Any good CMS system will allow you to update can entire site by making a change one time in the admin that can carry over to all pages of your site. This means you can change the menu, side bar, page bottom, site design, or other sections of your site all at one time. So while some webmasters are changing every page, others can have the task completed in minutes.

Includes, Style Sheets and Content Management Systems

For the do it yourself webmaster, or a professional web designer looking to easily improve update efficiency, there is a middle ground between plain HTML pages and full-blown CMS.

By simply using an include on your sites, you can allow your entire site to be updated with one change. Includes are files that are included in a web page with one line of code. This allows all pages with that file included to be updated by changing the include file one time.

Style Sheets

Style sheets operate in much the same way as includes. One line of code calls a file capable of determining the look of text and graphics on the site.  Using style sheets can allow webmasters to change the entire look and layout of the site by changing one file.