--- title: Should I use a content management system (CMS)? description: Proximity Marketing explains how content management systems (CMS) are essential to your business website and provides site SEO, content, relevance upgrades. --- [![Proximity Marketing](https://blog.proximitymarketing.com/hubfs/images/logo.fw.png)](http://www.proximitymarketing.com/) ![slide-11.jpg](https://blog.proximitymarketing.com/hs-fs/hubfs/images/slide-11.jpg?width=1583&name=slide-11.jpg "slide-11.jpg") # Proximity Marketing Blog # Should I use a content management system (CMS)? Posted by [poweruser](https://blog.proximitymarketing.com/blog/author/poweruser) on Nov 4, 2013 2:48:09 PM - [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share) Recently, a friend of mine asked about website strategy and my thoughts on how she could improve her site. And, a couple of basic questions arose: 1) What exactly is a content management system (CMS)? 2) Do I need to use one? So, like any smart aleck friend, I grabbed my phone and went straight to Wikipedia to read its definition of CMS: “A CMS is a computer program that allows publishing, editing and modifying content as well as maintenance from a central interface. Such systems of content management provide procedures to manage workflow in a collaborative environment ... These procedures can be manual steps or an automated cascade. CMSs have been available since the late 1990s.” That really didn’t help, so I gave her my definition: “It’s, uh, basically a tool to help manage your website’s content, updates, features and functionality. Oh, and CMSs are particularly useful if you need to make updates quickly and without the assistance of a programmer.” “But, do I need to use one?” she replied. “No, you do not need to use one,” I responded. I heard a sigh of relief. But, then I asked the following questions (and so should you): **Questions to ask to determine if you should use a content management system** **1) Do you have pages that need updates somewhat frequently? ** From the obvious requirement of page additions to updating simple features like a newsfeed, tools offered in CMSs almost always facilitate this process.**** **2) Do you have plans to add new features to your site? ** Features like blogs, e-commerce, polling, chat, etc. are often plugins or extensions offered by many CMS platforms. **3) Are you able to easily add content and new pages to your site?** Adding good content to your site is not only great for your audience to have more resources to help research a product or service, but it’s nearly essential for search engines to notice your site. **4) Do you care to actively manage your SEO?** The ability to easily change your page names, meta tags, keyword density, titles and content organization is key to having an effective SEO program. **5) Do you need multiple people to be able to update your site?** Even if you don’t have a team managing your site now, using a well-known CMS gives you the ability to find a large community of resources to help you add features or manage pieces of your site when you’re ready to expand. **If none of the above matters to you, then why do you even have a website?** If your site is important to your organization, in my humble opinion, more often than not a content management system is the way to go. 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