- Why you may need a custom CMS?
- Benefits of a custom CMS
- How to build your own CMS?
- Key points to remember
Thanks to CMS solutions, updating and expanding websites does not require knowledge of programming languages from users, and getting to know their functions is usually much easier than learning HTML or CSS. In principle, the use of CMS should be intuitive and relatively easy for each user who edits the website.
Custom Content Management System is a dedicated system that includes an individually created graphic design and dedicated functions selected in accordance with the needs of the customer. It is a system usually created with the idea of maximum ease of use and speed of the website.
Why you may need a custom CMS?
When it comes to deciding whether to choose one of the popular content management systems (Joomla, WordPress, etc.) or to invest in a custom CMS, one key question needs to be answered. Does the available ready-made CMS meet all my needs?
While for some companies well-known CMSs like Wordpress serve them just fine, for some companies they are just not enough. Let's take a closer look at what a custom CMS has to offer.
Benefits of a custom CMS
Security
Popular CMSs are an attractive target for hackers who know dozens of ways to steal user data or intercept other important information. All they need is a hole found in the plugin code, theme, or the CMS software itself.
As soon as information about the found error appears on the web, millions of websites around the world may already be infected with viruses. In the case of a custom CMS, the risk of a cyber attack is much lower.
Should you really be concerned about the security of your data?
Yes, and here is why! Take a look at some statistics provided by TechJury:
- Every day, 30,000 websites are being hacked.
- 64% of companies worldwide have experienced at least one form of a cyber attack.
- There were 20M breached records just in March 2021.
Endless possibilities
The development team can implement any features you want, as long as they are feasible. The solutions used on your website will adapt to all your requirements. A custom CMS can be developed based on the latest technologies that will best serve your platform. Unlike off-the-shelf CMS, a custom content management system can be fully personalized.
Take a look at one of our projects for Contour company. We have designed a platform for diabetics. The goal was to help, educate and guide diabetic patients through the treatment process.
One of the unique features that can be found on the website is redirecting from one of the landing pages to a mobile application that is compatible with a glucometer.
Unique design
Nowadays, the company’s website works as a business card. It needs to stand out. Its purpose is to convince potential customers that your company is reliable, professional, and tailored to their needs.
A custom CMS gives you the option to create a platform that is dedicated to serving your target audience and offers a user-friendly experience. This will give your business great value which can help a lot in your marketing efforts and in increasing your sales.
“Your website is the center of your digital eco-system, like a brick and mortar location, the experience matters once a customer enters, just as much as the perception they have of you before they walk through the door.” - Leland Dieno, Web Development, and Digital Marketing Expert
Excellent performance
Each function in the CMS generates additional code. Ready-made content management systems have a wide range of potential customers with various needs. Therefore, they must offer a variety of functions. The problem is that every feature available in your CMS generates lines of code - even if you don't use it.
Custom CMS only has the features you need, which means no useless code. This results in better performance and high speed which greatly helps in SEO ranking and gives the users a great experience.
Customer support
Both off-the-shelf content management systems and custom CMSs have bugs and need updating from time to time.
In the case of a custom CMS, a dedicated development team will fix any bugs that appear, design new features, and make sure everything runs smoothly. This is because they want you to be satisfied with their work, their business reputation depends on your experience.
Off-the-shelf content management systems often have fairly helpful customer support, but you usually have to look for solutions and try to fix them yourself. In addition, errors can happen much more often than with a custom CMS.
How to build your own CMS?
Once you have decided to invest in a custom content management system, there are few essential things you need to do.
1.Decide what features you want for your website
Think about what value you want to offer your target audience. What are the most important functions for your business? At this stage, you have to decide which aspects are crucial for you in your CMS.
What kind of content do you want to publish on your website? Whether it's mainly video, audio, ebooks, blogs, or maybe a 3D journey, this is one of the factors in determining what technology the development team will use to build your CMS.
Think about user experience, what is important to you from a business point of view?
2. Find a reliable development team
Once you know what you want for your custom CMS, it's time to look for a development team that can make it happen. Take your time and check their experience and opinions of other customers. You want to choose experts you can trust to make your website meet all your expectations.
Organize a meeting with the project manager of the development team. Share your ideas with them and watch the communication flow. They should give you details of potential cooperation and indicate what more information they will need from you.
At Order Group, we have experience in building custom CMS for companies from various industries. We are open to new challenges, so if you need our help, contact us.
3. Start the process
Now that you've found a reliable team of developers to work on your website, it's time to schedule a few meetings together. Use these meetings to share all your CMS ideas, clarify business goals for the website, and agree on delivery time.
The development team will walk you through the entire process and together make a plan for the development process. decide which features are key from the start and discuss possible future add-ons.
Once the development team has all the necessary information, they will work on presenting a possible layout so that you can decide if it is right for you and make some adjustments. They will also decide what technologies to use in the project and estimate the budget necessary to successfully build your CMS.
Ensure clear communication between your team and development experts. If the development team has additional questions, try to provide feedback as soon as possible so that the process can continue immediately. This will speed up the development process.
4. Enjoy the results
Once the website is ready, the development team will present your CMS, explain all the details and ask for feedback.
You can finally see the design come true. Browse all landing pages, check all desktop and mobile features. Give feedback to the development team as some improvements can be made at this stage before the final launch of the website.
Below you can see some of the results of the custom CMS we built for Unilink. We have designed a fully customizable module-based CMS that can adjust to the changing needs. We made sure that this CMS is SEO friendly and allows Unilink to run A/B testing.
Key points to remember
- If you just need a simple website with basic features, a ready-made content management system like WordPress could be a great option for you.
- If you want your website to stand out and offer a user-friendly interface with advanced features - a custom CMS is a right choice for you.
- Custom CMS offers scalability, high performance, features tailored to your needs, unique design, personalized customer service, and security.
- Once you decide to invest in custom CMS, make sure to choose a reliable development team.
- A custom CMS will maximize the reach of your website and give your business a competitive advantage.
