Customize Your CMS to Bring Features to Your Website
A CMS (content management system) that is customized for your website is very helpful in keeping your site running smoothly.
The more directly related to your needs the CMS is, the easier updating content becomes.
Quick and easy content updates can be what separates your site from your competitors.
The amount of customization your content management system might have will depend on the capabilities your site requires.
For instance, if your website revolves heavily around pictures and videos, you'll want a simple method for uploading and editing them from within your CMS.
This might be as simple as finding and installing a free plug-in or widget.
Or it may require you to outsource the task to a software developer.
Of course, if you're capable of customizing the system yourself, then you'll save yourself some money and hassle in the process.
For many content management systems a great number of custom features are already available and new ones are developed all the time.
Your CMS provider will usually have a page on their site where the plug-ins are located.
If there's a certain task you'd like your system to be able to perform you can search for it on those pages.
Or, if you're not quite sure what you're looking for, or just want some ideas, browsing these pages will often give you ideas and inspiration for improving your site's functionality.
The most important thing to remember when using a content management system is that your only limitations on customization are your imagination.
If there's a feature you want to add to your site and your CMS doesn't come with it, there is most likely an add-on or plug-in available.
If one doesn't exist yet, it can be created.
That's the beauty of content management.
It's highly customizable and it makes web development and maintenance easy for anyone.
There is a downside to such flexibility.
With so many features and options it can be easy for someone to get overly excited and install too many add-ons.
This will make the site look a clustered and disorganized.
The best advice when customizing a CMS is to carefully choose only the most necessary functions and resist adding anything that sounds cool but doesn't bring much to your site.
The more directly related to your needs the CMS is, the easier updating content becomes.
Quick and easy content updates can be what separates your site from your competitors.
The amount of customization your content management system might have will depend on the capabilities your site requires.
For instance, if your website revolves heavily around pictures and videos, you'll want a simple method for uploading and editing them from within your CMS.
This might be as simple as finding and installing a free plug-in or widget.
Or it may require you to outsource the task to a software developer.
Of course, if you're capable of customizing the system yourself, then you'll save yourself some money and hassle in the process.
For many content management systems a great number of custom features are already available and new ones are developed all the time.
Your CMS provider will usually have a page on their site where the plug-ins are located.
If there's a certain task you'd like your system to be able to perform you can search for it on those pages.
Or, if you're not quite sure what you're looking for, or just want some ideas, browsing these pages will often give you ideas and inspiration for improving your site's functionality.
The most important thing to remember when using a content management system is that your only limitations on customization are your imagination.
If there's a feature you want to add to your site and your CMS doesn't come with it, there is most likely an add-on or plug-in available.
If one doesn't exist yet, it can be created.
That's the beauty of content management.
It's highly customizable and it makes web development and maintenance easy for anyone.
There is a downside to such flexibility.
With so many features and options it can be easy for someone to get overly excited and install too many add-ons.
This will make the site look a clustered and disorganized.
The best advice when customizing a CMS is to carefully choose only the most necessary functions and resist adding anything that sounds cool but doesn't bring much to your site.
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