The expansion of web development makes business owners more concerned about their online reputation and image today. It’s an essential factor in attracting potential customers. To accomplish this, business houses and organizations need web technology that allows them to create online content in collaborative space websites. It’s a space that gets customization to accommodate all business requirements. And here, the concept of a CMS (Content Management System) comes in.
Drupal and its functions as a CMS
Drupal walked in the web technology domain as a customizable, advanced, and free software for collaborative authoring, peer-to-peer networking, and content management. Most organizations choose Drupal for its capacity to publish content all through various devices and platforms. It also gets the necessary backup from an open-source community, allowing long-term viability and extensive scaling.
Drupal, an open-source software, is writing in PHP and gets disturbance under the General Public License (GNU). It is versatile and can support various content management strategies. Hence, it results in web advancement using sturdy enterprise solutions. It also enhances customization and flexibility with a well-arranged platform for dynamic web pages.
Websites powered by Drupal
Drupal is a leading name in the CMS domain. It can incorporate a wide range of platforms in the online marketing network. It can also store and deliver vast content across various devices. Moreover, It gets used for forums, blogs, corporate websites, and many more. Even though Drupal might not win the race with WordPress, it still has sufficient demand. But if your objective is to create a great website, you need to count on Drupal than any other CMS. Some of the website types which can get developed using Drupal are:
File storage websites
This website is useful in client file management. For instance, you can monitor the client files on your website. When it comes to a file storage site, you may not have control over yourself. Do you want to set up a file-sharing environment using Drupal? If yes, then you need to use the “Views,” and “CCK” views with modules such as “Web File Manager,” “Filebrowser,” and “MediaMover.”
Twitter look-alike websites
It’s a smart call not to plan setting up a website to compete with Twitter using Drupal. However, there are ways to do that if you want. Drupal helps you to design a similar site and include all the micro-blogging features. Drupal has a microblogging component that allows the users to share short updates and more.
Social networking websites
Drupal is a popular choice when it comes to social networking websites. The interface offers sturdy user management and permission system. You need to resort to a few modules, and you will find the same in Drupal documentation.
News portal website
Drupal is the best tool for setting up an online magazine or news website. Using Views and CCK, you can generate and list multiple post types based on your preference. Several news websites in the world get powered on the Drupal platform. Do you want your news portal to function correctly? If yes, then you need to choose the apt Drupal hosting platform.
Video sharing website
A video-sharing website is resource-intensive by nature. And to set up one, you need to choose Drupal. With Drupal 7, you might face some issues. However, with elements like CCK, the issue gets resolved. It helps to convert the video to FLV, which allows the users to share videos and embed code. You can check out the “SWF” and “Media Mover” tools.
Blogging website
Blogs are easy to set up using Drupal. You don’t need any module for this. You will require the in-built blog module, which will help you to make the website more appealing.
Image sharing website
Such a website is best for amateur photographers of any group. Drupal’s image module is very potent, and it allows you to set up image-oriented sites.
The advantages of using Drupal
Drupal is the ideal medium to power multiple websites. However, it is necessary to know why organizations of various brands choose Drupal. The distinct advantages are:
It has a flexible platform
It is one of the best benefits of Drupal. It’s a flexible CMS that enables you to integrate various content types, such as podcasts, videos, and polls. You can also market the web content to multiple markets for an enhanced business engagement. It helps you to promote your branding better and make the necessary changes to the design elements.
Extremely scalable with reduced downtime
Drupal will quickly scale up as your business expands. It makes space for content growth without any problem. It also helps your website to keep functioning despite the traffic burst. The platform is also very reliable. The sites that experience sudden, high-volume traffic increases also resort to Drupal.
Modularity and customizability
Drupal has a customizable nature that enables you to add endless features to the web content. It has over 16,000 modules and plug-ins. Also, it allows you to generate a natural user management experiment with useful display tools, customized social media, cross-platform flexibility, as well as the best SEO features. It allows you to showcase the content distinctively with a flexible content structure, making use of the Drupal starter tools.
It gets supported by the open-source community
Drupal is an open-source content management system. Hence, the development of this platform concerns a developer’s community as well as worldwide users who provide discussion, free idea exchange, documentation for free. The technical assistance and the cultural community make Drupal one of the best choices for several brands. It also indicates a reduced deployment expense.
It is highly secure
Every business wants security! Drupal is reliable and keeps an organization away from some of the severe online vulnerabilities. The safety gets tested regularly with strict standards, promoting reliability for critical websites. When there are security problems, Drupal gets supported by an advanced ecosystem, which comprises a team of expert professionals. It also includes a dedicated security team that provides security patches. And it is one of the best tools for an organization to secure its content from getting exploited.
It is SEO friendly and helps your online business to grow
Drupal allows brands to optimize the content’s online presence. It generates organic traffic with the capacity to add metadata and customize the SEO-friendly URLs and page titles. You can also boost the digital marketing strategies by showcasing the web pages seamlessly for the search engines to crawl and rank the pages correctly. Additionally, Drupal also has business themes and helper plug-ins for you to choose from. If you use a paid template, you can customize it as well.
Seamless content authoring
With Drupal, organizations have increased control over their content and the way it gets showcased. Drupal comes with its intuitive tools for content generation. It helps users to revise the content fast with the WYSIWYG editor. Also, there are customized features that help effective content management.
Additionally, the content generation enables the editors to set up and edit the end products on the go. It helps users to make their content useful all through the websites making use of Drupal’s granular tagging. The publishers can also manage and approve the editorial workflows.
Helps to transform data into business perspectives
Drupal can incorporate several business applications, which allows making the content powerful. The platform uses REST APIs to connect to other sites and apps. It helps your business to become more viable all through the equipment. The APIs start by concentrating on a leading feature in the updated platform version that enables you to forward Drupal content to various other platforms.
Make use of content as a service
Drupal, with its structured model as well as REST services, enables the content to get forwarded across native apps, social networks, and third-party sites. The platform, with its tools and open structure, makes sure that the content gets isolated from the delivery. It helps to promote great flexibility so that you can present your content in every format, across any channel.
It allows the mobile-first focus
Google has made it mandatory for websites to be mobile responsive. Else, the online users might leave a website and shift to another. It increases the bounce rate and also eats away the site’s capacity to attract web traffic. Hence, website owners need to create a mobile responsive website. Drupal’s mobile responsive design allows companies to develop websites that provide excellent user experience across several computing devices. Furthermore, the design practice of these websites helps to promote a favorable content experience, regardless of the device that the user is using.
These are some of the benefits of Drupal that make it a perfect platform for developing multiple websites. However, it is smart to call to get in touch with a leading website development company that can help you create the website using Drupal. Make sure that the company has experience in generating sites with Drupal and has the required expertise. You can check the past work records, customer feedback, and then arrive at an informed decision.