Why I Love Using Expose - Our CMS
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I’ve spent a lot of time using content management systems throughout my career, many of them making me want to bang my head against a brick wall. Working as a content manager, I’m constantly writing, editing and creating content for the majority of my clients and having a straightforward, easy to use CMS can make a massive difference.
Several years ago, Parallax developed their own content management system called Expose. Every site that our digital agency builds is developed with Expose as the CMS. When I joined the team, using it was an absolute breath of fresh air. It soon became obvious why everybody at Parallax is so passionate about Expose.
Here are a few of the reasons why I think it’s so awesome.
A UI that doesn’t annoy me
For me, this was the biggest selling point. I’ve worked with quite a few content management systems since I joined the digital industry and Expose has one of the best user interfaces that I’ve seen.
Let’s compare it to some of the others that I’ve used previously –
Drupal – OK, this may be one of the most well respected content management systems out there, but in my opinion it’s just not enjoyable to use. With Drupal, you’re forced to login to a back-end system where you’re assaulted with a confusing interface and a multitude of irrelevant options.
Umbraco – Again, one of the popular ones. This one features another clunky back-end system that isn’t user-friendly with a frustrating image upload process.
Wordpress – Whilst Wordpress isn’t technically a CMS, it’s generally used that way these days. This is probably the best out of the lot, but it’s still not great to use. Wordpress has decent areas for writing content, and the image options are tolerable too. However, using it can be a really frustrating depending on how it’s been developed, and the widgets can cause a lot of trouble.
This is where Expose really comes into its own. Once you login to Expose, all you see is your website. No horrible back-end system, and no terrible interface. Perfect. The developers here at Parallax recently launched a new UI for Expose, with a menu that sits tastefully across the left hand side of the screen. The Expose functions within the UI will change depending on which page you’re using, so you’ll never see a plethora of options that aren’t relevant.
What you see is what you get
What you see is really what you get. Once you’ve logged in, you’re able to navigate the page as usual, select the element you want to edit (headers, body text, images etc) and change it. The amends are then published instantly to the live site.
Perfect for blogging
So we all know that regularly blogging is a necessity to help aid your SEO strategy. If you’re working with a CMS that makes this process easier then you’re on to a winner. You can easily add new elements (images, text, quotes – depending on how your website has been designed and developed) and it features a WYSIWYG editor where you can easily see your content laid out.
No messing around with images
Uploading images to Expose is one of my favourite features. All you need to do is click on an image to change it removing the need to wade through back-end image galleries. Editing is even easier, all you need to do is right-click on an image and you can crop, resize, remove it, or edit the alt text.
SEO made simple
Content and SEO go hand in hand right? By clicking on the SEO option in the menu bar of Expose, you’re able to change the page title, meta description and URL. It also features a hand preview of how it will look on the Google SERP. This takes the pain out of managing onsite SEO as you can simply change it when required, or when you add a new page or blog post.
These are just a few reasons why I think Expose is great. I know I’m going to be biased, but from a content creation perspective, Expose is the best CMS out there.
If you’d like to have a go with Expose, we’d love to show you. Get in touch.