Content Management is something that can make your life easier when you want to update a site yourself. You securely login to the system, select the page you want to work on, and make the changes needed. It really can be that simple.
But there are a lot of different ways to do this. Active Server Pages (ASP) is one method, which is now easily read by the search engines. Personal Home Pages, or Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) is another method of content management, but does have some difficulty of getting the site indexed. But they are working on this and hopefully soon, this too will change and be another method to use. Cold Fusion is another method that for some sites it turns out to be the best option. But when do you need a Content Management system, and when don't you.
If you're someone who wants to update their own site and don't have any web experience or don't feel comfortable about changing html code, then this is definitely for you. It allows you to be able to add new pages, change your navigation around without having to pay anyone a single dime. It is a very cost effective way to maintain your site.
But what if you have no plans on updating your site? If you plan on using your web designer for all of your updating needs, then it would be better to go with an html version, and not an asp, php or coldfusion type of site. That has more to do with html being much more flexible from a design standpoint than a content management version. Templates, which is what content management software will create, are limited in what you can do with them. In html you have full functionality, and can create anything your heart desires.
So the short answer is if you want to update your site yourself, a content management system would be the best. To put them in order for how the search engines index them, asp, php and then coldfusion. Sticking with asp as the best method as of today.
