CMS are incredibly useful to the modern web designer, as referred to in part 1 of this series. However, with so many of them out there, choosing which CMS to use can be difficult! In this article we will go through the process of choosing a CMS, explaining why you need to think about each step and providing you with suggestions along the way.

• Step 1 – What is your site about? This is without a doubt the most important factor when choosing a CMS. If you want to design a community based website for people to interact with each other, then don’t choose a CMS designed for online stores. You may think this is an obvious step to take, but people are sometimes lured into choosing the CMS that looks easiest to them. Looking easy and being easy are two very different things. If you’re still unsure then test them. Most CMS will provide a demo on their official site so you can see how to design your site, see how to post information and see how that information gets displayed to your users. For Blogs where your home page is your main page and contains all the information the user wants to use, we recommend Wordpress. For sites with numerous, static pages we recommend Joomla. For setting up an online shop we like OSCommerce.

• Step 2 – Extra functionality needs! Think long and hard about not only what your site needs now, but also in the future. If you are a site focused around using SEO to attract business you will want an SEO friendly CMS with an informative documentation regarding SEO, whether that be official documentation or from user communities. If your site is going to rely primarily on users spreading the word, you will probably be better off focusing on CMS that integrates with social media the best. Facebook likes, comment boxes, Twitter follow buttons and Stumble Upon bars are all common CMS extensions that help your site integrate with the social media world. Wordpress and Joomla have particularly extensive add-on databases where nearly all your extra functional needs are catered for. This means not only social media extensions but guides to make both the CMS extremely SEO friendly. Both also have SEO plugins available that can make the whole SEO process even simpler!

• Step 3 – Research, research and more research! This is the most important part of the process of getting your new site set up. When you have decided what the appropriate CMS for your site is, then it’s time to get researching. Read some documentation, even if it’s only basic, to familiarise yourself with the CMS tools and interface. At first, design your site without displaying it publically (every CMS has this option). This lets you play around with the various settings and lets you see what the final design will look like to users. Sign up to forums that discuss your chosen CMS and start threads to see what people think you might need on your site, whether that’s extensions, themes or plugins. Never be afraid of asking for help. Most CMS have decent communities where users all assist each other in developing sites.

It might seem like a long process but it is definitely worth following through if you want to produce a site you can be truly proud of and that your users love. Domainmonster.com web hosting includes 1 click installers for all the CMS mentioned here, and many others, so you can set them up with the absolute minimum of fuss. Make sure you think carefully about your decision. Once you have started designing on one CMS, it can be a long way back to square one and starting over again with another! In the upcoming articles, out later this week, we will look at each of our favourite three CMS in detail and explain why we like them so much!