Although nearly every business now has a website, many of them still do not perform properly. Reasons for this may be numerous and can range from poor or non-existent website promotion, to simply having out-of-date content. Website marketing is a complicated area and best handled by experts, however website management is now very simple, if you use the correct tools.

Content management systems (CMS) can allow website content to be managed and edited anywhere in the world using a web browser. For our clients the choice between a static website or a dynamic website which they have complete editorial access to is often easy and logical.

Without a CMS, a site is built, then often the content becomes out-of-date and stale, contact numbers change, and the only option is to contact (and probably pay) someone to update, or rebuild the site.

A CMS allows content to stay up-to-date and relevant to customers. This also helps with search engine optimisation (SEO) as better use of keywords can be made throughout the website. In addition, by using a combination of analytics tools and content management systems, subtle changes can be made to the website and their impact on the business can be monitored.

The trick is often finding the right CMS tools. The trade-off between simplicity and advanced features can be a tricky one, and many businesses that make a bad choice are left with the wrong tool for the job for the life-time of their site.

I have recently returned from successfully completing a Level 1 examination on Umbraco – an open source CMS product built on Microsoft .NET framework.

Umbraco ‘the friendly CMS’ minimises this trade-off; its advanced features are cleverly hidden behind a straightforward user interface. Most of the features from more complex solutions already exist out-of-the box, but as Umbraco is built right upon Microsoft .NET framework, these features that do not exist, can be built as custom packages completely bespoke to your project and your needs.

As Umbraco is open source, it makes it a very cost effective solution for your next project – your budget will be spent on implementation, rather than the framework surrounding it.

Mark