Back in the good old days of the mid 90's internet most websites were made of simple HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), that is not the case anymore. Modern "web 2.0" websites are far more complicated than that and users have come to expect a higher standard of web development.

To meet that user expectation along came content management systems (CMS). In a nutshell, a CMS is software that takes a lot of the hard work out of web development. Once properly installed and linked to a database a CMS will provide the framework for you to easily build your website live on the internet. You don't need to be a programmer or understand how the software works. Even if you have never built a website before you don't have to worry, the CMS will make it easy for you!

A CMS has a "front end" that is what the user sees when they visit the website and a "back end" that administrators can log into when they visit the site. Once logged in to the backend a typical CMS will provide an easy to navigate administration panel where you can change your sites content and moderate user activity. You can administer your site from any computer with an internet connection.

There are a number of content management systems out there such as Drupal which is the CMS running this site. The best part is that many content magagement systems are totally free and there are large communities of people willing to help like they are at the Drupal forums should you get stuck. It really doesn't get much better than that.

So if you are ready to start developing a website please begin with our website development overview.