How should I write my content?

These are the basic steps when creating the content for a website with CMS Made Simple:

  1. Plan - Determine what pages you want (structure) and how you want these pages to look (design). This is known as a "sitemap". An awesome tool to help you plan your website is freemind, this very simple to use tool allows you to collate your thoughts into a simple structure.

  2. Images - Upload any images you want to use with the "Image Manager".

  3. Visitor "goodies" - Upload any pdf documents you want to provide to the vistor. Upload these with the "File Manager".

  4. Create Pages - Now create pages, add content to them, insert the images and links to the downloads, and select what template to use for each page.

When a user navigates to your site the page shown is generated from the template and the content. You only provide the content and choose the template.

Incidentally: do you want a jingle on a page to attract attention? Then go to www.allstockmusic.com

Can I use the images I find on the web?

BEWARE OF COPYRIGHT

Most of the images you see on the web are copyright and use of them is usually not allowed without the photographer's permission. There have been many court cases of websites displaying pictures they have no rights to. Piracy is frowned upon and you also run the risk of your website being blacklisted.

Just because a picture is on the web does not mean it is free to use.

There are very clever graphical tools available to copyright owners that allow them to find their images no matter what is done to adjust them.

How do I steer clear of copyright issues?

There are a large number of websites offering royalty free images. You will have to pay to download these but the cost is significantly less than you would pay for a photographer to take them.

You typically only require the lower resolution and smaller size, say 75dpi, and 400px wide. These typically cost around $1 each.

Just search royalty free images and take your pick.

Own images

It is important to resize and crop images, and adjust their resolution before you upload them. There are a number of excellent free graphical packages available, the best is undoubtably The Gimp.

The average screen displays at a max of 75dpi, although some modern displays reach print quality of 300dpi. If you expect your website to be viewed on high resolution phones and PDA style devices then a resolution of 300dpi should be used.

Youtube

Adding a youtube clip is usually just a question of copying the Embed link at the top left of the page showing the video. Note: be sure to paste it as HTML.

How do I get Google to put me at the top?

Plenty has been written about improving your position in Google and other search engines, in fact a whole new industry has risen around Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

We are pleased to advise you about this but there is plenty you can do yourself to ensure your content is as search engine friendly as possible:

  1. Note down the words and phrases you believe your visitors will use to find you on Google. These are your keywords.
  2. Type the keywords into Google to see what they give.
  3. Ensure your content contains these keywords as often, BUT as sensibly, as possible.
  4. Make sure your headings and sub headings contain them.
  5. Check your keyword density here.

You can use Google's own tool to suggest keywords and phrases. If you want to go further then webceo probably provides all you need.

The steps needed to fully anlayse your website are

  1. Research keywords
  2. Optimise content and page layout (headings, images, etc.)
  3. Check search engine rankings
  4. Check link popularity
  5. Analyse traffic
  6. Remove dead links immediately

See our SEO page

Once again, you might consider allowing us to do this for you.

How should I write content?

Vsitors read 20% of what is written on web pages, so be brief. Best to follow the news-reporter style of:

Headline (with your keywords) - ask question to hook the reader?

Introduction (SINGLE sentence summary of webpage)

Body (repeat keywords regularly to keep Google happy)

Conclusion

Stuck for content? Try this for all the Content You Ever Need!

What are Meta tags?

Meta tags are invisible to the visitor and are used to tell search engines about the site.

The only two meta tags of interest are:

<META content="a description of your page"> Depending on the search engine, this will be displayed along with the title of your page in an index. Keep it reasonably short and to the point.

<META content="a, list, of, keywords"> Here is where you tell the search engine about your keywords. It is simply a list separated by commas.

In the CMS system these are entered on the "Options" tab, when adding content.

Tips

Keep content brief.

Write for humans but don't forget what the search engines like.

If you find a website with a high ranking, use the "View Source" facility in your browser to see the meta tags.

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