Websites built with tables are almost unheard of now, similarly simple html pages that require your designer or developer to change and upload for you on your behalf are disappearing.
Websites must be dynamic and content must be kept up to date with regular news updates. You should be in control of your content and have the ability to easily change it without the need for any special software.
A good content management system will allow you to easily update your text and images, creating standards-compliant web pages. You should also have the ability to add new pages to sections as needed.
Styling
Good content management systems will allow you to add the following pre-built elements to your website, while maintaining style continuity across all pages:
• Title 1
• Title 2
• Title 3
• List Items
• Bold Italic
Photos
Image positioning, left and right float is also important as margins and borders are taken care of automatically. Resizing an image is also necessary, you won’t be able to make the image larger than the original due to stretching, but you should be able to make it smaller and the image’s proportions should remain intact.
search engines
You will need to have access to add and edit meta tags in a very simple way, like your:
• meta title
• Meta description
• meta keyword (not very useful nowadays)
When images are added to your website, the appropriate ALT text should be added to describe the image and your CMS should easily allow this.
Links
You should be able to add links to other websites as well as pages within your website, plus each link should have a title attribute and be easily added through your CMS system.
Navigation
It is essential that new pages are added to the secondary navigation for that section automatically. The main navigation of your website will usually fall outside the bounds of your CMS system and this is not necessarily a bad thing as all too often the main navigation gets out of hand and leaves your website looking clunky.
Follow these simple guidelines when looking for a system to keep your site up to date!
