What Is A CMS, And What Should Your Team Be Able To Update?

A staff member leaves, a product changes or a new announcement needs to go online. These are ordinary website updates. Your team should know which ones it can handle and which ones need help.

A content management system, or CMS, is the behind-the-scenes area used to manage website content. It can let authorised staff edit text, images and other information without writing code. What they can actually change depends on how the website and its editing tools are set up.

Start With The Updates You Already Make

Before comparing systems, list the changes your team expects to make. Use real examples, not a broad requirement that “everything must be editable”.

• Replacing a brochure without breaking its download link.
• Adding a project with photographs and a short description.
• Updating opening hours, contact details or team profiles.
• Preparing an announcement for someone else to approve.

For each task, decide who does it, who checks it and how urgent it can be. This gives your website team something useful to design and demonstrate. It also exposes work that might otherwise be missed in a general CMS demonstration.

Editing Content Is Not The Same As Redesigning A Page

Changing a service description is different from creating a new page layout. A website may provide set fields for a title, introduction, image and FAQ while keeping spacing and styling consistent.

That can be helpful for a marketing team publishing routine updates. People can focus on the content without rebuilding the design each time. If you regularly create campaigns with different layouts, discuss that separately and ask what flexibility is included.

A CMS does not automatically make every part of a website editable. Agree the boundaries before the build, including menus, forms, language versions and documents. Avoid finding out at handover that a frequent change still needs a developer.

Make Saving And Publishing Clearly Different

Someone preparing copy may not be the person authorised to publish it. Ask your website team to demonstrate what happens when an editor saves a change and how a reviewer sees it.

Do not assume that a Save button always means a private draft. Some systems or content types publish changes directly unless a draft workflow has been enabled. Confirm the behaviour for the actual pages your team will manage.

If you need previews, scheduled announcements or several approval steps, include them in the brief. Availability can depend on the system, configuration and licence. Ask how an urgent correction is handled as well as a routine publication.

Give Each Person The Access They Need

A colleague updating articles may not need access to user accounts or site settings. Ask for individual accounts and permissions that match each person's responsibilities, rather than one shared administrator login.

Agree who manages access when people join, change roles or leave. Also ask who owns the system's main account and who can help if the usual administrator is unavailable. These are handover questions, not details to leave until someone cannot log in.

Check What Happens To Images, Links And Search Details

Everyday editing involves more than typing a paragraph. Your team may need to crop a photograph, describe it for people who cannot see it, replace a file or correct a page's search title and description.

Ask what checks or guidance the editing screen provides. Can an editor see the intended image shape? Can they tell which fields are required? What happens if they change an established page address? The answer should include how old links are handled, not just how to type a new address.

Make Training A Real Publishing Exercise

For handover, use an agreed test article or project and let a member of your team complete the workflow. Add the content, check the preview, send it for review and confirm how publication would happen. Use a safe test environment where the exercise cannot appear on the public website.

Ask for instructions covering the tasks your team will repeat, plus a clear route to support. The useful test is not whether the demonstration looked easy. It is whether your colleague can complete the next update without guessing.

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