Introduction to Content Management Systems(CMS)

A Content Management System is an excellent tool for a company to maintain a website without having to understand Markup Languages needed to create and manage a website. CMS systems allow companies to have less dependence on their developers for quick edits and daily changes. A developer can configure you website to run with a CMS and with minimal training, an employee of the company can add photographs, links, and other content as needed without having to pay the developer to make changes. This reduces the cost of the overall website and the frustrating waiting time it often takes the developer to make the changes.

Basics Feature of a CMS:

A CMS comes with all types of features, some features are necessary have just to operate and manage a website. The basics are a simple GUI that will allow you to create content and manage your site, the features are a text editor with simple formatting options that also allow you to upload images and other types of media, a user login to control administration and allow for updates. They will also offer basic templates to choose from but are very limited.
Advanced Features of a CMS:
More advanced CMS systems come with all types of bells and whistles and require much more knowledge to utilize, some features to look for are the ability to use CSS and create your own templates and styles necessary to control the presentation of your site. Most advanced systems offer many types of plugins in order to give the users more options, flexibility and control. Complex CMS systems offer a more dynamic range of options to allow for many different levels of users and security and even reporting options.

Designers and CMS:

In the modern world of business today, more and more companies want to update their own content on their site. A designer and web developer needs to be competent in the various CMS available today. The needs of the company will dictate which type of CMS it will need; some will only require a simple version to update the textual data and images while others will need a fully functioning database system for e-commerce. The developer will need to be aware of the many different types of CMS in order to maintain flexibility for his/her client base and provide a cost effective solution. The best way for a designer to learn a CMS is to jump in and start using it, create simple sites and practice, practice, practice.

CMS and SEO:

Search Engine Optimization is largely about using good semantic web standards and coding practices which would lead you to believe that using a CMS would be a big help, not necessarily so. Many CMS are not designed with SEO in mind and problems with spiders being able to read them can even reduce the sites SEO, for example, bad Meta tags where some CMS do not even use the title or description tags. Some content management systems even have a practically invisible structure of pages that spiders cannot see
To make the most of your content in reaching better search engine rankings, your CMS users must easily be able to optimize content as they create it. For this, you need a CMS that allows non-technical users to specify keyword rich URLs, title tags, descriptions and image alt text. The system should provide feedback on these elements in terms of how they will affect the page's performance for selected keywords. This kind of CMS allows users to create and optimize content in one tool rather than having to switch back and forth between a CMS and a set of SEO tools.

References:

http://www.idatatechnologies.com/en-US/SEO_and_CMS_how_do_they_Relate.aspx
http://www.websmx.com/dme/?Lectures:Web_Development:Content_Management_Systems
http://ithemes.com/5-reasons-to-use-a-content-management-system/
http://www.seowebsitecms.com/