So there I was talking to a perspective referral source at a networking event.  He suggested that we exchange links on our website.  It was definately a win-win relationship and I trusted him to provide great service to my clients so I readily agreed. 

He jokingly added that it would take a week or so to get the link up on his site because his website development company was a little slow to make such small changes because the work order was small and not worth much.  I told him I was sorry he had such trouble getting things done promptly.

I added that my biggest worry was that I wouldn’t get his link exactly as he wanted it, so I pulled out my iPhone, went to my website administration panel, chose the “links” section and selected “add link.”  I asked him exactly what he would like his link to say about his company.  I entered it in on my iPhone keyboard as he spoke.  I clicked “publish” and his link was live.  Just to add a “little magic” I offered to move his link to the top.  I clicked on “order links”, grabbed his link and slid it to the top.  I clicked publish. 

His draw dropped.  What the heck did you just do? (his language was a bit stronger!)

“I added your link and moved it to the top of my link page.” I then went to the “front end” of my website, clicked on the “links” page and showed him it was live. 

I not only got a great referral source but a work order to convert his company’s website to our CMS based system.

I love my iPhone.  Before I bought it I had a cell phone, in fact I had many of them.  I was almost annoyed that people could reach me no matter where I was or what I was doing.  Everything changed the day I bought my iPhone.  Sure, people could track me down even when I was in line at the bank or having lunch, but the iPhone has APPS.  Those APPS made all the difference to me.  Now I can download check out APPS at the APP store and load them seamlessly into my phone.  I was struggling to hang a picture straight when a friend suggested I get the Stanley Level APP.  I downloaded it and within two minutes I had a perfectly straight picture. 

What the iPhone and APP store did for cell phones, CMS architecture does for websites.  Now as your business grows your website can grow with it.  Adding new products or services can sometimes mean a shift in internet marketing strategy.  In the past, this would mean a complete re-design of the website leading to expenses that more often than not, left business owners leaving the website out of the business shift.  Now with integrated website content management systems, many functions and features of your website can be nearly plug and play.

If a year after you build your website you decide you want to add photo galleries or a shopping cart?  That used to mean a huge redesign and plenty of custom programming.  Now these features can easily be integrated in with the rest of the site using website “add-ons” called plug-ins, widgets or apps.

What are plugins, widgets and APPS? 

Think of them as mini programs that run individual features on your website.  The nice thing is that your website CMS makes sure that all the different plugins, widgets and APPS can talk to each other and play nicely together. 

Back in the dinosaur days of the internet when each page was hand-coded to be a “static” page, if you wanted to add a feature to your website, then each page would need to be altered and tweaked leading to costly bills from your website development company and a frustrated website owner.

Do plugins, widgets and apps cost money?

Some plugins, widgets and apps are free and some cost money.  Some have a “free” personal version and small cost for a “professional” version.  Some are free if you allow the creator to have credit on the bottom of your web page and a small cost if you want it privately labeled.  If you use a website development company you should still expect to pay to have features added because plugins, widgets and apps take some work to integrate, but it will be a couple of hundred dollars vs. the old way where it would be thousands of dollars.

Plugins, widgets and apps are a significant breakthrough.  One of the most common complaints by website owners is the cost of adding features.  With plugins, widgets and apps the evolution of website development has taken a major leap forward.

Last night I was reading an interesting debated over WordPress and it’s relationship to SEO score.  The conversation was pretty heated and everyone seemed to believe that they were right!

Google and the search engines use long, complicated algorithms to “rank” website and give an SEO score. 

Before choosing to pay BIG money to have your website “Search Engine Optimized” or falling victim to a fast-talking salesperson who wants to sell you an SEO package, think about the business model of Search Engines.  What Google, Bing and Yahoo want to do is deliver relevant search results.  That’s it!  Nothing more –  Nothing less – unless you count delivering revenue and value for shareholders.

For the most part, though, a search engine lives and dies by it’s ability to provide relevant content. 

How does Google, Yahoo and Bing (and others) know what is on your site?

Sites are not written in “display” language, they are written in a form of html.  That means that the site is written in some sort of computer code and so the search engines need to know what that code means and what the site is all about.

Is your website ready to tell the search engine spyders what your site is all about? 

Here is a checklist of things that search engines seem to care about and how CMS helps – or doesn’t help!

1. Is your website or company a fly-by-night?  Search engines can’t tell but they use the length of time your domain is registered for as a pierce of the puzzle.  If you are planning to go out of business soon, then just keep your domain registered year-to-year.  If you plan on staying in business a long time, then register it for the 10 year max and ever year add another year so you always have your domain registered 10 years out.  Obviously (I think) converting to a CMS will have no impact on this.
2. What is your website all about?  Google provides tools like Google XML sitemaps to help Google better understand what content your site has.  This tool can be used regardless of your CMS or if you are still working with static pages.  WordPress “apps” or plugins can help manage this for you though so while converting your website to CMS won’t be a magic bullet here, it can certainly help.
3. Content is KING!!  Search engines seem to really favor newly update content.  Do you write content everyday or at least every week?  Keeping your site updated,  current, and relevant is something that search engines put a HUGE emphasis on.  If you have a “feed” on your homepage then your most important page is constantly being updates with relevant, current information.  Search engines love this.  Being able to constantly change, tweak, and update your website is what CMS applications were designed for.  So here is an example of where converting your website to a CMS system can help your Google score or Google ranking. 

Just remember that Google has billions and billions of dollars and anyone who says they can “trick” Google is a liar.  The google geeks are quite smart.  Their job is to make sure that Google delivers what their customers are searching for.  The best way to improve your SEO score is to skip all the “tricks” and deliver relevant information that people are searching for.  Converting to a CMS system can help, but if you are expecting a “magic bullet” or a “fix all pill” you will be disappointed.  There are many, many reasons to convert your website from a “static site” to a “CMS-based site” and SEO should be one of them, but certainly not the only reason.

If you need help converting your website to a CMS website, contact www.WEBv5.com – specialists in converting static sites to CMS sites.

I sat in office after office, coffee shop after cafe listening to business owners tell me how frustrating it was to have to call their website development company to make changes on their website.  The charges added up to some serious ca$h.  More often than not they resited changing their website and just “let it be!”

It broke my heart.

Now my company was designed to fix that problem. At WEBv5.com we are helping companies to convert their website from a “static site” where each page is coded individually to a CMS based website where the website is built on top of power CMS technology.

What is CMS?  CMS is an acronym for “C”ontent “M”anagement “S”ystem.  Building a website on CMS technology is very empowering for the website owner.  It allows companies to do most updating of the website in-house avoiding costly “change orders” and reduces the time it takes to get current information delivered.

So let’s say that you have a website that you LOVE!!  We can replicate your EXACT website “look” on our CMS technology or the CMS system of your choice.  To your website visitors nothing will have changed.  Why do it then?

First, there is the money you will save by being able to make most changes by yourself.  Login to the administrator back-end part of your website and you can change text, add pages, change page order, fix typos, change prices, etc. all with a few clicks and without having to know any code.

Sounds cool, but you are doubting you can really do it, right?

Well, we train you too!  Once your site is converted we will walk you through how your CMS system works.  At the end of two hours – you and your staff will we pros!

Is your business “static”?  I doubt it.  Most businesses are a little different every week.  Do you run specials? Have sales? Feature Seasonal Products or Services? Imagine being able to communicate different messages and different themes as your business evolves.

Did you just hire a new salesperson? (or maybe fire one?) Get them on (or off) your website quickly. 

Did you just launch a new product or line? Maybe a new service?  Within 5 minutes you can have a new page up on your site, messages to all your clients, and current information right on your home page. 

So many of our clients are clients who are happy with the way their site looks and happy with their content, but what they really need is the power to keep the website current and relevant.

Others don’t have a website they love because they have become frustrated with the whole website “thing” and have decided to leave their site as is just because they don’t know what to do.  We can help you with a brand new look and tons of functionality.  We can help you start from scratch at a price much less than a typical custom ”static site.”

Others don’t have a website at all because they don’t know what to do or they can’t afford what they want.  Our experts will learn about your business, help you identify your online goals, map out a path to success and get you online for much less than it would cost if we had to code each page by hand for you.

So no matter what kind of business you have and no matter where you are with your website, we can help you convert to a CMS system and have a much more control of your online presence.

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Upcoming posts…

1. Is it true that CMS systems help your Google rankings?

2. What are website Widgets, Plugins and APPS?

3. What CMS systems are out there and which one should I choose?