Content Management Systems (CMS) can make life easier for businesses that have no webmaster, or have thousands of pages that they need to organize. However, a CMS comes at a steep price, both monetarily, and in restrictions. There are so many inherent problems that choosing the right one is critical for the success of your website. I could go on and on and on about the problems I’ve had with CMSs over the years, but suffice it to say they are a total pain in the neck.
In the interest of keeping this somewhat short and not a soapbox rant, I will stick to a bullet-pointed list of things to think about when selecting a CMS.
- Look for hidden fees for:
- Page Editing
- New Page Creation
- File Uploads
- Image Creation
- Phone Tech Support
- Email Tech Support
- Yearly Licensing Fees
- Software Update Fees
- Bandwidth Overages
- Do not work with a company that refuses to give you full admin rights.
- Demand FTP access.
- You must be able to edit the HTML of the pages and the page components. Period. The only reason they wouldn’t want you to is so they can charge you to do it for you.
- Do they own the artwork they create?
- Ask for examples of current clients and have an SEO inspect their HTML.
- Test the page-load times of the example websites. If you don’t know how, your SEO will.
- Don’t sign anything unless you get everything you want in writing.
- Remember, if you design a site in a CMS, they’ve got you. There’s no leaving without a complete recoding of the site and potential loss of database info.
- Will the CMS cost more than a good webmaster?
- If your CMS is a hosted solution, make them give you a Service Level Agreement (SLA) in writing to guarentee uptime.
- Beware of built-in SEO packages. They are usually designed by a programmer that has “some” SEO knowledge and not a true expert. Bolt-on SEO packages never, ever, work well.
- Ask for a demo of their product as you would see it and in a working environment. A CMS company will often let you test a feature-rich version of the software on their fastest server. The version and server you get may be significantly different.
- Do you really need a CMS or are you being sold a CMS? Ask a professional SEO.
- Have an IT guy check out their system. If you don’t have an IT guy, get one. A real one.
- You should have contracted a professional SEO by now, get them involved before you buy.
- Ask about guarenteed response times to support issues. If they don’t guarentee a resolution time, your issue may languish in tech support for months.
- Ask who your main point of contact will be. It sure won’t be the salesman you’re talking to. Ask to speak with that rep and see if you can understand them. You know what I mean.
- Ask about system backups.
- Ask about system redundancy.
- Ask about connection redundancy.
- Ask about the project workflow for the site design.
- Get a guaranteed completion date.
- Ask to see their designer’s other work.
- Make sure you aren’t limited to the number of design concepts you can go through. You may only get two, and if two isn’t enough, you will have to pay more.
- Ask how their testing environment works. You need a production area to test pages before pushing them live.
There are good CMSs out there, but as a layperson they are hard to identify. A CMS may be a very good fit for your company, but too often the decision to buy a CMS is made without consulting anyone “technical.” If you are relying on the CMS company to be your technical person, remember, they are selling you a product. You need an independent opinion. When you’re talking to the CMS company you’re not talking to a technical person looking out for your company’s best interests, you’re talking to a salesman working for a commission.
