Content Management And Search Engine Ranking SoftwareA search engine ranking is the placement of a website on a search engine results query. A website's ranking is a measure of promotional success. When a user does a query on a specific word or phrase through a search engine, they are rewarded with a results page that lists 10 - 15 websites that are related to the query word or phrase. Most users only look at websites that are on the first or second page, so having your website in the top 30 results can be very beneficial to your website. Search engine ranking software will allow you to check what position your website holds on specific keywords or phrases in reference to the major search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, Altavista and AllTheWeb. A lot of Content Management Software (CMS) generates web pages dynamically. Dynamic web pages are pages that don't exist until a user views it. The information on the web page is created "on the fly" based on what a user clicks on or inputs. Many search engines have difficulty finding these web pages for keywords and phrases. Search engines retrieve keywords and phrases best from static web pages where the content predetermined and not subject to change based on the user. Dynamic web pages often have obscure URLs, or web addresses, such as www.yourdomain.com/index.php?modules=admin. Search engines cannot pick up keywords from a dynamic URL. Static URLs are more precise and informative, such as www.yourdomain.com/administrationModules.html. Search engines that crawl through your website pages with be able to pick up keywords and phrases from HTML-based URLs than dynamic URLs. Search engine ranking software will scan all of the URLs contained in your website and calculate their rank in popular search engines. Some search engine ranking software will also allow you to check the rankings of your competitors, as well. In light of search engine ranking favoring static web pages, Content Management Software has had to evolve and create modules, or plug-ins, that can generate static web pages. Many popular CMS have implemented modules that help your website compete in search engine rankings, but the best way to test your website's ranking is to use a search engine ranking software. One benefit of Content Management Software is that most use CSS (cascading style sheets) for page layout. Search engine rankings show that websites using CSS rank higher than those without. CSS provides clean, accessible code that allows a webpage to contain more content than coding. Good search engine ranking software will assist you in finding critical keywords and phrases that pertain to your website's content. You can then add those words to your content, page titles, links and image descriptions to help maximize your search engine exposure. It is important to remember, when designing and choosing software for your site, that there are two aspects to every website. There is what the user sees and what the search engines see. Both aspects are equally as important if you want your website to be a success. |