What is the Best Website and Web Content Management System for a Small Business Website?
So you want a website? A little corner of the internet to call your own. An online property you control.
Yet, it’s all so confusing. Confusing because questions lead to more questions, confusion and then overwhelm.
I get overwhelmed and I’ve been in this info products business for many years.
Let’s explore a few common websites and web content management system questions.
As you read this post ask yourself 3 questions:
- “What do I want my website to do?”
- “How much time do I have to build and update my website?”
- “How much money do I have to spend on a website?”
Don’t worry, I am Urban Renström, there is always science and research involved in everything I talk about, teach, and demonstrate.
Those 👆 are the 3 biggest questions and below 👇 are truths:
8 Non-Negotiable Truths for EVERY Website
Back to the Future – What is a Website?
A website is a collection of interconnected pages which serve a function – entertainment, education, or information.
Think of the news websites, Amazon, eBay, Netflix, Facebook etc.
People access these websites from “browsers” on mobile phones, tablets and computers.
Back to the Future Part 2 – Do I Need to Learn HTML, and JavaScript to Build a Website?
No. You solve problems for people in exchange for money. A website is a tool to help you achieve that goal.
Yet, 94.7% of all websites use HTML. Current web standards mean (set by the standards people 😜) a website cannot run without HTML.
This is because all web browsers (Google Chrome, Firefox, MS Edge, Safari etc.) “read” HTML and CSS and convert those into the pretty pages you see here and everywhere.
What we see are pictures, words and fancy colours. Chrome and Firefox see the HTML and convert it into pictures and words with fancy colours and fonts.
A web content management system takes care of the HTML.
How to Build a Website Without HTML?
Easily. Choose a system that uses a web content management system.
WordPress is the most widely used website builder and Website CMS.
WordPress CMS is used by 42% of all websites. Narrow the scope to websites built with CMSs and WordPress has a massive market share of 64%.
To iterate you do not need to learn HTML to build a website.
WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Shopify etc, are CMS-based website builders. This CMS “does” all the back-end wizardry.
What is the difference between a Web Content Management System (CMS) and HTML?
Do you grow fruits and vegetables or buy them from a grocery store?
A CMS is a store where you can mix the ingredients and impress your friends with your Micheline star food. Html is you growing your own. Both get you a fine meal…but one is infinitely more manageable.
Growing your veggies is the HTML equivalent.
Wait! So what is a Web Content Management System?
CMS stands for web content management system. A CMS is software that helps you easily build your website.
Most CMSs have templates to build pages and posts, landing and thank you pages.
A CMS manage all your assets – text, images, graphs, etc.
CMSs are user-friendly WYSIWYG, “what you see is what you get” editors – similar and as easy to use as Google Docs or Microsoft Word.
A web content management system has a learning curve and is as easy to learn as MS Word or Google Docs.
Do all Websites have a CMS, a Web Content Management System, and wcms?
No.
As of May 2022, about 1/3 of all websites on the WWW do not have a CMS. The opposite is also true that 68.9% do have a CMS. And 42.9% of the 68.9% are WordPress.
Websites built using HTML are custom-built and require specialized web developers for changes and updates.
Websites built on WordPress, Wix, Shopify, Squarespace, Joomla, and Drupal all use a Website CMS. Website CMS are simple and easy to update with blog posts, change words and text, and insert and remove images.
What about Website Builders like Wix, Shopify or Squarespace?
Wix, Shopify, and Squarespace are “software as a service”, SaaS, platforms. They use a proprietary version of a CMS. Wix, Shopify, and Squarespace make publishing a website quick and easy.
These cloud service website solutions take care of all the “backend” web mastery stuff – software updates, improvements, analytics, website hosting etc.
All you need to do is write the posts and the pages, add the pictures and images and you are ready to “plug and play” them in and your website is “done”.
You do not need to arrange a hosting solution, purchase a theme, or set up email. These software-as-a-service (saas) website builders do all this for you.
What is the Best CMS for a Small Business Website?
WordPress! Naturally! But, it depends on your goals and plans, skills, expertise and time available.
I suggest WordPress because it is a stable, mature, and flexible platform. WordPress is easy to use and functional.
Publishing pages and posts is as easy as using Google Docs, MS Word or Pages for the Mac. The base search engine optimization is built into the WordPress website CMS.
What is the Disadvantage of Website Builders?
Have you ever heard the phrase “Good, Fast or Cheap pick two”?
Website builders are not cheap. You pay a high monthly fee and often don’t get everything you need. These are the middle of the road, one tool to serve all customers tools. Shopify is the perfect to build an online store.
The costs💸 vary widely.
Aa of March 2024, Wix pricing is €10-149/month. Squarespace pricing is €15-40/month, Shopify pricing (Ireland) is €24-289/month plus credit card transaction fees.
Here are 6 “back of the napkin” 📜 website builder disadvantages.
- You are locked into the platform and moving off becomes difficult
- Slow to innovate
- Slow up and upgrade the platform
- Lack of flexibility
- Poor phone support
- Advanced marketing tools are missing
- Adding 3rd party plugins, and extensions are not allowed
Is a “Website Builder” the same as a Page Builder?
Nope, not the same.
Page builders are WordPress plugins used with WordPress websites. They are plugins that help build pages on WordPress websites. Page builders are also a software-as-a-service (saas).
Page builders allow you to control almost every aspect of a web page. From dynamic content to the fonts, colours, and the size and shapes of every part of a page.
The learning curve to master a page builder is steep. And if you want to build a business and not become a page builder expert steer clear of these tools. Or hire a web specialist.
Recall the phrase Good, Fast or Cheap pick two.
There are dozens of page builders on the market. Here are 5:
- WPBakery
- Elementor
- Beaver Builder
- Themify
- Divi
Will WordPress blocks and “full site editing” kill the page builders? Maybe. But probably not. They will evolve, change and improve.
The downsides of page builders
- They slow down the loading of your pages and posts – revenue killer.
- One more plugin on your WordPress website
- They cost money – yearly subscription because they are a saas.
- Steep learning curve
- They make you “work for your business, not on your business”
I thought WordPress Websites were for Amateurs, Hobbits, Nerds, and Bloggers.
That is so stereotypical – it hurts!
Sony Music, Playstation, TechCrunch, The Next Web, Time, Etsy, Ted, Home Depot, and Whitehouse.gov are all built on WordPress.
Neither of these is amateurs, hobbyists, nerds or underground bloggers…
WordPress is the establishment.
Why is WordPress Popular?
Easy to use, flexible, expandable, free, customizable, SEO friendly, safe and secure.
You can build any website with WordPress with any feature. You can…
- Sell physical products
- Sell digital products
- Sell affiliate products
- Sell and host memberships
- Sell SaaS products
- Take donations for NFP
- Build and sell courses
- build and sell memberships
WordPress is versatile and capable of doing whatever you want a website to do.
What is the Downside of using WordPress?
WordPress is not for every business. There are downsides. The base WordPress installation is limited in features.
To expand the functionality e.g. sell physical or digital products, you need to use plugins.
Plugins add capabilities to WordPress
If you want to sell digital or physical products you need 1-4 plugins.
If you want to set up a membership on your website you need 1-3 plugins.
Want to accept payments, Stripe, Paypal? These require 1-2 plugins.
Want to sell physical products? 1-3 plugins.
The great news is that most popular plugins are free. However, many free plugins have premium services to access advanced features.
For example, WooCommerce is a free e-commerce plugin to help you sell physical and digital products.
But, to accept recurring subscription payments, for monthly memberships, the WooSubscription addon costs $249/year a $279/year
Plugins also require regular updating – often 2-3 times a year. Updates to fix bugs, give new features, or close security loopholes.
The WordPress core software also requires updating – 1-3 times a year.
As a precaution, every plugin and core update should never be updated on a production website as updates can and usually break things. Updates should be tested on an exact copy-stagging website to ensure it doesn’t break the live website.
Speed – How Fast a Web Page Loads
Adding a “custom” theme can slow down your website. A fast-loading website is Website Rule No 1.
Poorly coded plugins slow down websites. And you don’t know which are poorly built until you try and test.
Do you know why Website Speed Matters? See the FAQ below.
Difficulty – How easy is WordPress to Learn and Use on a Daily?
The learning curve with any new software. Either on a mobile phone, program, software, or interface can be steep. WordPress is no different.
At the top of this post, I ask you to reflect on three questions
- “What do I want my website to do?”
- “How much time do I have to build and/or update my website?”
- “How much money do I have to spend on a website?”
Let us try and figure out what’s right for you. There is no right ✅ or wrong ❌ answer.
Throw your budget, desires and time available into a pot, cook for 20 minutes on medium heat and see what you get. Do you get Michelin star quality top-shelf goodness? Or is it the 01:00 Friday night cheap and easy chipper?
Be mindful as a website is never “set it and forget it”. Not if you want your website to become an asset for your business. Get found in organic search and bring in a flood of traffic.
Question #3 “How much money do I have to spend on a website?“
Every website has fixed and ongoing operational costs. The costs are directly related to your goals.
An Amazon-style e-commerce website will cost 100X what an informational/lead generation website.
Don’t forget the bi-weekly updates (articles/blog posts), video hosting, podcast hosting, and search engine optimization (SEO) work.
Question #1 “What do I want my website to do?“
Only you can answer that question.
You can do anything with a website: sell courses and memberships, templates and “eBooks”, generate leads, and affiliate sales.
Question #2 “How much time do I have to build and update my website?“
No website is a “set it and forget it”.
A “Passive income”, “4-hr work week”, “money for nothing and guys/girls for free” are myths sold by snake oil salesmen offering to teach all in a “€1999 course for €19 get it now only 2 left” gurus.
The age-old adage holds: “you get out of it what you put into it”. Put loads of effort into your website and business and you will reap the benefits with traffic and sales.
Hard work and graft never go out of fashion.
Content Marketing for Non-Techies: Your Priority Reading List
In earlier📆 articles we learned that Website Content is Important to answer the questions 🤔 people ask. Your answers drive traffic 🚥to your website. This How to Write Website Content post and this How to Write Content for a Website approached writing ✍️ from different angles and reasons. We learned the importance of creating 🧱a Variety of Web Content, in different modalities, because some people read 🔠, some watch 📺 videos, and some listen to podcasts👂🏻. We also learned that refreshing and updating your website content keeps pages and rankings in search engines. This leads to the question of where and how to find content to publish on your website.
FAQ and Non-Negotiable Truths for EVERY Website
Website load times are not just a matter of preference – speed has a huge impact on the success of a website.
How? Google tells us people want fast-loading websites.
Page load times are a SERP ranking factor. People bounce away from slow websites. And bounce rate is a SERP ranking factor.
If you think for a second if any page or online service is slow people become frustrated, impatient and click away. This “Click and Bounce” is a real. When Google see the click and bounce they penalise and reduce the ranking.
“The longer a webpage takes to load, the more (people will pogo stick and bounce and) the bounce rate will skyrocket. A high bounce rate tells search engines that users don’t find the page content useful, so its (SERP) rankings will slip. eCommerce sites will inevitably lose customers if their checkout page is even a little bit slower than those of the competition.“
“Slow” websites with greater than 2 seconds to load experience a 4.3% loss in revenue, a 3.73% drop in clicks and a 1.8% drop in queries.
Check page loading times here: Google PageSpeedInsights.
Ask your web designer what process they have to ensure page load time meets Google core web vitals benchmarks (these are real!)
For Example:
Click over to http://nki.tv/#!/fr/project/id/174/ and scroll around.
Or try this restaurant and plant nursery website https://petershamnurseries.com/
Or click around this eComm website https://www.etq-amsterdam.com/
Set up your website like a customer would want to use your website. Easy simple and natural.
Update old and busted pages and post new insights, and information matters to your customers and Google.
Your customers have questions. Lots of questions. 100s of questions about their problems.
What their problem is, how it affects them, how to fix it, and the cost to fix the problem.
People demand answers – before they are ready to buy from you – see Eugene Swartz’s 5 stages of the buyer journey.
If you don’t answer people’s questions they will find the answers elsewhere.
“Answers elsewhere” is the sound of you losing a sale!
Design matters a little🤏(but less than every web designer wants you to believe)
A website does represent and is often the first impression people have of your business – so yes design matters.
Yet, design is not independent of speed and functionality. See above.
For example, https://www.kadencewp.com/kadence-theme/starter-templates/ are nicely designed templates, fast loading and have good navigation.
Have you tried shopping at a new grocery store?
Everything is different. Crackers are with the bread and not with the biscuits. Chickpeas and beans are with the chicken and fish not with beans and canned tomatoes. 🤪
Wacky and odd. Yes, peas and beans are protein but in the same place as chicken and fish. This does not work!
Follow the convention for your website menu – home, services, blog, contact us, and about us pages.
Websites must have Contact Us, About Us, T&C, Disclaimers, Privacy Policies and a Generative AI Policy.
Mobile Responsive Webpages. Argh! Do I need to include this?!? Mobile First has been the standard for dozens of years now.
Fire, get rid of, and run away from any web designer if s/he asks if you want a mobile responsive website.
A headless CMA is the back-end content management system.
Using the human body analogy the head of a website is what is seen and what users interact with. The body (or headless) part is all the behind-the-scenes or back-end webby stuff.
A headless CMS cannot display “content” for users or people. There is no front end.
The benefits of a headless CMS are displaying content independently of the management of the content.
For example, a mobile phone application, a mobile responsive website, a second language website, corporate internet, and websites all get their content from the headless CMS.
And yes WordPress can be used as a headless cms.
This website uses WordPress.
Go to Builtwith and enter the URL of a website. E.g. https://www.kadencewp.com/ or https://www.theserverside.com/.
Scroll and read and you’ll see “Content Management System” or “Operating Systems and Servers” and this will inform which website CMS or website is built using.
or
Image by Nadim Merrikh
