How to Choose a Content Management System

by: Collyn Floyd




Content Management Systems (CMS) are a dime a dozen. In fact, if all you want to do is add, edit, and delete web content, you can probably find a basic CMS for free. A truly great and useful CMS, however, should give you powerful Search Engine Optimization tools that allow you to optimize your own page data, be web standards compliant, and be customizable based on your business's needs. In short, it should give you a whole arsenal of tools so you can achieve measurable results on your website.

Why a Search Engine-Friendly CMS?

Dynamic content (the kind of content generated from a CMS) and the search engines have had a long, rocky relationship. That's because when a typical CMS generates dynamic content, it creates long URLs with variables that the search engines may have difficulty interpreting. In some cases, the search engines flat-out ignore these URLs. Although the search engines are getting better at "digesting" dynamic content, you could have pages (sometimes hundreds of them) not being indexed by the search engines.

Unlike a basic CMS, however, a search engine-friendly CMS is able to generate dynamic content that is easily crawled by the search engines and easily understood by your users. Here's why that's important:

First, it allows your site to be indexed by the search engines. That's because it generates URLs that are readable, not a bunch of nonsense. This is great for the user because the URL will actually make sense to them, making the URL easier to remember and share. As a result, this helps the search engines reach their ultimate goal, which is creating the best possible user experience.

A search engine-friendly CMS will generate URLs that looks like this:
http://www.company.com/products/cowboy-boots

Instead of long, messy URLs like this:
http://www.company.com/products/display_product.jsp? prodline=BrandA+MT%2FR&brandID=01_ COMPANY&mrktarea=Cowboy+Boots&size=Z481%3G66Q27&style=MNR&style=1847& length=25&shipping=31

Second, it allows you to optimize your website for the search engines, giving you control over page titles, alt-text and meta-data, thereby the opportunity to gain greater visibility in the search engine results.

Finally, it eliminates the issue of duplicate content within the CMS. If you have the same product, for instance, posted in different areas of your site, a search-friendly CMS will create one URL for that piece of content, removing any fears of having the same content with multiple URLs (another no-no with the search engines, as well as for usability reasons).

Make it User-Friendly, Too

If a CMS isn't totally simple and user-friendly, then it's hardly of any use to you. And if it doesn't generate user-friendly content, then that creates frustrations for your customers.

An SEO-friendly CMS should comply with the web standards established by the W3C, a board that puts emphasis on high levels of usability and accessibility, both on the user side and behind the scenes. You should be able to control all the little details like navigation, link text and short URLs, just to name a few.

Don't Forget About Customization

If you try to fit your business into a pre-packaged solution, you're bound to run into trouble. Just like your business isn't exactly like anyone else's, your web needs aren't going to be like anyone else's either.

Maybe you need a CMS that ties into legacy networks and systems, or integrates with your QuickBooks or MAS Accounting Software. Perhaps you need a password-protected administrative area for business partners, or custom reporting (i.e., how many times a form was submitted). A custom CMS can be shaped and molded easily to accommodate these features.

Let's Recap

A search engine-friendly, customizable CMS has all kinds of features that make it a better choice than a basic CMS. Here's a checklist of what it should do:

* Follow web standards guidelines (W3C)
* Generate short, clean URLs
* Separate keywords in the URL with hyphens (the search engines recognize hyphens as the only means to separate words in a URL)
* Generate URLs that are useful to both site users and the search engines
* Allow dynamic generation of all meta data based on individual page content
* Give you the ability to hand optimize meta data on each page
* Eliminate any fears of duplicate content (i.e., only 1 URL for each piece of content or unique product)
* Allow navigation that doesn't require cookies, letting the search engines index deeper into your site
* Store the Session ID in a cookie, not the URL
* Give you the ability to control navigation, site architecture and link text
* Dynamically build a site map, as well as an XML site map that includes all content automatically

If you want control over your site, but also the ability for it do well in the search engines and grow with your business, then do yourself and your business a huge favor: take a pass on the CMS freebies and invest in a flexible, search engine-friendly custom CMS that will help you to generate long-lasting results.