Table Of Content
- How does a content management system work?
- How to Create a Website Using a Content Management System
- How to Create Content Using WordPress Content Management System
- How to Manage Images and Other Media Using a Content Management System
- What makes a content management system?
- What are some examples of common content management systems?
What is a Content Management System (CMS)?
Published September 23, 2019 | Updated August 16, 2024
A content management system, often abbreviated to CMS, is software that helps users create, manage, and modify content on a website without requiring any special technical knowledge.
In simpler language, a content management system is a tool that helps you create a website without having to write all the code from scratch (or even learn how to program at all).
Instead of creating your own system for creating web pages, storing images, and other functions, the content management system takes care of all these basic tasks for you, so you can focus on other areas of your website.
In addition to websites, you can also find content management systems for other functions – such as document management.
How does a content management system work?
What are some examples of common content management systems? What is the best CMS platform?
How to Create a Website Using a Content Management System
To give you an idea of how a content management system works, let's take a tour of the WordPress interface (WordPress is a good example of a content management system).
Let's start by creating a piece of content. Without a content management system, you would have to write a static HTML file and upload it to your server (sounds complicated, right?).
With a content management system like WordPress, you can simply write your content in an interface that looks almost like Microsoft Word:
How to Create Content Using WordPress Content Management System
That's much easier, right?
To upload and manage media like images, you can also just browse the media library instead of having to interact directly with your web server:
How to Manage Images and Other Media Using a Content Management System
The content management system isn't just a backend management interface, though. It also makes all the content you create visible to your visitors, just as you would want it to be.
What makes a content management system?
On a more technical level, a content management system consists of two core parts:
- A content management application (CMA) – this is the part that allows you to actually add and manage content on your website (as you saw above).
- A content delivery application (CDA) – this is the backend process behind the scenes that takes the content you enter into the CMA, stores it properly, and makes it visible to your visitors.
Together, the two systems make it easy to maintain your website.
What are some examples of common content management systems?
WordPress, which we showed you above, is the best example of a popular content management system. While there are certainly other content management systems, WordPress holds over 60.8% of the market share of websites with a well-known content management system.
Note: When we say “WordPress,” we are not talking about WordPress.com. Instead, we'll focus on WordPress.org, the website that houses the actual open-source WordPress content management system.