Social Websites / CMS (Content Management Systems)

Lately everyone seems to want a Social Networking Site like “Facebook” or some dating site… How we all have visions of grandeur. Unfortunately those that desire to have these types of sites only look at the front end and potential benefits. And those on a budget need to really understand not only the benefits but also the disadvantages so here is the “Down Side” to having these kinds of websites… If you are really serious and are prepared to “Do-It-Right” the first time around and can afford the initial expense of a proper CMS website, then read on and understand some of the secrets most people are not aware of about these types of sites.
1. More files than you expectA site that contains a lot of files leaves itself open to many types of errors. Clients updating their own sites may create errors like inserting images that are too large, inserting flash, javascript and video files that can result in seriously altering the design of the cms template.

It may take the designer many hours to find the cause of the error. He may have to go back to redesigning the original site especially if the files were not backed up. This can cause a lot of frustration for the site owner because his site will be offline. He may lose all the files he has created thus losing his customers and having to spend money again to fix the errors.

Static sites are easier to correct errors.

2. Template based and limited design options

CMS sites primarily use templates for design. This simply means you are very limited to customization options. The more customization, the more costly it becomes.

This truly limits the owners ability to truly reflect his business concepts

3. Search Enging Optimization Limitations

The web pages of a CMS site are generated dynamically. This often means the URLS of the web pages contain long pathways that are a combination of words, numbers and/or symbols. Search engines have a difficult time indexing these types of pages. Not all web designers will care to edit the code to make the CMS site search engine compatible.

Meta tags and descriptions (a necessity for obtaining good rankings) are also often left out of dynamically produced pages.

Duplicate content can easily occur in CMS sites because it may use several style sheets to produce the same content i.e.
print style sheet plus the standard design style sheet.

If the CMS site contains a blog the content may be duplicated by appearing on the front age, in the archives, in the printed version and in the syndicated content. This is not good

4. Search Engine Maintenance

Since CMS sites often contain hundreds of pages it may be difficult to optimize them. It can take a long time to change the keywords in the copy and meta tags for a lot of pages. Keywords for web pages need to be refined and altered on a regular basis to keep pace with the changing demographics of peoples’ searches.

5. Very Slow Access and Loading

CMS sites are database driven so you need to wait for the pages to be processed by the server. Since there are hundreds of pages they may be slow to load. This will cause you to lose visitors as most internet users have a short attention span. A site should only take a few seconds to load.

A slow server or using a hosting company that places your CMS site on a server that includes many other sites (Shared Hosting) will make also take a long time to load. Having a dedicated server is the best but also the most expensive form of hosting.

A static site that is built using CSS (cascading style sheets) and doesn’t use lots of tables in its design will load much faster than a CMS site.

6. Higher Design Costs

CMS sites cost a lot more to design than static sites because a designer has to install and configure the database, design the
template, then customize it to include all the extensions i.e. menus, polls, banners, forms etc.

It will also require extensive testing to check for errors, browser compatibility and screen resolution.

Finally the designer needs to explain to the client how to manage the web site from the control panel i.e. add content, grant permissions to different authors etc. The web designer must include charges for time spent with the client on how to
administer the CMS site.

7. Higher Maintenance Costs

  • What if your CMS site suddenly produces errors?
  • As the owner of the site are you making constant backups in case the site goes down?
  • What will you do if your database server fails?
  • If not, is your designer doing the backups for you?
  • How will you know if your designer is still around should your site go offline?

These are just some of the questions you should ask yourself when considering a CMS site for your business.

Conclusion

Before considering a CMS site for your business, determine what your needs are. If you are a small organization or business that needs less than a hundred pages consider building a static site instead.

If you are a large organization or business that will have hundreds or thousands of pages that need to be added or updated frequently with multiple authors, consider creating a CMS site.