SEO Articles

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/mod_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.


MORE RESOURCES:

Internet Marketing News

SEO Consult Maintains Its Ranking as The UK's Number 1 Search ...
MSNBC - 6 hours ago
TopSEOs, the independent authority on search vendors, has ranked SEO Consult, the UK's leading Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) company, as the number one ...
There's No Shortcut to Good SEO...Or Is There? Search Engine Watch
SEO's View of Google's Greatest Achievements of 2008 Search Engine Roundtable
SEO Specialist Offers Free Services to Small and Midsize Companies PR Web (press release)
Practical Ecommerce (subscription) - CRN
all 38 news articles


Bruce Clay, Inc. Releases New Free SEO Tools
SYS-CON Media, NJ - 3 hours ago
Both tools compile select data from Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! and put only the most useful SEO information within easy reach. ...
Bruce Clay, Inc. Releases New Free SEO Tools International Business Times
all 8 news articles


Increase Traffic Using Article marketing, Article Submission and ...
Meadow Free Press, ID - 12 hours ago
If you are a business person and have a website, you may have heard the term SEO or search engine optimization. Article marketing is a very effective way to ...
New Free One-Stop Website Providing Expert Resources Launched ... 1888 Press Release (press release)
all 2 news articles


Fantastic Growth Propels USA SEO Pros into 2009
BigNews.biz (press release), MA - 1 hour ago
Now that the buzz of the holiday season is dying down, it’s time to get back to business at USA SEO Pros. The numbers are in for 2008, and it was another ...


This Time, SEO Gets Personal
Mediapost.com, NY - 10 hours ago
Tom Pick reminds us that CEOs and other executives need to appreciate the importance of their personal brand, but he doesn't mention that employees need to ...


How to use Google Analytics to Track SEO Rankings
Marketing Pilgrim, NC - 6 hours ago
With Google and other search engines continuing to roll out personalization updates, it is becoming increasingly difficult for SEOs to get an idea of their ...


SEO Googler How-Tos
Mediapost.com, NY - Jan 5, 2009
Get Google to read your keywords first. Things Google ignores. Don't link to sites in "bad neighborhoods." And, how to get your site listed in the search ...


Chart of the Week: SEM/SEO Most Important Marketing Tactic
Practical Ecommerce (subscription), Grand Junction - Jan 5, 2009
Search engine marketing and optimization, which embodies both SEO and pay-per-click efforts, were clearly the most important marketing tools in the survey ...


Jeremy's SEO Blog: You need Google Chrome
NewsFactor Network, CA - Jan 5, 2009
Ok, maybe need is strong word, but you should definitely check out Chrome, Google’s new web browser. I’ve downloaded it myself and found it to be pretty ...


SEW Experts: There's No Shortcut to Good SEO...Or Is There?
Search Engine Watch - 12 hours ago
In today's organic search engine optimization column, "There's No Shortcut to Good SEO...Or Is There?," Mark Jackson explains that anything less makes it ...

SEO - Google News

Home | Sitemap | Forums | Contact Us | Advertise
© 2006 SEO Articles. A Real Web Talk Presentation.
Network Sites : Index Rated Directory | SEO Care Directory | Humour Inc. | Free Mobile Ringtones | A1hosts | SEO Blog
the four required words