Chapters 7 and 8 guide the user through all of the advanced functionality made possible by 3rd party and custom-built modules. The gallery and form builder plugins are examined in detail which only helped to reassert the opinion I already had that these are the best gallery and contact form plugins available on any CMS. Next came the newsletters module which is a cool concept, but the book glossed over the fact that sending emails really should be done from a dedicated email server through a system outside of your CMS. Surprisingly absent was coverage of the blog, guestbook, and forum modules as these features show up time and time again on requirements lists.
Chapter 8 deals with creating new module by using the CTLModuleMaker module. That’s right, you can use a module making module to create a new module. The book walks the user through the steps of creating hierarchy, creating templates, and integrating the module into the site search. Thankfully most of this difficult work is prefaced by encouraging the user to thoroughly search existing modules for the desired functionality before tackling the somewhat difficult task of creating a brand new module. The idea of modifying and combining existing modules to achieve new functionality is also encouraged with an example of turning the general feedback module into a help ticket system.
These two chapters are really starting to get into the heart of CMSMS, but if you’re just a designer or an end user, you can probably put the book down at this point. For hardcore developers, these chapters mark the point where you should stop skimming and start really reading.
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In chapters 5 and 6 it starts to become really obvious what makes CMSMS so darn simple. Modules are a familiar part of any CMS but they’re often plagued with problems and difficult to configure, but alas, this is not so with CMSMS. The news module is given quite a bit of attention as it is part of default install and is so flexible it can create anything from a simple “latest headlines” widget to full blown multi-category blog with custom fields. The search module is then examined, which, admittedly, takes a bit more work to configure than searching in WordPress. Following the search module come an explanation of other default modules and their suggested uses – most of which really are astounding in their simplicity and usefulness. The image manager has a built in image editor, the menu manager can easily be used to create a sitemap, and the print module can print pages to PDF. Wow!
Following the exciting discussion on modules is the bit more dreary but incredibly important overview on users and permissions. As the chapter explains, the default user types are editor, design, and admin, and in my experience, these three always seems to be enough. For those who want to know about going beyond the default user types the book certainly provides more than enough information.
One somewhat confusing thing about this chapter is that at the very end of the users section the book discusses the archiver module. This module makes archives of all files and their changes across the site. It is presented in the chapter as a great tool to allow only the site admin to use, but I think it would have been better discussed in the modules chapter, or maybe the whole users and permissions chapter should have preceded modules. Oh well, there’s still been a lot of great info so far.
You can preview chapter 6 here.
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Chapter 4 is really what CMSMS is all about – creating templates quickly and easily. The first introduces Smarty tags and how they can be used in both templates and in content, and then details basic smarty parameters. Next the readers is shown how to create templates and link them to CSS files which culminates in an in-depth walk-through of starting with a static mockup on the local machine and creating a full CMSMS template. For any designer/developer unfamiliar with CMSMS, give this chapter a read and you’ll be amazed at how much easier creating a template is in this system compared to the miserable XML uploads of Joomla or the dozens of files to edit in WordPress. It literally only takes 5 minutes to create a static mock-up into a fully integrated template with CMSMS, so do yourself a favor and look into it.
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Chapter 3 deals with the Pages tab of the admin section, a logical next step after set up as this is the area most frequented by end-users. In fact, I daresay that this is the only section of the admin any content producers ever have questions about. The chapter of course covers the basics such as adding, deleting, and editing pages but it also explores some of the more complicated workings of Pages, including many features I did not know existed or never really got around to learning.
After reading this chapter I realized how easy it actually is to set up search engine friendly URLs, set the default template through site config, copy pages, and perform bulk page actions on multiple pages at once. I’ll definitely be working these features into my next CMSMS project!
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I’ve been lucky enough to have been offered a free copy of a new book from Packt Publishing called CMS Made Simple 1.6 – Beginner’s Guide to read and review. I plan on reading a few chapters a week and will post reviews as I go along. I kicked things off last week with the first two chapters and am pretty happy with the read so far.
The book opens by addressing the important questions of who, what, and why? A brief introduction explains who will most benefit from reading this book, what a CMS is, and why one should use CMS Made Simple. By introducing the concept of separating layers of code and explaining how a CMS easily enables this best practice, the book engages both the novice and the seasoned coder and then walks them through the installation process in the second chapter. This chapter reads as a friendlier version of the standard CMS Made Simple installation documentation, which anyone unfamiliar with concepts like databases and file permissions will surely appreciate. The chapter finishes by succinctly reviewing the administrative interface for the site. For those already familiar with CMS applications, I suggest you begin here as this is really the first bit of new material you will encounter, and for those who are novices, I recommend reading this part twice so that the following chapters are easier to follow.
Check out more about this book on the Packt Publishing website.
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This is a fairly exciting week for me in the world of CMS Applications. I am learning a new application called Zotonic which runs on Erlang which seems to be a hyrbrid framework/CMS. This is excellent for me as I was planning on picking up a framework anyway! I also was lucky enough to receive a free e-copy of a book about my favorite CMS, CMS Made Simple. I plan on reading it over the next few weeks and then posting a review when I’m done. Meanwhile, I’m still working on a few WordPress sites and am thinking about giving Drupal another try.
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I recently updated the tooltips that pop up on the header and footer links so that they have a slick little animation rather than just appearing after a slight delay. It’s a small change but I think it makes a big difference and to be honest, I’m always looking for an excuse to spend some more time with jQuery.
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I’ve added a new project to my portfolio, a website for a startup Financial/Tax advising company in the Milwaukee area. The site was designed and developed for WordPress using my new design and markup framework. The project gave me an opportunity to spend some more time in Illustrator, explore some new WordPress plugins, and work out the kinks in my framework (more on this to come).
Please take some time to visit Safe CPA.com.
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Much of the focus of articles about Search Engine Optimization deal with what the designer/developer needs to do and tends to overlook the other half of the battle – how to continually produce optimized content after the initial design. Maintaining, updating, and promoting the site is crucial for the long-term success in search engine rankings. Thankfully producing quality content through your CMS/Blog Platform is easy to do and yields enormous benefits!
Update Often
Small, meaningful, and frequent updates are loved by both your users and search engines. A search engine, just like someone browsing the web, will begin to think that a site which has not been updated in years is no longer relevant. Therefore, the longer your site sits with old content on it, the further back in search engine rankings you will find yourself. Keep content fresh by announcing news and updates, posting to a blog, and changing general information pages as your business grows.
Headings and Titles
Page titles and headings on the page are the quickest way for a search engine to determine a page’s content. Try to sneak keywords into page titles and headings as much as you can rather than making them generic. For example, try using “Gardening and Landscaping Services” instead of “Our Services” or “Mowing and Clipping Rates” instead of “Prices.” Also make sure to use the heading tags to style page headings rather than just formatting text to be large and bold. Heading tags will create the same look and feel and also provide the benefit of indicating to a search engine that this is important information.
Page Location
Search engines, like your readers (assuming they’re English readers), read a page from the top down and always consider information near the top more important than info towards the bottom. Therefore, keep your most important, keyword laden, frequently updated paragraph towards the top of your page and move images and static text below this.
Formatting
In addition to using heading tags for major headings on the page, bold and italic formatting can be used on key words to attract the search engine’s attention. Try “We are proud to be Milwaukee’s #1 Landscaping Company” rather than “Milwaukee’s #1 Landscaping Company”. Do not overuse bold and italic text and it’s both unappealing to readers and can actually reduce your search engine rank.
Use a Variety of Keywords
Remember that not everybody is going to use the same search keywords to try to find the same site. Some may type “landscaping,” others “yard services”, while others may search for something specific like “hedge trimming.” Talk to family, friends, and coworkers about words they would use to search for your business and do your best to use them all across your site. This ensures that someone will find you even if they are searching with a keyword you personally might not have associated with your site.
Don’t Repeat Yourself
Repeating the same keyword or phrase over and over raises big red flags to search engines. Search engines are smart enough to know that repeating one phrase in large, bold letters over and over is not a natural presentation and will assume that the site is a spam site attempting to attract attention. As a general rule, try to use a keyword or phrase no more than 3 times per page.
Images
Images are worth 1000 words to readers, but they’re only worth a few words to search engines. Try not to rely on images too much and when you do use images, make sure to use the title attribute. Give each image a meaningful title that both reflects what is depicted in the image and involves a keyword or two. If you upload an image of your latest landscaping project to your homepage try to give it a title like “Landscaping Project – Decorative Fence and Flowers by Your Company Name.”
Links on Your Pages
Search engines use links on your website as a major clue to the site’s purpose. Try to use keywords in links when linking to both outside sites and other pages on your site. For example, instead of “To find out more about our services, click here” write “More landscaping and gardening services.”
Links to Your Pages
Incoming links are incredibly valuable to your site’s search engine rankings. In fact, they are nearly as important as everything else in this article combined. Try to get links to your site from any other sites you might maintain, from friend’s or family’s sites, from other companies you do business with, and more. Try to find a directory that lists similar businesses such as http://www.thecityofmilwaukee.com/landscaping/index.html. One of the best ways to place some links back to your site is to read forums, online news stories, and other online articles and leave a comment that links back to your site. Do your best to get your site listed on as many other websites as possible!
Write Articles
On great way to get external links to your site is to submit content to other sites. Try writing an article for eHow, eZine, TellMeHowTo, Digg, Reddit, or any similar site. Make sure to create an author page with a link back to your site and potentially attract hundreds of new customers each time you publish an article.
That’s All, Folks!
Actually, that’s not all, but it’s a great start. Search Engine Optimization is an infinitely nuanced art that requires constant study and practice, but if you follow the steps outlined in this article, you should enjoy positive results with minimum effort.
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First of all, what is the plural form of CMS? Anyone? Anyone?
As part of the never-ending learning process I have decided to dedicate the next few weeks to a lot of projects I should have started years ago. To begin, I finally installed a working WAMP environment on my machine so that I can test server -side code, including CMS installations, locally. This should save me hours upon hours in development time in the future.
I also finally finished developing my own front-end web framework. It’s a hybrid of the 960 Grid System, my own default style preferences which I use in the vast majority of my projects, and 6 jQuery plugins which I always reuse. I realized after a while that I just kept running into and spending hours solving the same problems with each project I started, so I instead decided to work out all of the nitty-gritty details and create one clean web page with all the bells and whistles that works in all the major browsers. Now I should be able to just copy that source folder and apply project-specific colors and images and be done with most of the markup.
I’m also finally taking the time to learn all that there is in Photoshop and to learn Illustrator. I’ve never done vector illustrations before but as I’m doing more and more design work it’s becoming a dire necessity. I’ve only been at it a week and it’s been a bit more difficult than I would have hoped, but within a few weeks I should have the basics conquered.
Getting more familiar with the various CMS systems available is also a major item on my to-do list over the next few weeks. I’ve been using CMS Made Simple and WordPress, and I’ve decided that I just plain don’t like Joomla. I think I’ll take a look at the latest offerings from WordPress and CMS Made Simple as well as checking out Cushy CMS and maybe Drupal. Does anybody have any CMS recommendations?
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