What are the best practices for maintaining a CMS?

Many CMS platforms, like WordPress, have an auto-update feature, where you don't have to be manually involved in updating the themes and plugins. This can come in handy. However, it's good to verify from time to time to ensure that updates of your themes and plugins do not break the website in any way.

Regularly update your CMS and plugins to ensure security. Backup your data regularly to prevent data loss. Monitor site performance and address issues promptly. Train users on CMS usage and security practices. Implement strong passwords and user access controls. Regularly audit and optimize content for better user experience.

Why using updated CMS is necessary: Security: Outdated CMS software is more likely to be exploited by hackers. Performance: CMS updates often include performance improvements. Features: CMS updates also often include new features and functionality. Compatibility: CMS software needs to be compatible with the latest technologies. SEO: Search engines favor websites that are using the latest CMS software. Maintenance costs: An updated CMS will be easier to maintain. Lifespan: A well-maintained CMS can last for many years

Even before this, it's always worth examining whether you need a CMS, and why. For many businesses, especially retail stores that might not have a large online presence, a CMS might not be necessary. For others, A free version is all that's needed for the amount and frequency of the content creation the business needs.

Frequently updating your CMS is critical. Software updates often include security patches, bug fixes, and new features. Stay vigilant for updates from the CMS provider or community and implement them promptly. Regular updates help in addressing vulnerabilities, improving performance, and ensuring compatibility with newer technologies.

It's good to store your backups in a separate location from the server where your website is hosted. This helps to ensure that when the server fails, your backup doesn't get lost as well. Many web hosting companies offer good backup solutions. It's good to utilize those. You can also use backup plugins, for example, the "All in One WP Migration" plugin for WordPress can help to automate your backups and store them in locations of your choice like Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, etc.

Une pratique que j’ai trouvée payante est d’utiliser un outil de sauvegarde et de gestion de CMS fiable pour effectuer les mises à jour, les sauvegardes de contenu. J’utilise aussi un outil qui analyse mon site web afin de détecter les liens brisés, les anomalies ou les attaques effectuées contre les sites que je gère. Il est aussi important de renforcer la sécurité avec l’authentification à deux facteurs.

Using your CMS as your primary content storage solution is like using GDrive as your application code repository. If you’re a small team that creates a lot of written and visual content, I can recommend using GDrive as your primary storage solution and periodically backing everything up to another cloud-based service and/or downloading all the files to your work machine, if the filesize isn’t an issue. Use your CMS to manage how your content is displayed to the user on your site and apps, don’t use it as the de-facto storage and organization space for years of hard creative work. A CMS is built and optimized to manage and serve content, not store and organize it.

Back up your CMS and all associated content on a regular basis. This includes databases, media files, themes, and plugins/extensions. Consider automated backup solutions to ensure consistency and reliability. Regular backups are vital for disaster recovery in case of hacking, system failure, or accidental data loss.

The whole business could collapse if something goes wrong with the website. Hence, it is of utmost importance to back up your content. Choosing a good hosting company can cover this actually.

Do an annual content audit. It's a beast the first time but sets you up for years to come. Think of it like Spring cleaning... - Audit what you have - Clean out (or prune) what isn't working - Identify what did work to apply moving forward

Perform routine content audits to maintain a clutter-free and user-friendly website. Remove outdated, redundant, or irrelevant content. Broken links, outdated information, or duplicate pages can negatively impact user experience and SEO. Regular cleanup ensures a streamlined website and enhances performance.

Periodically audit the content and make changes if necessary. Cleaning up content content can potentially make your website performance better, ultimately helping your website thrive in search engines.

Optimize your content for search engines and user experience. Focus on SEO practices like keyword optimization, metadata enhancement, and mobile responsiveness. Compress images to improve page loading times and ensure readability across various devices. A well-optimized website ranks higher in search results and attracts more traffic.

Try for perfection, always. Your job isn't over once the content is submitted. Track the performance and tweak it accordingly. Sometimes, tweaking the titles would suffice and sometimes, trimming the URL would do. At times, you may have to redesign or edit your layout. So, analyse first, optimize second.

Thoroughly analyse the performance of your content periodically. This can furnish you with insights into content improvement. With Google Analytics, you can track the clicks, impressions, engagements, traffic, etc. With Microsoft Clarity, you can understand which content the visitor is consuming, which ones are they skipping, which CTAs are they clicking, etc, allowing you to get a 'clarity' as the name suggests.

Para auditar el contenido del CMS periódicamente y evaluar su relevancia, pertinencia, calidad, efectividad y espacios de mejora, antes de utilizar métricas, tasas de rebote, conversiones y verificar comentarios, es necesario soltar la creencia de haber hecho algo que no puede ni necesita corregirse y estar dispuesto a aprender desde el feedback de las herramientas. Abrirse a releer, revisar y corregir, no sentirlo como un fracaso sino como una oportunidad de aprendizaje y capitalizar lo aprendido para seguir creciendo en la creación de contenidos.

Periodically audit your content to evaluate its performance. Analyze metrics such as traffic, engagement, bounce rates, and conversions. Assess which content resonates most with your audience and identify gaps or areas needing improvement. Use analytics tools to gain insights and guide your content strategy.

Do not shy away from trying out new CMSs. Oftentimes, they offer efficient tools that will make your writing workflow easier, you will not worry about SEO, while creating content will be faster. Saving time is often the biggest ROI.

We can always utilize version control systems like Git and conduct regular code reviews to maintain clean, efficient, and secure codebase. This, in turn, fosters a culture and mindset of collaboration and ensures you meet quality standards.

One of the most wonderful things about Content Management Systems is the ability to change the look of the website without a ton of effort. Change your theme/template once in a while to make sure your website maintains a modern feeling.

Documenting your CMS is another best practice to remember. It's important to document your CMS workflows and even develop job aids and training for your publishers. Large enterprises should document their CMS just like they do their other systems, including architecture, operations, and disaster recovery