Should you consider developing a custom CMS for your website?
In addition to keeping the content and presentation of the website separate, a content management system (CMS) will further help you manage digital content and maintain the website efficiently. You have the option to choose from various open source content management systems (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and Magento) depending on the nature and requirements of your website. Also, you can consider using a custom CMS to create the website according to the precise requirements and workflow of your business.
Just like open source content management systems, custom CMS will provide you with a variety of themes, plugins, extensions, and tools. But you can include specific features and functionality in the custom CMS to simplify website maintenance and improve user experience. At the same time, the custom content management system will also make your website look and feel different from other websites and web applications. But you have to invest extra time, effort and money to create a custom CMS according to your business model and needs. That is why; it becomes essential that you weigh the pros and cons of developing a custom CMS for your website.
Evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of creating a custom CMS for your website
Exclusive for your website
Open source content management systems are maintained and updated by large online communities. Every developer or user can access the source code of an open source CMS and make changes to the code without any restrictions. But you will have exclusive rights to the custom CMS source code. Therefore, you can easily adapt the layout, workflow, and functionality of the CMS according to the precise needs of your websites. In addition, you will have complete and exclusive control over the interface, functionality and updates of the application.
Differentiate the look, feel and functionality of your website
Each open source CMS allows users to choose from a wide range of themes, plugins, and extensions. Some of these resources are free while others are paid for. Often thousands of websites use a single theme or plugin at a time. Therefore, most websites designed with the same open source CMS often look, feel, and function identically. But the custom CMS will allow you to decide the appearance and functionality of your website according to your precise business needs. Thus, you can make the website different from other websites and make it provide a richer user experience by using a custom CMS.
Boost your digital marketing efforts
Major search engines and social media platforms require owners to promote their websites organically by creating and distributing high-quality content. But the open source CMS may not provide the feature required to implement a strong content marketing, lead generation, or digital marketing strategy. But you can design the custom CMS with the necessary features to boost your digital marketing campaign. Additionally, you can use a dedicated interface in the CMS for digital marketers to seamlessly create and distribute a variety of content and monitor digital marketing results on an ongoing basis.
Collect actionable customer information
To drive online sales, you need to understand each customer’s preferences and choices. In addition, your website must personalize the shopping experience to entice customers to buy again and recommend products. You must combine descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics to effectively interpret customer data and identify the initiatives needed to drive the customer experience. In addition to boosting your digital marketing efforts, the custom CMS will also help you collect and interpret real-time customer data collected from various sources. You can embed business analytics tools into your custom CMS to measure and drive customer experience without using additional tools and services.
Monitor and optimize website performance
You need to focus on the user experience that the website provides to achieve a higher conversion rate and promote customer loyalty. The user experience provided by the website is directly affected by its accessibility, functionality, performance, ease of use and security. Therefore, you must identify and repair the problems that affect the user experience of the website without delay. The custom CMS will make it easy for you to track website traffic, customer engagement, and conversions. Also, it will help you measure the customer experience by collecting customer feedback on a regular basis. The valuable information collected through the CMS will help you improve the user experience by making changes to the look, feel and functionality of the website.
Enhanced Security
The high popularity of open source content management systems makes them vulnerable to new security threats and emerging malware attacks. The rise in online fraud and identity theft is deterring many people from sharing their personal and confidential information with websites. You can always make the customers feel secure and gain their trust by developing the eCommerce website with a custom CMS. The custom CMS will include robust security features and use the latest data encryption techniques to keep customer data and online financial transactions totally secure. You can even ask the developer to run extensive tests to ensure that the CMS is effective in combating a variety of security threats.
cons
Additional time, effort and money
You must remember that a CMS is more complex than other software applications. Developers will need time for custom CMS application development according to their specific business needs. Additionally, the CMS must be thoroughly tested against business requirements and quality specifications. Therefore, you need to invest extra time, effort, and money to implement a CMS that is built from scratch based on your business model and requirements.
Deploy manpower to run the CMS
The custom CMS will include specific features and functionality according to your precise business needs. Therefore, you need to properly train users and deploy qualified technicians to manage or run the CMS smoothly. Therefore, you have to incur recurring expenses to manage and maintain the software efficiently. But you will lack the option to amortize the cost of development since the CMS will be used exclusively by your business. You may find it difficult to maintain and manage the CMS if your core business is not IT and software development.
You need to update the CMS regularly
Industry and technology trends keep changing constantly. Therefore, you need to add new features and functionality to the CMS to meet emerging trends and complement your redesigned business model. You need to engage the services of the developers to update the CMS quickly and smoothly over a period of time. Also, you have to incur additional expenses to make the CMS compatible with emerging technologies and provide optimal user experience.
Additional cost of maintenance and compliance
You must resolve a variety of bugs and performance issues in the CMS immediately to keep your website functional and provide an improved user experience. Therefore, you must deploy qualified technicians to fix bugs/performance issues and integrate the CMS with third-party databases and services. Similarly, you must make changes to your custom CMS to meet the latest quality, security, accessibility, and performance standards set by government agencies and industry bodies. Therefore, you need to incur maintenance and compliance costs on a regular basis to use the custom CMS without any issues or restrictions.
In general, the custom CMS will precisely complement your business model and the needs of your website. But you have to spend time, effort and funds to create a custom CMS according to your specific requirements. At the same time, it is also important to implement the best content management development company to build, maintain and update the content management system efficiently and smoothly.