Use a Content Management System

A good CMS will manage your layout, content, databases and user interaction – if you are building a new site in 2010 and beyond, chances are you need a CMS.

SEO is about content – not just any old content, but changing and dynamic content that is timely and relevant. This means that the old days of 5-page static websites simply don’t rank well anymore (unless they’re for very niche, uncompetitive keyword phrases), and you need to be able to create, delete and update pages regularly without going back to your web designer.

There’s no easier way to do this than using a Content Management System, such as WordPress, Drupal or Joomla (there are many others but these are all free and well supported). The CMS acts as a container for everything on your site, and manages much of the mundane housekeeping that otherwise you would have to deal with. By and large, CMS-driven sites are inherently friendly to search engines and handle the technical side of serving pages, and – not surprisingly – managing content.

There are web design companies who shy away from these technologies because they simplify the web design process (resulting in less work!) but don’t be discouraged – just because it reduces their fees doesn’t make it bad choice for your website. And in choosing a CMS, you’re keeping good company: content-rich sites such as CNN, the New York Times, WSJ.com and MTV.com are all based upon CMS platforms. These off-the-shelf solutions will handle your site more easily and effectively than a platform you build from scratch.

In the book, we cover best SEO practices for setting up WordPress, the most popular open-source CMS.

Recommended further reading:

Recommended WordPress hosts:

Recommended WordPress template publishers:

There are thousands of free templates available, but premium templates enable advanced customization and configuration.