Web Site Building Software
How are you going to build your Web site? You have a choice between hand-coded Web pages, Content Management System
(CMS) or Web Log ("Blog"). Of course, hand coding used to be the only way, but now there are a number of systems for
automatically generating Web pages, so you don't really have to know how to code in html or asp to create a Web site.
Choosing the wrong way to build your Web site can make maintenance very difficult (there is always maintenance!) and it
can also make the site impossible to optimize.
Hand coded pages are the best for Search Engine Optimization - if you can be careful about coding them. You can use a
WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editor like Microsoft Web designer to create the pages, so you don't have to know
how to write much code. You can achieve a uniform and fairly professional result by planning a template in advance and
using the same template on all pages or by using template software such as that provided by Microsoft Front Page, Web
Designer, Dream Weaver or other Web design tools. Be aware that Web design tools like Front Page or Dream Weaver insert
a lot of "junk code" that is bad for search engine optimization.
A CMS is the most convenient way to generate good Web, professional looking Web pages. Once it is set up, anyone
without coding experience should be able to generate new pages. The catch is that many Content Management Systems build
Web sites that are not optimized and not optimizable for search engines. At minimum, a CMS should allow:
- Permanent URL addresses - same page has the same URL for every user, all the time.
- Meaningful file names for pages like "SEO.html" or "radios.html" rather than 1443435GB.htm
- No use of redirection coding anywhere.
- Real "static" html files that actually exist on your server, rather than "virtual" files that are created from a
database.
A CMS that doesn't meet the above criteria may be OK for building internal organization pages. Don't use it for Web
sites.
Wiki - A Wiki is a special kind of Content Management System. It is useful if you are creating a dictionary of
articles for example. Its possibilities for optimization are often limited. On the other hand, Wikis can be had for
free, and if you generate tens of thousands of good pages of content, depend on it that the world will beat a pathway to
your door. Wikipedia uses a Wiki of course, and it is top ranked in search engines for many keywords.
Web log - Web logs are certainly useful for many purposes, including use as "auxiliary" Web sites that help get
your pages indexed. If you are writing topical materials such as news articles, a Web log may be the only thing you
need. A big advantage of Web logs is that they have something called RSS syndication - which is a way of announcing to
other Web logs and to users and sites that display Web log content (like
