Mind the Basics
Keep in mind the basics of the CMS, instead of the fancy stuff. The very basics are constructing, deleting, modifying, and managing the pages. Most people use these functionalities, and are looking for CMS that offer these essentials. Even if you cannot go for more showy features, keep these fundamentals good.
Easy Editing
It the most basic thing that is required in a CMS, and unfortunately, not many CMS lay stress on this feature, as most of them provide the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. The problem of this editor is that it gives too much control to the content provider, and the resulting pages look out of format with the CMS settings. A more intelligent approach is to provide the users with basic formatting, plus a few additional features, like adding links.
Looking for Something?
It is important that you provide a search link in your CMS, as most of the content providers look for information on the Internet. It is a good idea to add a search facility to your CMS. While evaluating a search facility, use the following metrics: speed, freshness, scope, thoroughness, ranking and customization.
Feedbacks
It is always a good idea to communicate with the users. They are the ones using your system, and they know if your system is lacking something. So always provide a feedback opportunity to the users, so you know where to improve.
Granting Rights
Control the users and their work by providing privileges to them. There should be certain rights that are exclusive to some user, or groups of users, but not common to all. For example, a user might be granted special rights to post marketing information, but not placing data on the home page.
Making Versions
Making versions is an excellent idea to allow users to correct their mistakes. The users might post some data by mistake, which they may want to change later. With the help of versions, they can simply switch back to the previous version, and the accidental changes would be undone.
Globalization
If your website is for a global market, it is best if you add multilingual support to it. This feature is good, even if your business is for a local market. Multilingual support always caters to the possibility of growth of business and attending to an international market.
Keep these points in mind while selecting the right CMS, for a better decision. Although there are lots of functionalities out there, but it is always better to start with the basics.