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Online shopping records and website visitor numbers were smashed seemingly every day during the pandemic. After stay-at-home orders were issued around the world, global online sales sky-rocketed to almost $4 trillion in 2020. 

New research from the worldwide management consulting firm McKinsey reveals that even when life returns to normal, our new online habits are here to stay. Your potential customers have enjoyed the convenience of getting to know your brand online, and increasingly the internet is where they’ll make their purchasing decisions.

All that means your website is now the face of your company to the whole world. And as all those businesses who thrived in 2020 will tell you, your choice of Content Management System (CMS) are the building blocks that will determine your startup’s success.

Choose an easy-to-use CMS that grows with your business

Your CMS is the specialised platform that makes it easy for you to create, edit and publish the content on your site. To explain how a CMS can help your startup we’ll focus on the most popular platform in WordPress and an up-and-comer like django CMS - but there are countless options to choose from.

Imagine your business explodes in popularity and you need to offer your visitors new features. But what will you do if your CMS doesn’t make it easy to take payments or create user accounts?

That’s why you need a platform that continues to serve your needs as your company grows. Less time worrying about a complicated interface means more time improving your business.

WordPress is by far the most popular choice of CMS and it uses a PHP scripting language. It’s loved by bloggers in particular, and the platform stands out for the control it gives developers over every detail of their business’s website. 

1. WordPress comes with thousands of themes, both free and premium. These can be previewed and you can then quickly publish a new design for your business

2. It has hundreds of plugins which give you greater control over the features of your site. Even if you have no developer experience, you can easily add shopping carts, contact forms, galleries and anything you need

3. WordPress uses standard compliance high-quality code which helps its websites rank highly on search engines. But remember no plugin or CMS can make up for poor-quality content

Other CMS’ that use a PHP scripting language include Drupal, Joomla and Magento. If you or your developer feel comfortable with WordPress you may prefer the interface these alternatives offer while enjoying many of the same benefits as WordPress.

django CMS is a lean enterprise CMS that runs on a Python scripting language. The platform’s lightweight core makes it easy to integrate with other software, while its ease of use makes it the go-to choice for content managers. Two good reasons why it's popular with successful e-commerce businesses and publishers like L’oreal, NASA and National Geographic. 

1. Since the django CMS is user-friendly and has a very intuitive drag-and-drop interface, onboarding new content editors can be conducted quickly and easily. This can be of great advantage, as employee turnover is usually very high at startups.

2. django CMS is suited to modern, containerised deployment and hugely scalable in terms of content, number of requests and users. This means you’ll never be overwhelmed by the growing size of your business

3. Because django CMS is built upon the Django framework you’ll enjoy a platform that’s one of the most secure on the market

Your CMS should be reasonably priced and give you all the support your business needs

You can choose the simplest interface on the market, but your business will face its own unique problems. That’s why your CMS should provide all the help you need while keeping precious costs down as you grow.

1. WordPress comes with great plugins and themes as we mentioned earlier. While a good selection is free, you’ll find that many require additional payments and these can get expensive

2. The platform provides a 24/7 live chat with its team. But you should be aware that most systems can’t help you with third-party applications you may have installed

3. As the most popular CMS in the world, WordPress has the biggest community of users on the market. When you encounter an issue on your site, you may find that the problem has already been resolved on the site’s forum

Every CMS will come with a community of users. Their value to you depends on their size and the activity on the platform’s forums, and none compare in scale to WordPress. But a smaller CMS may better cater to your startup’s needs as it grows.

1. django CMS is completely free to use. Its plugin ecosystem is not nearly as large as WordPress', but since django CMS is built on the popular Django framework, developers who are familiar with Django will create custom plugins with ease

2. With django CMS you get quick answers to your questions from the community via Slack or Discourse and the extensive documentation is also very helpful

3. django CMS regularly updates the platform for bugs and improves the system with amazing new features contributed by its developer community. That way your CMS is constantly improving

You can try any good CMS for free

The good news is that many CMSs are free to try and you’ll quickly discover how comfortable you feel using one.

This is important because your startup’s needs are unique. We discussed WordPress and django CMS as they’re two great choices that highlight some of the different features a CMS offers. But you may find that Squarespace, Joomla or any number of other platforms best suit your business.

So play around and talk to a CMS’ customer support to ensure you’re building your startup on foundations that will help you flourish in our increasingly online world. 

 

Try django CMS

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