varied business needs and industry standards. That is when custom CMS comes into light. A CMS can serve as a core platform to organize and manage all your digital content.
There are two major elements of a content management system, including, CMA and CDA. The content management application (CMA) is the part of the application that provides tools for users to add or modify content. Meanwhile, the content delivery application (CDA) at the backend, handles the processing and deployment of content and serves to those accessing the website.
Depending on the project scope and the solution specifics, the process of building your own CMS is multi-phased. Let’s dive deep into how to build a CMS from scratch-
1. Creating a concept
To design a concept, first assess your organization's architecture, its content management process, and the type of content being used. Once done, decide the industry and business it will serve, and establish project goals and content management needs that align with your desired outcomes. This provides you with a structured roadmap for your CMS development.
2. Setup development plan
A development plan usually includes identifying specific requirements and core features tailored to your content management requirements (workflow, data management, frequency for updating contents, roles and permissions, compliance, etc). Determine the KPIs( traffic volume, processing speed, user engagement) for measuring success, choose a technology stack, establish a project timeline and budget, and a business case, in case you need to gain approval from other leaders within a company.
3. Design prototypes and workflows
The goal here is to design an outline of the overall information architecture and categorize the content to ensure easy CMS workflows. Create prototypes, personas, and user journey maps accordingly Then, you can create prototypes and conduct usability tests to assess them.
4. Start CMS development
4. Start CMS development.
5. Perform Testing and Quality Assurance
Develop CMS test plans, scenarios, and cases. Multiple testing methods (functional, integration, performance, usability testing) are available for the same. Depending upon the requirement for the software setup, let the technical experts of your team decide on other testing methods too, if needed, to check the quality of the solution. Upon identifying the issues, fix the defects before rollout to enhance the performance and robustness of the system.
6. Perform data migration
Develop a comprehensive data migration strategy. Identify all the contents that need to be migrated to the new CMS, and examine legacy content for any defects, duplication, or inconsistent data. Rectify all the issues, conduct content migration, and test all the targeted content data for accuracy and completeness. Continue the migration until all the specified contents get relocated.
7. Conduct user training and launch CMS
Prepare documentation that guides CMS usage and deliver it to the users. Conduct training sessions for the users to brief them about workflows (formation, approval, release, and modification of the content). Alongside collecting user feedback will assist in defining areas that need upgradation and making relevant changes. Officially launch the new CMS.
8. Provide after-launch CMS support
Even after the launch of CMS, if you want to keep your CMS up and running, support it by fixing bugs and errors, if any. Receive user feedback and modify the solution to address varied business needs. Ensure systems are highly secured by regularly monitoring security checks, performance, and compliance.
Key Takeaways
So, with the intent to build a custom CMS, it is crucial to specify what exactly you want to build, who it is for, and how to build it. Thoroughly examine the target market, identify opportunities, elaborate designs, testify your ideas during the discovery phase, and build an industry-specified custom Content Management System.
