What makes a great CMS for a small business?

A CMS (content management system) is a tool to help you create your website, manage its structure and data, and, of course, manage its content. I know, I know – everybody knows what a CMS is. But, just in case you don’t, you do now.

In our line of work, we've come across many CMS (and hand-built them too).

Some CMS are easy to use but don’t give enough control over your site. Other CMS can seem very complicated and time-consuming to use, and yet still don’t give enough control over your site.

Simple tasks like updating text, creating a new page or adding an image, can often turn into a painful episode involving your head and a brick wall, wasting your time and draining your enthusiasm.

So, you give up updating your website.

Then, before you know it, your site looks tired and your most recent news or blog article is 2 years old. Your competitors start to look more enticing and you slip down the SERPs (search engine results pages).

You already know an up-to-date web presence for a business is important, right? Well, for a small business or start-up, it’s vital.

But there’s the problem. It’s a catch-22. Your website is vital, but, as a small business, you're less likely to have the time, experience and willingness to grapple with an unwieldy or unreliable CMS. And you almost certainly don’t have the budget to keep paying a web developer to update your site either. Catch-22.

We’ve seen, first-hand, how small businesses in Oxford and Oxfordshire struggle to solve this problem.

But, there is a solution.

Why does an Umbraco CMS, in particular, fit the bill for a small business?

There are loads of good reasons why an Umbraco website is perfect for a small business. Here’s just a few of them…

It’s free! Umbraco CMS is open source. That means there are no licences or business packages to pay for. You don’t pay anything to use Umbraco, you just pay for any website design, development and integration required.

It’s flexible and customisable. From brochure sites and small campaigns, up to complex applications for large corporate and media sites – an Umbraco website fits the bill, hits the target, ticks the boxes… you get the idea.

It’s extendable. We’re able to add new functionality to your website and CMS as required.

We’re not restricted by existing templates. As an Umbraco web design agency, we’re not restricted by set templates - we can implement any designs and user journeys you fancy.

It’s so easy to create content with Umbraco’s clean and intuitive UI (user interface). Relevant, engaging and up-to-date content is vital for your website. So, doesn’t it make sense to use a platform that makes creating, publishing and managing content as easy and quick as possible?

Easy SEO. Unlike other CMS, it’s easy to update those all-important URL slugs, meta titles and meta descriptions with Umbraco.

Reliability. Based on Microsoft .NET technology. Say no more.

Media library. Organising your images and videos is easy and intuitive with Umbraco. And embedding them into your pages is a doddle.

Easy to schedule, unpublish and roll-back. Line-up pages and articles for release, roll-back if you make a pig’s ear of it!

Preview content on mobile and tablet. Preview your content updates across desktop, tablet and mobile before publishing, including portrait and landscape. Very handy.

Create forms easily yourself. No need to bother a developer. Umbraco’s easy, step-by-step process gives you total control.

Fast page load, so editing is faster. Saves time and less frustrating!

Integration with your existing systems. Developers, like ourselves, who specialise in Umbraco website development, can create APIs to integrate Umbraco with your in-house or third-party systems, e.g. CRM, stock control etc.

It’s easily scalable. Umbraco makes it dead easy to add more features to your CMS. This allows your website to grow with your business.

Simple controls. As a small business, you may be using freelancers and want to restrict their access in the CMS – easy with Umbraco. You also may need different types of website admin roles. For example, an editor who can only edit content, or an admin user with greater access e.g. editing and publishing content, managing users, viewing form submissions etc.

Tight security. Don’t risk it, use Umbraco. Because Umbraco is built on Microsoft .NET security, it contains a range of security features by default. This has meant only 8 security updates have been required to Umbraco CMS over the last 7 years!
(To compare, the WordPress core application usually requires updates every couple of months. Plus, you have to stay on top of regular updates to its essential third-party security plugins too!)

You could get all this professional, top-quality website design and development from just £2,500 + VAT.