The Right Tool

[SV1]

I'll keep this short and sweet.

1. Don't go mad cow thinking about SEO.
2. It helps to have the right tool for the job.
3. Many times those tools are available for free.

The tools I'm refering to are content managements systems, blogging applications, Forum software etc... Anything you use to put content on your website. These applications either have the ability to be search engine friendly or they don't and you should consider this when you decide what program you want to use.

It is important to mention that the programs that do support SEO usually require you to turn the option on in one of the administration configuration settings (click a button in lay terms). Otherwise you won't have SEO'd URLs.

Beyond that keep your content flowing fresh and do what you do.

There are lots of applications you could use but I cant think of them all off the top of my head. Here are a few free application you might consider that I know have SEO functionality built in.

Forums: SMF http://www.simplemachines.org

Blogging:
Word Press - http://wordpress.org Might have SEO, I havn't used it.

CMS - Content Management Systems...
Bitweaver - http://bitweaver.org
Bitweaver has blogs and forums and much more.

Drupal - http://drupal.org
Drupal Has blogs and forums and much much more but is rather technical.

Joomla! - http://joomla.org
Joomla! has lots of addons including blogs and forums.

That's a quick opensource primer... Dont think for one minute that free means junk, these applications are developed by professional programmers with huge communities picking and scrutinizing their work on a constant basis. The list is much longer but that is a point in the right direction. There is a website that allows you to demo just about every freely available program there is including the administration sections. This is not an affiliate link - http://opensourcecms.com

The only downside to knowing this information now as apposed to before is if you already have an existing website with lots of content on a piece of software without SEO integrated. In that case well...

I'm going to add this on my site too! I didn't expect to go on for so long

Cheers,

[Linda Buquet]

Very nice overview SV1!!! Thanks for sharing that CMS info with us!

It's not only helpful but fun to try out the opensource apps before you decide to use one. Nice to be able to try it there 1st without having to hassle with installing or anything.

[SV1]

Hey,
Glad you liked it. I have no idea who runs the site but I think its an invaluable internet resource for anyone that wants a website and needs to find the right tool for the job. One very important point that I forgot to mention and should clarify is that not all of the applications on that site will have SEO capability and that should be looked into on an individual basis.

Have fun playing with all the new "toys"

[sarahk]

It should be noted that Open Source CMS covers more than just Content Managment Systems but all are free and all are PHP/MySQL.

The site has been around for years and is an awesome resource. I especially like that I can have a really good play and an hour later it'll be gone (unless Google gets there first).