With the rise of web development, businesses have doubled down on maintaining their “online image” to attract more customers. But to do this, they require a web technology that enables the creation of digital content within a collaborative space; one which is tailor-made for their business needs. This is where content management systems (CMS) come in.
What is a CMS?
A CMS is a software application that’s used to modify and create digital content by facilitating collaboration within organizations. Often synonymous with web content management systems (WCM/WCMS), these platforms are used by organizations to integrate their digital assets, online web content, and document management in one seamless system that everyone can access. It administers different levels of permission to end users in the workplace by providing role-based access to web projects, intranet applications, or digital content.
WCMS allow consumers to manage their web content in the easiest way possible by providing a basic infrastructure that’s similar to a web page. This allows consumers to organize content and have an optimized workflow in a familiar space.
And as of a few years ago, they’ve become a hit among businesses, with features like maintaining content history through version control, format management, and web-based publishing with added features for easier search and retrieval through indexing.
Enterprise content management system (ECMS) is another type of CMS which includes a WCM publishing facility along with the CMS’s central feature of administration through the control panel.
Choosing the right CMS for your business is crucial for continued success and profitability.
Enter the disruptive innovation of Drupal as a CMS
Drupal emerged in the world of web technology as a free and customizable out-of-the-box software for content management, peer-to-peer networking, and collaborative authoring. The ability to publish content across multiple platforms and devices makes it the first choice among global organizations. Plus, it’s supported by a sizable open source community, allowing for extensive scaling and long-term viability.
Written in PHP, this open source software is distributed under a GNU (General Public License). And due to its versatile support for a wide range of content management strategies for businesses, it leads to web innovation with robust enterprise solutions. It also supports flexibility and customization with a structured platform for dynamic WebPages.
From government and political sites to personal blogs, Drupal is a back-end framework for websites all over the world.
Use cases of Drupal
Drupal is leading in the world of CMSs due to its ability to integrate a wide-ranging ecosystem of digital marketing, as well as because it can deliver and store huge amounts of content across a variety of devices. It’s used for a variety of purposes—from portals, blogs, and forums to resource directories, e-commerce content, corporate websites, and social networking sites.
Benefits of Drupal as your CMS
With its growing popularity, Drupal is being adopted for website creation and development by a variety of business and technology leaders. According to Forbes, Drupal is a prominent CMS contender in the world of commercial progression. Here are a few of its advantages:
- A flexible platform
A major selling point of using Drupal as your CMS is that its flexible design allows you to incorporate a multitude of content types, like statistics, polls, podcasts, and videos in your web pages. This allows you to market web content to a variety of markets for improved business engagement. It helps you promote corporate branding by allowing you to edit the design elements to your organization’s liking.
- Highly scalable with minimum downtime
Drupal scales up with your business, by accommodating exponential content growth without a hitch! What’s more, it keeps your site up and running even under extreme traffic bursts. Sites like GRAMMY.com and NBC Olympics are powered by Drupal, which is a testament to its reliability. Even high traffic sites like whitehouse.gov and weather.com—which experience random, high-volume traffic spikes—use Drupal.
- Backed by an open source community—A cost-effective solution!
As an open source CMS, its development revolves around a thriving community of developers and users worldwide who offer extensive documentation, discussion, and a free exchange of ideas, all available to the public for free. The approachable online culture of the community, along with abundant tech support, makes Drupal the most popular choice among businesses. This also means that it also has a very low deployment cost.
- Customizability and modularity
Drupal’s highly customizable nature allows you to add countless custom features to your web content, with over 16,000 plug-ins and modules. Create a comfortable user engagement experience with efficient display tools, cross-platform flexibility, custom social media, and SEO features. You can also present your content uniquely with a flexible content architecture using Drupal’s starter bundles!
- Unshakable Security
Security is every business’s top priority; Drupal emerges as a CMS that’s highly secure and resistant to critical internet vulnerabilities. Its security is constantly tested against stringent standards, promoting reliability for mission-critical sites. In case security issues do arise, Drupal is backed up by an expert service provider ecosystem, a community of leading professionals, and a dedicated security team that rapidly deliver security patches. It’s an enterprise’s best bet to safeguard their content from exploitation.
- SEO-Friendly—Accelerate your digital business
Drupal optimizes your content’s online presence and drives organic traffic with its ability to incorporate metadata, custom page titles and SEO-friendly URLs. Boost your online market strategies by displaying your web pages in a way that’s streamlined for search engine crawling and ranking. In addition to that, the platform has helper plug-ins and several businesses-related themes to choose from. You can even customize it all with a paid template.
- Integrated Digital Applications—Turn data into Business Insights
Drupal’s ability to integrate with a wide range of business applications makes your content more powerful. The REST APIs used in the platform’s web service integration connects your content to other applications and sites, making your business presence more visible across all devices. Its API-first focus is a killer feature in recent versions of the platform that allows you to bring Drupal content to other platforms.
- Effortless content authoring
Businesses have more control over their content and how it’s displayed using Drupal’s intuitive tools for content creation. From quick content revisioning to in-place authoring using its WYSIWYG editor—Drupal’s customizable features lead the market in content management. In-place content creation allows editors to create and edit the end product on the fly. You can make your content more powerful across sites using Drupal’s granular tagging feature. Publishers can also manage and authenticate editorial workflows.
- Use content as a service
Drupal’s structured model and REST services allow your content to be pushed through third-party sites, native apps, and social networks. The platform’s open architecture and tools ensure that your content is separate from its delivery. This promotes immense flexibility, as your content can be presented in any format and through any channel.
- Mobile-first focus—Seamless content experience
With Drupal’s responsive design, organizations can create websites with the best user experience on a variety of devices. The design practices of these sites promote a seamless content experience no matter what device the consumer is using.
Companies using Drupal—Success stories
Organizations are rapidly adopting Drupal for their websites including corporate giants in fortune 500 companies. Influential sites leverage Drupal to publish and deliver content, taking advantage of its powerful integration tools. Companies like Tesla, Pinterest blogs, BBC good food, CVS Health, Pfizer, General Electric, Twenty-First Century Fox and many more use Drupal as their CMS.
Drupal is considered to be the most flexible CMS with its versatile features of a structured architecture coupled with modularity. Opt for Drupal as your CMS with our specialization in Drupal and Gatsby development services. We are a Costa Rica based software outsourcing company. Get in touch with us for more information on our Staff augmentation and software services in Mexico, Costa Rica and the greater Latin America.