Back in the day (like seven years ago, which is basically forever), if you were going to hire someone to build you a website, you could expect to also pay them every single time you wanted to make a change, no matter how seemingly simple. There are many sites out there that still operate this way today. Yours might be one of them. The reason for this is simple: the average person doesn’t have the technical proficiency required to do these things on their own, and even the simplest things require at lease some level of understanding.

Content management systems, also known as CMS, came onto the scene to make managing the content of a website easier for someone who doesn’t have the same technical proficiency as the person who built the site. In the past, if you wanted a content management system, you had to have a programmer who knew how to build you one, which would inevitably result in much higher costs. Even then, a CMS could remain too complicated for just anyone to pick up and use.

As more and more people came to the internet and sought to become involved and connected, along came platforms like Joomla and Drupal, not to mention various others, that offered site owners and programmers better CMS solutions. These “platforms” are pre-fabricated content management systems that a website could be built on top of. This would save the programmer a ton of time and effort and the client a lot of money. Still, these CMS solutions required a level of technical savvy that a lot of people new to the internet just didn’t have.

Today, content management systems are very common and are becoming even more ingrained in the way websites are built and managed. Platforms like WordPress and Tumblr have developed overtime to cater to the less tech-savvy, making it easier than ever for people to learn how to manage their own websites. And, while they aren’t considered content management systems, sites like Twitter and Facebook employ much of the same strategies for simplifying how a user interacts and modifies content on the internet.

In my opinion, if you’re going to have a website built, you should be involved in its management. To do this, you will need a content management system, and you should make sure you’re getting one that is simple, safe, and pretty. My CMS of choice is WordPress.

WordPress started off as a very basic open-source blogging platform that has since become a very robust CMS, especially for designers and programmers who know how to implement it effectively. It is not only easy for beginners to figure out and use, but it is flexible enough to be something even the most advanced web user can appreciate.

So, to summarize, a content management system does exactly what it says; It lets you — the site’s owner — take the reins and contribute to the management of your site’s content. These days, you would be hard pressed to find a web programmer who would build their own CMS specifically for you, so make sure you find out what they plan to use and how easy it will be for you to learn.