Step 5: Build Website

It is finally time to build your website — by which I mean actually start putting your content into a content management system (CMS).

If you have followed the process outlined in this module, you will have already decided upon and and had approved your:

• Information architecture
• Navigation
• Content
• Page layout

This makes it easy to build your website, as you are just implementing decisions that have already been approved. Once you build each page, you should let your stakeholders review for a final pass, but changes should be very minimal at this point.

Choosing Your CMS

The Aggie UX theme is available for Cascade and WordPress. Your unit can choose the continent management system that works best for its needs. Each platform has advantages and disadvantages.

Cascade

Cascade is probably the best option if you have a large website or if you are already using Cascade. It can handle websites with hundreds or even thousands of pages and documents and dozens of users.

WordPress

WordPress is probably the best option if you have a small website, a news site or if you are already using WordPress. WordPress is great for managing small to medium sized websites with a few dozen webpages and simple navigation.

WordPress can be clunky when managing sites with hundreds or thousands of webpages, especially if there are many layers of nesting where there are pages that are children of other pages. It can handle a large number of news articles or blog posts but that can slow it down.

Technical Considerations for Choosing Your CMS

In addition to the size of your site, you should review the following technical considerations when choosing your CMS.

	Cascade	WordPress
Functionality	Both CMS implementations have effectively the same functionality and provide the same user experience for users visiting your website. Please note, functionality and features may not be introduced at the same time. Check component-specific documentation to see whether or not it is currently available in Cascade or WordPress.
Security and Compliance	Cascade is significantly more secure than other content management systems because it does not have server code or databases to hack and front-end content is hosted on a separate system to the CMS itself. Advanced user permissions make it possible to limit editing for specific users to specific folders or pages on your site, and workflows can be enabled to require approvals before content is published. Additionally, Cascade has more guardrails in place to help ensure accessibility compliance.	WordPress is less secure than Cascade, and even more so if you add plugins. While plugins have the potential to add functionality and features to your site, there is more risk that these plugins will introduce security vulnerabilities, not meet accessibility compliance, and not be compatible out-of-the-box with the Aggie UX theme.
Support and Maintenance	Cascade CMS is a service provided by Technology Services, which provides central support for the platform. This includes technical support, user management, hosting and more. Additionally, we have more Aggie UX-specific documentation available for Cascade at this time.	WordPress is not a centrally-provided service and there are no master contracts or negotiated rates for hosting. If you use WordPress, you will be responsible for all technical maintenance, user management, hosting and more. We are in the early stages of creating Aggie UX-specific documentation for our theme.