Asset management in general terms is organizing, sharing and keeping the record of the whereabouts of a physical asset or object. In digital terminology, asset management is the same, except it is done electronically, and the assets include the data, images, vectors, documents and other things that reside on your computer hard disk or over the cloud. It is similar for the CMSs like WordPress; digital asset management for WordPress is the process of storing, managing, sharing and organizing the media library and the digital assets within WordPress, by integrating a third-party DAM system.
For a big organization that needs to access these assets every single day, needs to organize their digital assets so that these are protected and accessible asap. Most of the times, due to the lack of proper management, people tend to spend most of their time in locating the needed digital assets as well as managing them. This way, the production, and efficiency are affected, too. So it becomes necessary for them to go for procedural management for their digital assets so that there is no waste of time and money.
Keeping the need for digital asset management in mind, many of the developers have come up with tools that can help you provide the needed assistance for organizing and managing your digital assets. There are many plugins and integrations that you can combine into WordPress and take control of your media files. If you are already using an asset management system that does not offer integration with WordPress, you can simply go for embedding the code for getting the media to your WordPress.
Reasons why you need a WordPress Digital Asset Management System for WordPress:
Though WordPress has got its own media library and everything is sorted in a way, there are a few features that WordPress lacks on, like the cataloging the media files and sharing it on different marketing platforms. Following are the other few reasons that will explain the need for a digital asset management system for WordPress:
Control Over the Digital Assets:
With a DAM system, you are well aware of where and how your assets are organized. Whenever you want to use any of the media in any of your page or post on WordPress, you just need to click the button next to media, and you can locate the very file in the manager. Easy search option is the most useful feature of every digital asset management system and asset tracking software, which saves a lot of your time
Elimination of Duplicate Assets:
The most popular digital asset management systems make sure that there are no duplicate assets in the storage and automatically deletes those assets, such that there is no confusing data and metadata related to that very asset in the system.
Ability to Edit the Images within the Manager:
Most of the digital asset management systems come with image editors, such that you do not have to go to a separate software for making the changes in the very images, and other objects.
Keep the Track of the Image Usage Rights:
A DAM system keeps the metadata for every single object stored on its database, such that it is always aware of the usage rights of every single asset it holds. These systems also make sure to remove the images as soon as the license for the usage expires for the same.
Improved SEO:
Google has always been favorable for the images that hold metadata. Metadata increases the discovery rate for every image by Google. And since, metadata is the key part of a DAM system having one integrated to your WordPress also results in improved SEO for your WordPress website.
Accessible from Different Locations:
Since the digital asset management systems are based on cloud, these are accessible by anyone who works on the same WordPress site, whether the designer or a marketer, but sitting at different offices in different locations. So it becomes easy for people to use the assets without any congestion in their work.
Easy and Effective Distribution of the Content:
With a DAM system, you are not only capable of using the assets efficiently on WordPress, but you can also use them easily, saving your time and money on the other different marketing platforms.
Along with these reasons, metadata is the one big reason for integrating the digital asset management systems to WordPress. A DAM system allows you to maintain the right information and the right keywords for the assets, such that the management is even more sorted.
