What does it mean when a Web Host Offer Content Management?

When you’re searching for the right web host for you and your website, you’ll quickly notice that you have many different options available to you. It’s true. Web hosts offer many different things and a slew of different features. One of those is content management, and this one is a bit more complex than just bandwidth or storage space.

Many first think that ‘content management’ simply refers to the written content on the website; and that ‘management’ simply refers to the act of the web host maintaining and updating that content. While this is partly true, content management actually refers to all of the content on a website – the images, the written text, the layout, the design, and anything else that makes up your website. How much of your content you decide to hand over to your web host is entirely up to you; there are many different levels of service available.

A ‘full serviced’ content management site hands over the reins completely to the web host. The host has full control over the design layout and format, and placing images and text on webpages. However the website owner, or the client, still has full control over their website, and final approval needs to be obtained before any changes or additions are made. Once the website has been created, the reins will then be handed back to the website owner, and training will be provided so that the client can operate their website.

Standard hosted content management is a type that’s used by websites that contain a large amount of information on a huge array of different topics. With these websites, the client or website owner will typically provide the web host with the layout and format they would like to see, and the web host creates all of the content on the website. In these instances the web host will also maintain and upgrade the website.

Content management that is ‘support only’ is a type that’s used by very large companies that have purchased their own software and hardware, but don’t have the storage capacity to house their hardware. In these cases they’ll turn the storage requirements over to the web host; but that’s typically the only service the web host will provide. The company will typically have their own IT team and programmers to handle the software themselves.

Whether or not you choose to hand over a portion, or the entirety, of your content management to your web host is completely up to you. It will depend on the amount of know-how you have, how comfortable members of your team are working with servers and their software, how big your website is, and what type of website you have.

Know what all of your options are though, before signing on with any web host, so you can be sure that you’re getting the services that are right for you. You don’t want to be left with something that doesn’t cover all the services you’ll need.