Long Term Benefits of Content Management

The obvious benefit of a content management system is that you can add, edit, and update your content as much as you want. However the long-term advantages of a database driven, content management approach can be even more valuable. There are at least three other long-term benefits associated with using a content management system that are commonly overlooked, but can radically reduce the long-term cost of ownership of a web site.


The typical shelf life of a website is somewhere between two to three years. Most sites get built, and remain pretty much the same over the few years of their use. At some point the site becomes embarrassingly old and desperately needs to be redone. At this point the old site is thrown away, and a new site is built. Such rebuilds are usually more expensive than the initial build since the new site will usually do more than the original. A database driven content management approach allows a site to be improved incrementally simply by making changes to site templates. Such sites can evolve over time, thereby extending their "shelf life" well beyond that of static sites.


At some point even a content management site will need to be upgraded with a new and fresh visual design. Whereas static sites require a complete rebuild in these cases, content-managed sites can have a new design applied to its templates. The entire site, including all archived content, will very quickly reflect the new look and feel. This means that future site redesign projects will usually be less expensive than previous development projects, not more expensive, which is the case with static web development.


Because content management based sites are easily adaptable, you can implement all the new ideas you get for your site even after it has been completed. Often companies get great ideas for their sites very shortly after going live. This is common because it's often not until you use a site that you begin to see additional possibilities. With static sites, site-wide changes can be extremely costly, so such ideas usually get tabled until the next redesign. This means that between rebuilds there are missed opportunities that could have maximized a site's effectiveness. With database driven content managed sites, site-wide changes such as adding new sections, implementing extranets, or a host of other possibilities, can be easy integrated into the site without having to rebuild it or wait for years until a redesign becomes necessary.   next >