Here are some questions to consider in the evaluation process:
What is your budget?
If you have infinite resources to spend, there are some very complex content management systems with features designed to make content creators’ and editors’ lives easier. With a limited budget, however, your choices will be more limited.
What business operations does the CMS need to support?
After price, the next major consideration is which business operations the CMS will need to support. Does your company need to publish hundreds of new videos a day? Change prices on thousands of SKUs per day? Host images for blog posts?
What technologies does the CMS need to support or integrate with?
If your company already uses a CRM, ERP or web analytics program, you’ll need to consider a CMS that integrates with existing online marketing software.
How easy is it to create and edit content?
The larger the company, the more removed the end user of the CMS will be from the person who implements it. Ideally, the system will be easy to use and intuitive, with features like a WYSIWYG editor.
How many different groups of users will there be?
One consideration will be the various different levels of administration privileges that are required. Consider the various user roles, including the role of managers in reviewing scheduled content.
Is the platform SEO-friendly?
If SEO is important to your company, you will want a CMS that automatically handles basic on-page optimization tasks such as title tags, urls, alt tags on images, and a sound internal linking structure.
How large is the developer community?
Some of the CMS platforms, particularly WordPress and Drupal, come with very large developer communities. The advantage to a sizable community is the amount of online help and documentation you will find on most aspects of customization.
Answering the above questions can help you select the right content management system for your business or organization.
