For years now, businesses have understood the importance of search engines and how SEO can drive prospects to their websites. But with websites having a shelf life of one to two years, businesses often perform redesigns. Along with redesigns come new web development vendors and new Content Management Systems.

The need to update websites faster to keep content fresh has been ever growing. Ever since the first business owner wanted their Web designer to update their website faster, content management systems have played an important role on the Web. Why does this matter to you? How do you know if your company is ready?
In this article, we will look at how to tell if your organization needs a content management system. We will also give you information on the abilities of content management systems to help you better understand what they can do. While content management systems may seem complex, their entire purpose is to streamline your workflow and make your life easier.

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Content Management Systems (CMS) automate the process of creating, publishing, and updating web site content. They make maintaining and updating the content of a web site easier, giving the content contributors, not just the web team, the means with which to manage their own content. They are usually made up of a front-end editor for inputting content, a back-end system for storing the content, and a template mechanism to get the content onto the web site.

This sample is taken from Chapter 1: "Foundations of CMS" of the glasshaus title "Content Management Systems"

The definition of a content management system is a as diverse as all the people creating them, but at the very core of a CMS is the concept of separating Website layout and design from content.  By doing this you provide a means for the Web Developer to do his job and not get bogged down with endless requests for content changes/additions, more importantly though, this empowers the non-Developer, (content creators) to update/create their own web pages.