Out of the Fog Marketing

I'm reposting a blog post from Josh Freedman of Seattle's Web1Marketing that outlines wonderful criteria to evaluate if your company needs a content management system (CMS) for its website(s).

Clients often if they need a Content Management System (CMS) to help manage website changes. In theory, these systems allow organizations to effectively manage their own site changes. This post will delve into the pros and cons of using a CMS.

As their name implies, Content Management Systems are software packages that make website maintenance more systematic and (in theory) easier. Typical features include:

• Security — Password protected logins and different levels of control over site design and content.
• Multiple users with multiple roles — Different users can have different capabilities so that, for instance, many people can create new content, but only certain editors and administrators can make those changes part of the live website.
• Templates — Standardization of web sites and site sections, and removing the need for special formatting of each new piece of content. Also enables some things to be changed site-wide very easily.
• Simplified content creation and editing — Most common CMSs allow users to create and edit content without knowledge of HTML and CSS.
• Task automation — Automatic creation of menus, navigation tools, sitemaps, RSS feeds, etc.
• Expanded functionality — Many CMS systems support “plug-ins” that provide additional functionality like blogs, email list management, usage statistics, etc.
• Lower cost — Simplified content creation and editing saves time and reduces the reliance on technical services and outside vendors.

The above list is by no means complete, but they summarize the basic capabilities and point out the most popular benefits. There are hundreds of different CMSs that offer a variety of additional capabilities that may be valuable for particular situations.

The most common alternative to a CMS-based strategy is to built websites using standard HTML and CSS (and perhaps limited use of ASP or PHP). Much of the initial design and development work is the same for sites that do and do not use CMSs. You will either have to know or pay for HTML expertise to make changes, but there are tens of thousands of people and firms that can help, which cannot be said of event the most popular CMS.

So what are the downsides of CMS use? Well, there are many potential challenges:

• Software cost — There are many open-source (hence “free”) CMS tools, but there are many that cost hundreds to thousands of dollars.
• Installation and configuration cost — Any CMS must be setup and configured for a particular site design, group of users, initial information organization, and any additional features of the CMS or integration of other tools. This process requires significant technical expertise and experience with that particular CMS. The required level of expertise is typically much greater (and more expensive) than HTML and CSS authoring. Typical installation and configuration costs run from the thousands to tens of thousands of dollars.
• Database dependence — Virtually all CMSs rely on database software. This adds technical dependencies that static websites do not share and may require the skills of database experts for advanced configuration issues.
• Lack of portability — Unlike static websites, CMS-based sites typically require a variety of technical steps to be relocated from one server to another, and the underlying server software usually needs to be the same. Moving a static site is usually as simple as copying files form one location to another.
• Maintenance — While a CMS may make creation of content easier, systematic changes to a site require expertise with the particular CMS and specific implementation, and they can be expensive.
• User training — Content authors, editors, and anyone else who will be using the CMS must be trained on its use, which includes how NOT to create new problems in configuration.
• Upgrading — A CMS is a piece of software that must be upgraded periodically to insure that any security patches or bug fixes are implemented in a timely manner.
• Vendor dependence — The cost of making systematic changes is usually lower if you work with the people that installed the CMS because of system and installation-specific knowledge. This makes it much harder to cost-effectively to change vendors.
• Security — Any software that allows multiple users introduces the risk of abuse by a user or someone who gains access through other means. The risk rises as more users are granted access. Integration with other systems (e.g. lead management) can introduce security risks for those systems.
• Breadth of failure — In a site that relies on “static” HTML and CSS, problems are typically isolated to a particular page and are not catastrophic. Problems in any software-dependent system can bring down an entire site. Such instances are rare, particularly with high quality CMSs and skilled vendors, but the risk is not zero.
• Feature additions — If you need a capability that your CMS doesn’t offer, it may require custom programming that requires integration with the existing system. This can be simple or it can get very complex, and any integration may complicate subsequent upgrades to the CMS.

With all of these challenges, it should be pretty clear that for very small sites and those that are changed infrequently, CMSs can be a very poor investment. For larger sites or those that require frequent updates from multipe authors, a CMS might be a good solution.

Labels: cms, Internet marketing, website design, website development

Welcome to the last installment of my Wow with Web Copy series. In past blog posts I've discussed setting website goals, finding the most effective key phrases and setting up a web content template. Today I'll address writing the actual on-page copy for a site.

Step 4. Write keyphrase-rich headers & body copy with anchor text links. Now that you know the primary and secondary phrases you are targeting on your page, you need to figure out how you can link to other pages within your site. Since your homepage is probably going to have the most authority in Google’s eyes (link juice to pass on), you’ll especially want to ensure you have keyphrase-rich links off your homepage.

As an example, consider the copy on the Clarity Quest homepage in the graphic below. We link to several sub-pages within the Clarity Quest site. We also use keyphrase-rich copy "Marketing Agency...Technology Companies" in the H1 header.


We've also put a small flash area at the top of the page and it's here where we inserted our snazzy copy which is not keyphrase-rich, but eye-catching and attention-grabbing.

There is a Google penalty if you try to stuff too many links into a page, especially if you put a whole bunch in the footer. The key is to provide just enough links so you are guiding the user to particular areas of your site and not putting in links just for their own sake. If you write for a site visitor, Google rarely penalizes you.

I hope this four-part series has been helpful for those who write copy for websites. As always, I welcome any feedback.

Labels: on page seo, SEO, web marketing, website design, website development

A List Apart is “calling all designers, developers, information architects, project managers, writers, editors, marketers, and everyone else who makes websites” to take part in their second survey of the industry. The results are compiled in an effort to build a more accurate view of a very nebulous profession—including salaries, employed versus freelance status, job titles, and more.

You can participate in the survey at http://aneventapart.com/survey2008/

Download the results from the 2007 survey at http://alistapart.com/articles/2007surveyresults

Labels: surveys, website development

Anyone who builds websites knows the scenario: a big launch is inevitably delayed waiting for the content. In a recent article on A List Apart, Pepi Ronalds makes a compelling case for specifically using editors rather than copywriters on web projects, to combat what she calls “Content-Delay Syndrome.” Not only will a trained editor keep the process moving, especially if employed on a project from the start, an editor will also leave the power of developing the content in the capable (and often willing) hands of the client, the presumed subject matter expert.

Labels: copywriting, editing, website development

About 6 months ago, I got this crazy notion that it was time for a website upgrade. Our company's website simply did not reflect the quality of work in our client portfolio. However, I was scared to death of losing our great Google and Yahoo! SERP rankings especially since we needed to upgrade from ASP to ASP.NET which involved a URL name change (gulp). About 50% of our leads come from the web, so this was a big deal.

With our Seattle .NET expert, Promolab, we were able to maintain or improve our SERP rankings. Thanks to Jim and Cari Drake for providing the following steps in how we went about upgrading from ASP to ASP.NET.

Our first step was to plan out the page structure for the new site. Not only is this an absolute must to determine the navigation structure but it helps define the needed content as well. This plan was also what we used to plan our 301 redirects. Our goal was not only to never have a broken link on the site but to direct search engines to crawl the appropriate pages for indexing and never come up short on a page that no longer exists. We mapped out each existing .asp page to its new corresponding .aspx page. We then built the site from the plan using the new page names.

Once the site was complete our final checklist before going live was threefold.

First, using backup copies of all the old .asp pages, we replaced the content of each .asp page with a 301 redirect going to its corresponding new .aspx page. If an older page was being retired, we simply set the redirect to the home page or a page with similar content. See http://www.webconfs.com/how-to-redirect-a-webpage.php for 301 redirect examples. You can test your code by visiting one of many free tools like the redirect checker at http://www.webconfs.com/redirect-check.php.

Second, we took the time to build a Google-compliant sitemap.xml page containing each new page on the site. For help with sitemaps, see http://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.php. The sitemap can then be registered with Google. See http://www.google.com/webmasters/

And last, we added the appropriate robots.txt containing the location of our sitemap.xml file to the site to ensure that the search engines are crawling what we want them to crawl. see http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/03/speaking-language-of-robots.html for more information.

Happy upgrading!

Labels: 301 redirect, asp, asp.net, google, links, SERP, upgrade, website development

Visit our new website to get some great free technology marketing giveaways including a sample marketing budget in Excel format and a whitepaper on determining the right marketing budget for your company.

Labels: clarity quest, Excel, marketing budget, marketing budget amount, marketing technology, spreadsheets, template, website development

Site Maps Point the Way to Better Search Rankings

One of the simplest things you can do to improve your company's natural search rankings is post a well-constructed and properly coded site map on your website. Site maps are a great way to be found by the search engines. A properly-constructed site map provides anchor text links to pertinent pages throughout a Web site.

For small sites below 100 pages, you can provide links in the sitemap to every page. Larger sites should categorize the site and provide links to only the most relevant pages throughout the site.

Google's Webmaster Guidelines page has several tips for creating and then submitting your website's sitemap.

Labels: Michigan SEO, search engine optimization, sitemaps, web site maps, website development

Designing a New Website? Think Sitemap First.
There seems to be alot of buzz around designing new websites these days. The process is more complicated than ever since firms want great a great storefront, amazing search engine rankings AND a creative design. Balancing these requirements is much easier if you start with a web outline or sitemap. Many small to medium-sized firms just hand over a web project to a creative agency without goals or exacting requirements. This is a recipe for disaster.
Seeing the entire structure of a website on screen or paper makes it much simpler to design the right side the FIRST time. When interviewing creative agencies or marketing firms for your next web marketing project, ask them about their pre-production process and make sure you are getting all your requirements meet to save costly re-works later.

Labels: web marketing, website development