Sliding into Summer

We won't let the warm weather get in the way of providing you with our (now) regular monthly update on wazzup with the Web and how your online communications and Internet marketing might be enhanced. This month we comment on content management system (CMS) websites, the importance of relevance in search engine optimization, and point out a few tools we used in recent Flash productions. Read on...

CMS Systems Are a Moving Target

The advent of the increasingly popular website publishing systems known as Content Management Systems (CMS) is a mixed blessing. It's a mixed bag because there are lots of them and no "one size fits all."

ComBridges has found itself working with at least four different varieties of CMS platforms (WordPress, Drupal, Expression Engine, and DotNetNuke). In favor of using a CMS, clients with the willingness to confront a modest learning curve appreciate the ability to edit their websites themselves. It's also convenient to have a blogging platform directly integrated i.e. built into the website.

At the same time, we’ve found that the complexity of a CMS can be more daunting to some users than we originally anticipated; and, in some cases, CMS platforms are better suited for some websites than they are for others. In fact, we are currently developing a new website with a fifth CMS platform called ModX because it offers better backend navigation access to a site structure that has scores of pages, as well as a blog.

When asked for the closest thing that we have to a “standard” CMS, we think the current benchmark or state-of-the-art is WordPress. In fact, when Jon Leland attended the WebmasterWorld conference in December, he posted on the MediaMall blog about Google’s indirect endorsement of WordPress as a search engine friendly publishing platform.

Ready for a CMS website or blog? We're happy to help.

SEO Tip: It's Got to Be Relevant!

If there is one concept relating to search engine optimization (organic SEO) and search engine marketing (pay-per-click advertising, PPC) that I think everyone must understand, it’s what we sometimes refer to as "The Gospel of Relevance."

Search engines respect and reward content that can demonstrate its relevance to your strategically targeted keyword phrases in a variety of ways. The most obvious way is that when the content of an individual page is relevant to the keyword phrases being targeted, that page tends to rank well for that term. Further, relevant link text and text surrounding links gives more search engine merit to that link and to the page being linked to when that text is relevant to the keyword phrase being targeted.

With Google AdWords, its amazing how few people recognize the need for a relevant landing page. Fundamentally, the more directly an AdWords landing page relates to the associated keyword phrase, the higher its “quality score." According to a recent NY times article, The Humans Behind the Google Money Machine, “Google now takes into account the landing page that the ad links to, and, for example, gives low grades to pages whose sole purpose is to show more ads.”

If you want to learn more about this important subject, check out the video on this blog post. It's relevant. :-)

Getting Flashy for Apptera

ComBridges is pleased to be working with Apptera, a provider of voice-activated mobile advertising. We have several projects in the pipeline for them, but the first one ready for your review is a Flash demo of one of their mobile advertising scenarios. In this case, the advertiser shown in the Apptera demo is a major Hollywood studio.

Of special note on this production is the "Share" button which enables any viewer of this presentation to share it with others via email or any of the major social networking platforms (like Facebook, MySpace, etc.). ComBridges used SproutBuilder to create the "viral marketing" component of this production.

FYI, a custom Flash "jukebox" demo player is next for Apptera, and we have also been using the Brightcove platform to create custom video players.

Click here to view more ComBridges Flash and video productions.