By Rezdy — 16 Nov 2011

As the name implies, a Content Management System (CMS) is a system used to manage your website’s content. There are several reasons an online tour operator should use one:

  • To save money rather than keep paying web designers for every update.
  • To help you show up on the first page of Google
  • CMS’s have become commonplace and easy to use
  • You can do update your site quickly and easily yourself.
tour content management system resized 600

 

A content management application will allow your content manager and author to manage the creation, modification and removal of content from your activity operator’s website. This means you can easily add content to your site without having to be a developer. A CMS may also provide tools for one-to-one marketing. This is the ability of your website to tailor its content and advertise to a visitor’s specific characteristics. It does this by using information that is either provided the visitor themselves, or gathered by the website.

There are a few factors you should take into account to narrow your selection in choosing your CMS:

Evaluate its price in terms of its performance.

Does it have features which are useful and efficient enough to meet your business needs, at the price you are willing to pay? Keep in mind, the more features you add, the more expensive your CMS is likely to be. Your CMS provider should also clearly outline costs so that they are predictable from one month to the next – remember to take maintenance fees into account.

Think about how it aligns with the features you want your CMS to have.

For example:

  • How user-friendly is it for you and your team?
  • How does it allow users to interact with each other?
  • In terms of security and access, who can publish what and when? Who has access to the backend dashboard of your website?

Consider return on investment (ROI).

Can you confidently say that your CMS is a worthy investment for your business?

Here are 5 efficient Content Management Systems you could use to manage your website more efficiently and integrate booking software:

  • WordPress (basic platform and fully-functioning CMS)
  • RadiantCMS (good for basic websites, smple and functional lay-out)
  • SilverStripe (fully-featured CMS, capable of anything you need it to do for you)
  • Joomla (the most popular open-sourced CMS, simple and straight forward)
  • TYPOlight (fully-funtioning CMS, not to complicated suit to geek and non-geeks)

To ensure your website has everything it needs, view our infographic checklist:

 

tour operator website checklist