Content Management Systems Eyeball SEOs

Content Management Systems and search engine optimization (SEO) used to be mutually exclusive terms. But the SEO community has been driving the developers of Content Management Systems to integrate more SEO-friendly methodology within their systems.

Content Management Systems (CMS) are a hot topic right now with many corporate websites are turning to these systems to handle thousands of pages of dynamic data that they need to update regularly. Content Management Systems allow information to be added, edited or deleted automatically over the entire website. This can save hundreds of hours in manual updates. Pages of content are generated on the fly using a template driven system.

When Content Management Systems were first developed, most had little regard for the requirements of search engine optimization. For some Content Management Systems this still holds true. Most CMS's, however, now have workarounds to accommodate those wanting to perform search engine optimization on their websites. The workarounds in the Content Management Systems involve two areas: writing search engine friendly URL's and creating individualized title and meta tags per page.

Writing Search Engine Friendly URL's

Some search engines (SE's) and directories like Google and Yahoo! can now read dynamic URL's but there are still a fair amount which can't or can only partially read them. The SE's like to see pages that have unique content per page and may limit the number of variable strings (i.e. ?, =. &) in a URL to assure unique content.

By using a web server module called Mod_Rewrite it is possible to remove the stop characters from the URL string, thus making it more SE-friendly. To do this you will need to add a rule to the .htaccess file. For more information, see the following article on the Apache website: http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.0/mod/mo d_rewrite.html

Creating Individualized Title and Meta Tags

Some Content Management Systems such the latest release from Hot Banana Software boast full integration with SEO performance such as offering Conversion Tracking tool, Robots.txt and Meta Tag Management. Other CMS's such as PostNuke.com is struggling to catch up and offer workarounds to make their system more flexible and SE-friendly.

PostNuke.com says that their next version (.8 release at this writing) will be fully SEO compliant. Until then, they recommend the pnMeta module, which will give control over the title, keyword and description tags over an individual page. Dynamically generated meta tag information, however, is not recommended. For more information see: http://www.miragelab.com/News+article-sid- 19.phtml

What Does CMS Mean For SEO's?

Search engine optimization experts and others using SEO techniques will need to work closely with Webmasters and developers who use Content Management Systems on their web properties. This collaborative effort is necessary to insure that URL's are SE-friendly and that unique title and meta tags are severed up for each optimized page. A large website with tons of valuable content, should rank well in the search engines according to the SE's guidelines and the CMS technology would do well not to inhibit this, but rather would do well to promote good search engine rankings for large websites.

Copyright © 2004 SEO Resource Search Engine Marketing Specialists

Kevin Kantola is the CEO of SEO Resource, a California search engine optimization company, and has published many articles over the past 20 years.

---

PPC v Natural Search ? A Cost Comparison Case Study

The attraction of Pay Per Click (PPC) online advertising is... Read More

Get Personal With Google

Anyone who's been on the net any time at all... Read More

Yahoo Dopey, MSN Goofy, Google is Mickey Mouse Lost in a Sandbox

Seventy-two days ago Googlebot first showed up and crawled over... Read More

Search Engine Marketing Simplified

All the great efforts made for making your own site,... Read More

Google PageRank Explained

1. What is PageRank? Here is what Google says:" PageRank... Read More

What In The World Is This Google Sandbox Theory Thing? And How Do I Beat It?

Ok, so over the past month or so I've been... Read More

Link Popularity Pitfalls

As we all know Google uses their PageRank technology to... Read More

Google Sitemaps Explained - How To Use Google Sitemaps

Three Ways To Index Your Site With Google Sitemaps [Difficult,... Read More

What is PageRank?

Chances are you have been on the Internet and have... Read More

Search Engine Indexing - 3 Strategies Guaranteed to Skyrocket Your Success

In order to design a website that performs well with... Read More

How Search Engines Work

Before anyone can start optimizing a web site, you must... Read More

Google Traffic Report Card-Does Your Website Pass? Part 1

This is part 1 of a 7 part series that... Read More

Choosing a good domain name isnt always so simple.

So you need a domain name for your brand new... Read More

The Myth of Rankings - Beyond Search Engine Optimization

What follows is a condensed version of a conversation that... Read More

Help Your Visitors Zero in with Site-Flavored Google search

As Google has gained in their search reputation the past... Read More

META Tags Explained and How To Use Them For Ranking

The META tags are used to provide extra information about... Read More

Finding Profitable Keyword Phrases

So you have a site concept developed that you are... Read More

Spamglish; A Search Engine Comedy With A Language All Its Own

When the movie Spanglish hit the screens in 2004, it... Read More

Feed Those Hungry WIIFM Monsters, Get Them To Multiply

Everyone packs their website with keywords in order to feed... Read More

Search Engine Optimization SEO Made Easy

SEO is a never ending battle! So is SEO... Read More

Fixed Point of Reference

According to author Frank Peretti, "A fixed point of reference... Read More

Does Google Hire Mad Scientists?

Online search giant, Google, often tests the waters for new... Read More

Anchor Text Optimization

Anchor Text (also called phrase linking) can significantly improve your... Read More

How Google Indexes Content From Your Web Directory

In a fluke, I was able to notice something about... Read More

Top 10 Little Used SEO Strategies

There are millions of web sites trying to get listed... Read More

SEO: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

I seem to have created quite a stir, on a... Read More

Link Popularity

In today scenario when we talk about Search Engine Optimization,... Read More

How Do I Improve My Web Site Conversion Rate? Part 2

Question 1Does it help to track visitor behavior on websites... Read More

9 Ways to Keep Google Happy

A recent Google patent application has the SEO community buzzing.... Read More

An Ethical Alternative to Doorway Pages

Definition: A doorway page is content created specifically for the... Read More

How Directories Help Search Engines

At the beginning of the web era, users would go... Read More

What Constitutes a Complete and Effective SEO Campaign?

Unfortunately, not many Search Engine Optimization companies know what this... Read More

Selecting The Title Of Your Link Exchanges

I want to touch base with selecting the title of... Read More