The Click Depot Blog

Archive for December, 2009

Some people have heard about a CMS or content management system, for managing the content they put in their articles, blogs and websites. A CMS is a web application that uses a database to help you create and edit your content. Usually a database allows you to edit or create part of the web application on the “backend” and website viewers to your site will see it in the proper format on the “frontend”.

Because they help you do all kinds of things, like create, control, edit and manage your content simply and easily, it can sometimes depend on what you want to do with your CMS. It can also depend on how many people will be using it, if you have a large company where multiple users need to change content on various web pages at different times. Bigger isn’t always better when you are choosing a CMS for your website.

For the everyday publisher that has a blog, you could use smaller versions that start around $100. Those that are into larger scale websites might use systems that are geared for multiple users and can handle large scale websites with a lot of web pages and content, but some commercial CMS programs run all the way up to $10,000.

The question is how to choose a CMS for your website and your particular situation. If you are looking for a CMS for a blog, you want it easy to use for the average person, even if you are more technically savvy. Pick a CMS with a simple administrative interface and customize it if you need to. Research the different CMS solutions, because the most popular open source CMS products might not be geared to the average person in your community of content managers.

That is one reason you don’t want a computer geek picking out the CMS because some of the best known are written in code and others have a good user interface, but aren’t that well known. You want to find a CMS that offers quick and easy installation, simple administration interface, allows you to change a template easily, offers support of some kind and offers quick and easy extension of the CMS for additional features.

You have to consider who will be using the CMS, the current process for creating and updating the content on your website and if there are improvements that can be made with a CMS that doesn’t involve an IT genius to figure it out. If you have off-site contributors that need easy access and can make quick changes to mistakes, you might need a CMS that is capable of allowing multiple remote users, for example.

If your content is kept separate from the presentation, you need to consider whether the content can be maintained separate of the visual presentation in HTML, PDF or print. You also may need to consider the ability of your CMS to grow as your needs increase. This is helpful to re-design websites that change often, but can be costly if you have to hire the job done.

When figuring out how to choose a CMS for your website, consider the user friendliness of the interface, the people that will be using it and how much content management you will be doing.

Image Courtesy: http://gbcg.co.uk/content_management.aspx

Those looking to draw revenues from ads on a website will need to make sure that their ads remain perennially effective. This is even more important for those that place click through ads on their sites which are intended to deliver the much needed financial boost required to enhance income potential. Unfortunately, a problem can raise its head that can undo a great deal of the impact of the ads. What is this problem? It would be the issue of ad blindness which is another way of describing a sense of numbness visitors have towards the ads on a particular website. How does this numbness develop? Basically, the problem derives from frequent visitors to a site just becoming a little too used to the ads. They start to see the ads as a type of background noise that they begin to ignore. Once your ads become the embodiment of peripheral non-importance, they lose an enormous amount of their value. Thankfully, there are steps you can take to reduce the issue of ad blindness and start enhancing your site’s monetary potential once again.

One such way to do this would be to place smaller and fewer ads on the site. Now, some may read this with an incredulous expression on their face. How can you place fewer ads on the site and gain greater results? Well, when you put too many ads on a site, you may end up numbing the people that frequent the site into not paying much attention to the ads. That means they won’t click on them. However, when you employ smaller and fewer ads, you may draw people’s attention back which leads them to being more likely to click on the ads. As odd as this form of “reverse psychology” is, it is most definitely an effective method to employ.

It also does not hurt to weave popular and interesting content near the ads. Do you have a really cool video podcast that people will love to watch? If so, you may wish to place the ads a lot closer to the media player that will present the podcast as opposed to centering the podcast in the page and then placing the ads far off into the margin. After all, you do want people to click on the ads so why move them too far away from the content people would be most interested in? Such a strategy of closer proximity and fewer ads could lead to great results than people imagine possible.

Even when the content of your site is merely text and basic photos, you can boost effectiveness by properly integrating the ads in with the text by using similar colors and fonts. This has the psychological advantage of making the ads look like a natural part of the website as opposed to some distracting foreign element.

Really, the steps to reducing ad blindness are not as tough as some assume. Following these few simple can go quite far in terms of being able to reduce the problem.

Image Courtesy: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/index.cfm?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=116633

Everybody knows that links can increase your website traffic, just like search engine optimized or SEO content and PPC or pay per click advertising does. When it comes to link building on the fast track, there are a few ways to get results quickly. The key to link building is to think of ways that you can combine SEO content with the sources that are trusted links, which can get you the most relevant traffic.

If you are looking to build links on particular websites that are relevant, always make sure they are trusted links that can be verified by Google algorithms that check for the domain age and user data content. You can get spammed if you are linking to sites that get spammed, so you want to be careful where you build your links.

To consider the 5 simple steps for fast link building, you have to consider that some may work better for certain websites than others, but there are many ways that you can get on the link building fast track:

Article directories:

Some people have found that article directories can help to increase your link building abilities, especially if you have the software programs that allow automatic submission to many of the directories at once. Of course, SEO content is important to get the relevant traffic you need for the best link building.

Social Networking or Bookmarking:

Everybody knows that the social networks are becoming a more popular way for people to communicate quickly. They are also a good way to get exposure for your link and website. These are easy for quick link building because you can set up a free account and get started “socializing” to start your link building quickly.

Blogs or Community Forums:

These are a popular way to start link building quickly. Almost everybody can find blogs or forums that are relevant to their products and services and you can start posting comments quickly and build your link into the comments. The main thing to keep in mind is that you don’t overdo it because you can end up getting spammed. It’s a great way to build back-links and it is simple and doesn’t cost anything.

Outsourcing to Professionals:

There are companies that can build hundreds of links in a matter of hours. These services will cost you a fee, but if they are good links, you can increase the traffic to your website quickly and start making more sales. There isn’t too much effort involved and some of the SEO and Internet marketing companies have access to quick link building tools, which can jump-start your link building.

Gimmicks:

Quick link building can involve any number of gimmicks, from press releases, freebies, lists that can generate a lot of different links and even suing a company everybody dislikes can generate all kinds of publicity. Think of ways that gimmicks work in traditional advertising and use them to help you build links to your website quickly. Even listing your products on Amazon, reviewing them and listing your company background can give you link building on a trusted website.

Image Courtesy: http://dailyseoupdates.com/effective-link-building-tips-key-to-success/

When you want to use flash SEO, you have to keep in mind that flash can be a great tool to put a lot of content in a small space or you can use it for slide shows, videos and more. The biggest problem with flash is that it might not be recognized by the majority of search engine spiders and another thing to consider is that flash SEO should be used sparingly because half of America uses dial-up Internet and the flash portions of your page can take a while to load.

1. Flash SEO needs to be coded so that it is not overlooked by the search engines and you need to be sure that you provide HTML content, too. Clean design, SEO, easy accessibility for a variety of browsers, including the correct functionality for Internet Explorer are important objectives to consider when using Flash SEO. If the flash can’t be read, then the primary content becomes important. Using a JavaScript function called swfObject detects when the browsers are capable of reading flash and when a version of flash player exists the function replaces the primary content with the flash movie. Externalizing the code to display the flash is important for loading speed and accessibility for the spiders.

2. Placement of the flash movie can be important. You don’t want to put it where the typical banner ads are placed, for example, or it might get ignored. It’s bad enough that search engine spiders might ignore it, but you don’t want the visitors to your site to. Usually, the upper left portion of the screen is best.

3. Size is another factor to consider when using flash SEO. The flash shouldn’t take up more than half of the screen. For one thing, you need to have room for the primary content that will be the default for the search engine spiders. Another thing to consider is that you should have important information on your home page, including site maps and other page links for easier navigation.

4. Don’t use flash SEO to sell your products or services. It should be used to highlight the description, but the most important information should be in written content so that your website visitors can absorb the information at their own pace.

5. When using flash SEO, first design your pages as though you aren’t using flash. You have to progressively design your websites starting with your content or the HTML files, then you can add the CSS, which controls the look and feel of the page and finally add the additional features like Flash, JavaScript or to handle anything that might not be handled automatically by the browser.

6. Stay away from full flash SEO web pages. Even if you embed text in the flash movie, it might not be picked up by the search engine spiders and you have to make sure that you are not cloaking text, which the search engines frown on.

7. Consider using a professional website designer that knows how to properly use flash SEO because it can make the difference in your website getting traffic and search engine ranking or not.

Image Courtesy: http://www.sfubiz.ca/misa/?page=CATT