Tips For Choosing the Right CMS For Startup

Every single business strategy – right from manufacturing to marketing – is designed with a single objective and that is to improve the customer satisfaction. One of the integral parts of this entire agenda is the business website and its content. Wondering why? Well, you would definitely like to convey the message that you wish to build a customer-oriented company and the most effective platform to do that’s your business website.

Since it reflects your brand, it should definitely establish the message. And when it comes to creating a robust website, you need a strong content management system (CMS). This is important because a website that has been crafted on a CMS can easily adapt to and evolve with the constantly changing demands and preferences of your target customers. Especially when you are venturing with a start-up, you should ensure that you have picked up the right CMS as for most companies it is their website that helps convert a lead to a customer.

While you know that you almost can’t proceed without a CMS for designing a website, you should also remember that choosing the right CMS for your startup is probably the hardest challenge you have to face. Make sure you pay your time, do the essential research and consider all the probable options. Without knowing your preferences and requirements properly, you might end up choosing a Startup CMS that doesn’t really work for your website. To avoid such kind of mishaps, be sure to follow these tips –

Check if you can edit the content with ease

Before you choose a particular CMS, be sure to check if you can handle the platform easily, especially if you can do the editing without any hassle. Check if you can update texts, insert images and upload documents without any worries. Also check if you can add new web pages because you might need to change the content and layout, based on the changing demands, trends, and requirements. Hence, you should opt for a CMS that lets you do all these easily. Don’t forget to ask for a demo from the service provider as this will help you get a first-hand experience of the different features of a Startup CMS.

Check the compatibility between server and host

The entire plan of designing your website might go wrong if the CMS is at odds with your server or host. Hence, make it a point to crosscheck if the CMS you select is in sync with the server and host of your website. This includes checking the requirements of your website and verifying those with the web hosting provider. Remember that it’s the responsibility of the web hosting providers to ensure that your selected CMS would run on the infrastructure that they provide. So, all you need to do is to give them a call and rest they will take care of.

Consider the functionality of e-commerce

In case you are planning to develop an e-commerce website, be sure to opt for a CMS that is simply known for its strong e-commerce features. Since e-commerce is complex at the blink of an eye, you need to ensure the CMS encompasses all the e-commerce requirements. Don’t forget to think about factors like availability of payment options like PayPal and credit card, ease of managing prices, inventory and stock, overall user experience and shopping cart designs, payment gateway integration, and delivery and postage options. Apart from these, you should also think about other functionalities like one-page checkout, gift registry, and guest checkout.

Check how the backups work

Data safety and redundancy is probably one of those factors that one should focus on the most right from the beginning. Overlooking this aspect is the most common mistake that many start-ups commit and consequently, they have to lose their mission-critical data at some point of time. There are several methods to back-up the business data that are crucial for your website, but even then you should choose a CMS that has a user-friendly method for ensuring the same. Select a CMS that provides you with user-friendly and easy backups. For instance, WordPress can offer you database backups through emails, regularly.

Check if the CMS is SEO-friendly

Search optimizing your content is extremely important for your website. Hence, be sure to choose a CMS that helps in SEO activities. Make sure the CMS allows you to add unique labels and titles for your post. These must be customizable so that they match the content of the page and can be good for SEO. The platform should be integrated with other SEO optimization tools. Make sure the URLs that CMS generates for your web pages are simple and neat so that those easy to follow.

Check the requirement of licensing fees

There are many CMSs that require you to pay a licensing fee or a one-time fee so that you can use the product unconditionally. However, there are some other platforms for which you might have to pay additional charges whenever you need to upgrade or update. In some instances, there are additional charges for adding extensions and plugins. Hence, before selecting a platform, you must consider such kind of costs thoroughly.

Check if the CMS can accommodate web analytics

It’s pretty obvious that while running a business, you would need a metrics to evaluate the progress. Hence, this is extremely important to ensure that the CMS allows you to measure and track the performance of your website. You must check whether or not it can be integrated with analytical tools like Google Analytics and Google Webmaster.

Selecting the right CMS is crucial for your business since this is what determines the success of your business website to a great extent. In order to execute the same, you need to list all your needs, business goals and requirements. Do a thorough study of the CMS feature by feature and review each of the features individually to figure out which of those fit with your list of requirements. Moreover, make sure to do a comparative study of all the options before you invest into any one.