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When CMS Met SEO - Using the Power of Content Management Systems
Copyright 2004 Gobala Krishnan
Search Engine Optimization revolves around providing
useful, unique content on your website and making sure that
search engines can find and understand it easily. 'Organic
SEO' as it is called, puts emphasis on optimizing hundreds
of keyword rich content pages as 'spider-bait' for search
engines, with Google being the most popular target.
While organic SEO in itself boils down to a few simple
techniques and a lot of hard work, the most tedious of
those is always adding and managing content. If you're a
webmaster lost in a world of dead links, missing pages,
distorted images and a site structure that beats any maze,
you're not alone. Such is the nightmare that many
Dreamveawer-and-Notepad type of webmasters hide.
What is CMS?
CMS, or Content Management Systems, is a great alternative
to using manual WYSIWYG HTML editors, website builders, and
all the others kinds of expensive website tools in the
market. CMS applied solely to the purpose of creating and
managing websites are also knows as Web Management Systems.
A short excerpt from StepTwo.com on the definitions of CMS:
" A content management system (CMS) supports the creation,
management, distribution, publishing, and discovery of
corporate information. It covers the complete lifecycle of
the pages on your site, from providing simple tools to
create the content, through to publishing, and finally to
archiving. It also provides the ability to manage the
structure of the site, the appearance of the published
pages, and the navigation provided to the users."
Advantages Of Using CMS for Your Website
Here are a few often overlooked advantages of using CMS for
your web project, from a search engine marketing point of
view:
1) Easily Create, Publish and Manage Content
With page editors that resemble a word processor program,
adding content with a CMS interface is simple and fun. Most
CMS software also allows you to change the location of your
content pages and links easily, while the back end
processes takes care of updating the links throughout your
site.
Done manually, reorganizing a website's content,
particularly a large one, can cause a webmaster some pretty
restless nights.
CMS also allows the website owner to outsource content
remotely from willing contributors. With built in access
level hierarchies, users can register as Authors and start
submitting articles and news. This is then automatically
sent to the next in line, the Manager, and on to the Editor
and finally the Publisher or Administrator, and then it can
be automatically published on the front page as new content.
And SEO specialists know that search engines love new
content, above everything else.
2) Create a Solid Website Structure
While search engine spiders can maneuver your website like
a human being can't, they too are fond of websites with
good structures and easy-to-find content. Most CMS software
can automatically create menus and navigation from
categories that you set. Once you create a new category or
subcategory, you can instantly publish it on all your
pages, with the click of a button.
According to popular SEO wisdom, search engines spiders do
not index pages more than 3-4 levels deep on your website
structure. In response to this, some CMS software also
allows you to put all your content on the first level, for
example "http://www.yoursite.com/article236.html'. However,
using the CMS' control panel, you will still be able to see
all content within their respective folders and
subcategories.
3) Search Engine Friendly Capabilities
This is perhaps the most significant development in Content
Management Systems. As more businesspeople and SEO begin to
dig deep into CMS, the need for spider-friendly pages has
taken center stage. Recent advancements have enabled CMS
users to install modules (sometimes already built in) to
make it appealing to search engines. The latest CMS
software can create keyword rich pages, titles, meta tags
and even anchor text.
That, coupled with advanced search engine spiders being
able to go deep into databases to index pages, is set to
turn Content Management Systems into the next big organic
SEO tool. In fact, search engine friendly CMS even makes
organic SEO specialists, sad to say, sort of 'obsolete'.
Make CMS Work for Your Web Business
Most content management systems are available for free, or
at a minimum costs, under the GNU General Public License
(http://www.gnu.org). While there are literally hundreds of
available CMS out in the market, these websites are a good
guide for choosing a right one for your website or internet
business:
CMS Comparison: http://www.cmsmatrix.org
Try Out Various CMS: http://www.opensourcecms.com/
Search Engine Friendly CMS: http://pss.sfidreamteam.com
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Gobala Krishnan is an internet marketer and home business
owner. Visit his site at
http://www.home-business-association.com today to learn how
you can set up your home based or small business for
maximum profits.
More articles by Gobala Krishnan - http://www.submityourarticle.com/articles/Gobala-Krishnan-225/
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