What is the point of having a website, if you don't keep it up to date with fresh exciting content? Better yet, what is the point of having a website that you do update, but requires changing static html pages developed years ago? Most of you have long since upgraded technologies and have already thought about clicking away. But, before you do, ask yourself; do you truly understand all the technologies behind your website? Have you been properly trained on how to deploy them? Or is your idea of content management signing into your website and copying an article you read in Word and publishing it? If you are hitting all of your website goals and business is great, then so be it. But, if you want to maximize the results coming through your website, you must not only employ as many various methods of marketing as possible, but you must brand each component consistently and effectively, as well as implement each properly.

When you look for a new platform to have your site developed on, or your web design company tells you which they use, ask as many questions as possible. Know what you need prior to seeking it. Above all else, stay on track with your business plan. You are the expert in selling your product or service. Not the company designing your site. You should obviously ask them for advice on how to use their toolsets to sell more. Or, better yet, they should be advising you unsolicited as to what you should be doing.

Here are a few things to think about and have in mind when beginning your planning.

Web 2.0 - The web has changed immensely in the last few years. Thinking is radically different than it was just 5 years ago. Certainly you've heard the term "Web 2.0" thrown around, and most likely dismissed it as another empty Internet marketing ploy (I know I did - and continue to do). Web 2.0 is a highly misused term and you should therefore be skeptical when you are pitched on that alone. However, the ideas behind Web 2.0 have roots dating back to the 90's. Long term goals that have finally come to fruition. Essentially, community building and networking in as many different ways as you can to brand yourself. Sharing information across the web is now easier than ever before and there are thousands of applications you can leverage to get your name out there in front of buyers. There’s no longer an excuse other than sheer laziness.

Over the next few weeks I am going to examine various technologies available to assist you in marketing your website, as well as some that will enhance your existing customer relationships or increase your internal productivity. Today though, I am going to discuss some basic platforms upon which you can build your new site.

Regardless of what type of site you are assembling, there are three types of programs that should be able to satisfy 99.9% of your needs. In order of best probable solutions, starting with the most likely first, those are Content Management Systems, Blog Software, and Shopping Cart Software.

Content Management Systems, in my opinion are the best choice for any web site. There are thousands of solutions out there and selecting one can seem a daunting task. A good CMS will offer both Content Management and Website Management, allowing you to not only add articles, media, etc., but also add functionality in the form of add-on modules. Enterprise solutions are costly, but I will not be reviewing these, as I can’t speak intelligently to their features, and personally think the readers of this blog are looking for smaller, more cost effective sites for their business. Rather, I will be discussing open source solutions which can be implemented rapidly, learned easily, and accomplish nearly everything their proprietary counterparts charge so much for.

The three best open source content management systems are, in my opinion, 1.) Joomla!, 2.)Drupal, and 3.) E107. I have used each extensively, and personally believe Joomla! provides the best platform of any content management system on the planet, although the admin interface can be slightly confusing to new users. Drupal is a very close second. E107 has nearly the same functionality as the two aforementioned, but you should make sure you have an expert in E107 before choosing the system, because the support is lacking compared to Joomla! and Drupal.

Joomla! offers a solid platform to develop literally any type of site on. They have thousands of developers who have contributed functionality that you merely plug into your site once it is in place. The core system itself offers complete content creation and publishing based on user permissions, scheduled dates, etc. You can have employees or other content creators login to the frontend or backend and enter their content in an editor which looks very much like Word. Based on the user’s permissions level, they can either publish the content immediately or set a start and end date for publishing. If you would prefer someone to approve the content prior to publishing, the article will be placed in a queue for approval by an administrator, publisher, etc.

As for URLS of the content, all three systems have the ability to write SEO friendly URLS. Drupal is the most SEO friendly system out of the box, but extensions will allow for any to write equally efficient names. Note the URL of this page “Blog.html.” It’s always better to have logical URLS for search engines to index, rather than index.php or asp followed by a “?” and a string of unrelated variables. You should always make sure your web designer enables this functionality prior to launching your site and having search engines index the content.

Make sure your front page not only briefly introduces your company, but also displays the most recent relevant content additions. This will ensure dynamic, fresh content is displayed on a regular basis for both users and search engines to notice. No one likes a static front page that hasn’t changed in 3 plus years.

Content Management systems allow for an area of page landscape for nearly everything. The navigation, main body, header and footer, sidebars, banners, etc., are all individual pieces of content that are pieced together by your web site template to form the page. These pieces call out to the database each time the page is loaded and the content is inserted then. Meaning you can modify individual elements by themselves, while leaving others the same, to ensure the page will always look different and provide new and useful information to your viewers as necessary, i.e. sales, announcements, press releases, new polls, ads, links, etc. The possibilities are endless here.

Additional benefits of these CMS platforms, is that they all have administrative backend functionality, which allows for you to manage your business on the backend, should you so choose. Billing systems, shopping cart administration, event scheduling, project management, time tracking, task lists, internal announcements, etc. This gives you one central location to serve both your customers and employees, with all data contained in a database separate from the content, easily accessible for reporting, syndication, etc.

If you’ve had positive or negative experiences with any of these CMS implementations, or another that I haven’t mentioned, feel free to chime in. The selection of CMS platforms is monstrous, and there are many solutions out there that I haven't mentioned.

Over the next few weeks, I will be discussing the plugin functionality for these systems, and how you can easily work with those modules to enhance your online presence and bring your marketing strategy online up to par with where it needs to be. Let me know if there are any areas you would like reviewed specifically and I will try to get them on the list.