If you have a brilliant idea at hand and you are going to get into a business then you have lots of work at hand. The first essential thing to do to make the world know about what you are offering is to make a website. You can either outsource this task of website creation but since you are a startup with a brand new idea, chances are that you have limited resources, which means that you will have to create a website by yourself. This will require you to choose a content management system that will ease your job.
Since there are several content management systems available in the market, choosing the best one for your requirements will require some research work. This will require you to look for certain aspects in the available CMS so that you can choose the perfect one. Here are the tips that can help you choose the best CMS for your startup:
- Be actively involved in the selection
Whether you are assigning the task of website development to a designer or doing it by yourself, you need to choose the CMS. Your designer might have his preferences, but you must be involved as well and have your say. You must research a bit to know what type of CMS will be best for your business because in the long run you will have to update and maintain your wordpress website. This will also help you learn about the various platforms available, the features that they offer and which one will be ideal for you.
- Host and Server Compatibility
Even when the website is created, it needs a hosting and a server to launch it. Therefore, to progress in your digital journey, you must choose a CMS that is highly compatible with the chosen hosting and server. You must check the requirements of the CMS with regards to the hosting and vice-versa. Web hosting providers want to know whether the chosen CMS will run on their infrastructure or not and only cross checking both will help you in making the decision.
- Handling of Backup Data
What many startups and small business owners overlook is how their CMS handles the backup data. The data generated through your website needs to be securely backed up so that it can help you in serving your customers in a better way in the future. Choosing a CMS that does not backs up data or requires extensive work will eventually lead to losing everything. You can lose your customers’ credibility if you lose their data. Therefore, you must choose a CMS that offers user friendly means of backing up data.
- Check the Features
The features of a CMS, is what makes it useful for certain types of websites. If you have an e-commerce portal, you must check out the functionality of the CMS with regards to this. E-commerce websites are far more complex than the brochure sites and therefore, the choice of the CMS will depend upon the E-commerce features available. Some of the things you can consider in this respect include:
- Ease of managing the prices, stock and inventory
- Available payment options
- Integration of the payment gateway
- Shopping cart design
- Delivery and postage options
- User experience
- Other functions like one page checkout, gift registry etc
- Test the Editor
It is very essential to test the editor extensively so that you make the right choice. All content management platforms look good on the outside but what they offer on the inside is what really matters. You must check the editor really well so that there are no problems once you are on your way to create the website or launch it.
- Look for extensive SEO Functions
With the content reigning supreme on the internet, it is essential to optimize your website well so that it gets a good ranking on the search engines. The choice of the CMS should include the SEO functions and tools so that optimization is easy. The CMS you choose should let you edit the Meta tags, internal links and the title tags. In addition, it should let you edit the URLs; define the structure of the content that includes editing the image ALT text and HTML headings.
- Security is a Feature to check out
Security is an important aspect to check out when looking for the CMS for your startup. Your website might be generating user data that needs to be backed up. In addition any other data generated must be secure. You must check out for the basic as well as advanced security features offered by the platform. You must also ensure that updating the CMS for the latest security versions is not difficult and that you are able to do it without specialist help.
- Intuitive, Functional and Flexible
These are some of the features that you must check out for when selecting a CMS. The platform that you pick to create your startup website should allow you to create, edit and organize the web pages easily. You should be able to add and edit the posts, upload images and make other changes easily. The chosen CMS should be intuitive, functional and flexible so that any updates to it are easily adapted and usable. You should be able to customize the pages as per your liking and to your satisfaction with ease.
Conclusion
Now that you know about the essential features that you must look out when you are searching for the best CMS for your startup, finding the best one should be easy. There are three popular CMS platforms currently ruling the market and these include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. Each of these platforms has its features and benefits. You can check them out one by one, compare their features with respect to your requirement and then make a choice. It should be easy to do it when you consider the given tips here.
