On a most basic level it is a way for you, the site owner, to make changes to your site any time you’d like.  It is a system which allows you to create and edit content using a tool which is similar to working with a Word document.

On a more complex level, it allows you to assign different capabilities to different people on your team – some might be able to write content, but not publish it.  Others might be able to upload image files but not video files and so on.

If you have a site where the information changes fairly often, daily, once a week and even once a month, it might be worth the extra expense to have content management system built for you.

And there are lots of choices out there from custom builds to pre-built templates to open-source “free” software like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal.

It really depends on what you want.  If you don’t really need much more than the ability to change out text once in a while, then having a simple custom build it probably appropriate.  On the other hand, if you want something with lots more functionality then going with one of the “free” open-source programs is probably the way to go.  I put “free” in quotes because the functionality each system offers is free, but you will still need to pay a developer to do the design customization which makes any site uniquely your own.

For me, web accessibility is very important and its important that I give my clients a system that is fairly straightforward and easy to work with.  My favorite open-source CMS at the moment is definitely WordPress.  Its easy to teach clients to use, it has lots and lots of plug-ins to choose from, and it is very search engine friendly (in my experience it a system is search engine friendly it usually has good web accessibility and usability built in.)