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Copyright © 2012 – Lisa J. Kirschner. All rights are reserved. You may not distribute this report in any way. You may not sell it, or reprint any part of it without written consent from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
Table of Contents
Introduction ... 6
Chapter One: CMS Overview ... 8
What is a Web Content Management System (CMS) Anyway? ... 8
Why Do I Need a CMS? ... 9
What Does a CMS Do? ... 10
What Doesn't a CMS Do? ... 11
Can’t I Just Build a Site without a CMS?... 13
What Do I Need to Know about CMSs? ... 13
Chapter Two: A Brief History of Web CMSs ... 14
The Pre-CMS Stone Ages ... 14
The CMS Pioneers ... 14 Types of CMS Tools ... 15 Enterprise-Level ... 15 High-End ... 15 Mid-Level ... 16 Low-End ... 16 Open Source ... 17 Hosted ... 17
Current Trends and Forecasts ... 18
Chapter Three: Glossary of CMS Terminology ... 19
Chapter Four: Defining a Content Strategy... 33
Why Content is So Important to Your Site’s Success ... 33
What are Your Goals for Your Content? ... 34
Time Management Tips and Tricks for Content Managers ... 36
Estimating Content Costs ... 37
Reassessing Your Strategy ... 38
Chapter Five: Understanding Content Production ... 39
What is Content Production? ... 39
Questions to Ask ... 39
Getting Under the Hood ... 40
Chapter Six: Leveraging Content Workflow ... 42
What is Content Workflow? ... 42
The Content Players ... 43
Why You Need Workflow ... 44
Chapter Seven: Getting Support and Online Help ... 46
Online Help System ... 46
Online Knowledge Base/FAQs ... 46
Development Community ... 48
End User Community ... 48
Phone Support ... 49
Chat Support ... 50
Social Support ... 51
Online Learning ... 51
Support Fees or Subscriptions ... 51
Custom Development Fees ... 52
Chapter Eight: CMS Demos, Videos and Presentations ... 53
CMS Demos ... 53
CMS Sales Presentations ... 54
A Word of Caution ... 54
Chapter Nine: Creating Your Top 10 Requirements List ... 55
The Traditional Approach – CMS Comparison Spreadsheets ... 55
A Better Approach ... 56
How to Create Your Top 10 List ... 57
Chapter Ten: Assessing Your Top 3-5 Vendors ... 60
How to Dig Deep ... 60
Meeting with the Sales Rep ... 61
Chapter Eleven: Conducting a Proof of Concept (POC) ... 63
Scenario A—Technology-Driven Design ... 63
Scenario B—Requirements-Driven Design ... 64
Where to Go From Here ... 65
Chapter Twelve: Making the Final Selection... 67
Key Questions to Ask ... 67
Communicating Your Decision ... 69
Internal Communications ... 69
External Communications ... 70
How to Learn More ... 71
Appendix A: Top 10 Myths about Content Management Systems ... 72
Appendix B: Top 10 CMS Mistakes ... 76
Introduction
I'll never forget one of the first large-scale content management projects that I worked on as a web consultant in the 1990s. The client─a well-funded startup with Ivy League team members and a seemingly infinite budget─was spending over twenty million dollars on its web site and some related marketing activities.
The client had selected a high-end content management system (CMS), which they planned to use for advanced functionality, robust workflows and complex access roles and user groups. The only problem was that the CMS product, which the vendor's salespeople had promised could get the job done, didn't exactly meet their business and technical requirements. After spending almost a year in the planning and design phases, the entire project came to a screeching halt during development. Ten internal
employees and more than 30 consultants had spent months and months of blood, sweat and tears working on the project, only to find that the selected CMS couldn't do the job.
So what went wrong? Dishonest CMS salespeople? Unrealistic
expectations? Too many cooks in the kitchen? Or was it something else entirely?
The problem with this particular project could be summed up in two words: poor planning. The people at this company wanted to run before they
learned how to walk. Initial project requirements were hastily defined and a CMS was selected without any regard for key business needs or the actual capabilities of the product. There was no pilot or proof of concept created to test the waters or validate the product's capabilities before the team was thrown into a full-blown "iterative" design and development approach. If some of the terms and languages mentioned above don't make sense to you or if you're starting to break out in a cold sweat, never fear. This book is designed to provide a strong foundation and a clear understanding of CMS terminology and best practices, so you can avoid this type of scenario later. If this story sounds eerily familiar to you or you're already involved in
a CMS project, this guide will serve as a valuable reference so you can see where you've gone wrong in the past─and how to avoid or correct these potentially catastrophic issues moving forward.
Now that I've explained how this book can help, buckle up and let's get started…
Chapter One: CMS Overview
The CMS landscape can seem dizzying to someone who's not familiar with the industry. There are literally hundreds of web content management systems on the market today, and it's absolutely critical that you
understand the different types of CMS tools and what they do.
More importantly, you also need to understand exactly what you or your company wants to do, so you can narrow down your choices and determine which CMS is the best fit for you. As the old saying goes, you need to
decide where you want to go before you figure out how to get there.
What is a Web Content Management System (CMS) Anyway?
So you might be asking, what is a Web CMS anyway?
In the broadest sense, a Web CMS is software that helps web teams maintain, change, control, repurpose and publish content, including text, images, photos, videos, audio or any other piece of web content. Web CMSs are a subset of Enterprise Content Management Systems, which are more robust and involve the management of other types of data, content or processes (frequently ones that are used internally within an organization).
Web content management systems─just like businesses─can take many forms with varying degrees of complexity. Some CMSs cost over $250,000 for the software alone (not including hundreds of thousands of dollars to be spent on design, development, customization, hardware or support costs), while others are free for the software with relatively small implementation costs. The CMS market is way too big for there to be a "one-size-fits-all" solution or a single "best" tool.
In addition, different CMSs have unique strengths and weaknesses. Some CMS tools focus on making content production easier, while others excel at content syndication or distribution.
However, CMS tools do share some common characteristics, features and benefits.
Why Do I Need a CMS?
Content management systems offer a wide variety of benefits, including:
Faster and easier content creation and publishing, so even
nontechnical people can quickly update some areas of a site without learning how to code
Decentralized content production empowers multiple people within an organization to create content—no more relying on one group or department for all web site updates
Prebuilt functionality allows companies to include robust features without involving backend developers
Complex content workflow capabilities enable different users to create, edit, approve and publish content
Powerful, customizable templates allow for consistency and a professional “look and feel”
Social media and collaboration features allow you and your users to share and interact with your content more easily
User access control enables you to define who has access to your backend and front end, as well what specific permissions they have in each area
Plugins, extensions and add-ons quickly add features, functionality and integration capabilities to your web site, often without extra coding or technical resources
Multilingual support makes it easier to translate, publish and manage multilingual content
Content syndication allows you to more easily share and distribute your content across multiple sites or platforms
One of the most important reasons for utilizing a content management system is that you or your in-house team can manage some of your site's content (including text and images) yourselves, without hiring an external web developer for simple changes. With a CMS, you can create or edit pages, upload images, manage online forms and add or tweak metadata. This can represent a significant cost savings to you over time─although you should keep in mind that there are hidden costs if your employees are stretched too thin already, have other responsibilities or are paid more than an outside consultant.
Another huge benefit of CMSs is that they usually offer a fair amount of prebuilt functionality out-of-the-box. This means that you can create
basic─or, in some cases, very advanced─functionality and features on your website without custom-coding anything. Need a login screen or password-protected pages? Even the most basic content management systems will allow you to do this with a few mouse clicks.
Some CMSs (particularly higher-end ones) allow content to be shared across multiple web properties. This will eliminate content redundancy, reduce duplicate efforts across departments, improve data integrity and save you time and money.
What Does a CMS Do?
To a certain extent, it depends upon whom you ask. If you pose this question to 10 different CMS vendors, you’ll likely hear 10 different
answers—each one customized to highlight that particular vendor’s core features and offerings.
Remember that CMS tools at different levels offer drastically different features and functionality. Lower-end tools will usually focus on content production (especially the creation and editing of text), whereas higher-end and enterprise-level CMS tools offer more sophisticated features,
Read the chapters about the history of CMS tools and defining your top 10 requirements to learn more about how to assess these tools without getting overwhelmed.
What Doesn't a CMS Do?
Sometimes my customers will say that they’re glad to be implementing a CMS, because it will “make everything easier” for them. This is a huge red flag to me, and I always encourage those folks to remember that a CMS is not a panacea or a magic pill. It’s simply another tool in your technology arsenal, and you will likely need many other tools if you want to build, grow and sustain your business.
While it’s true that a content management system can improve your business in many ways, there are a few things that it cannot do:
A CMS tool will not teach you HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP or any of the other development languages out there. Do not expect that you will never need to hire a web developer again─particularly if you don't have these skills in-house. Most web sites, online stores, landing pages, email campaigns and other online web properties will require custom coding at some point if you want to establish a first-rate web presence. Unless you plan to obtain a web development degree, take multiple web development classes or hire someone with those skills for your in-house team, you will need to outsource some work on a regular basis for most sites.
A content management system will not drive traffic to your web site. After your site is built, you'll need to market your products and services both online and offline. Remember, your website is just another customer touchpoint and sales vehicle for your business. People won't magically find you just because you have a website, nor will they magically convert to become customers, members or
A CMS won't write better content or create better keywords and metadata. If you’re not intimately familiar with search engine
optimization, you will need to hire someone to do this optimization for you.
A CMS will not plan your online marketing campaigns for you.
Whether you’re creating an email blast, a banner or another online campaign, you’ll most likely need to create landing pages, sales pages, confirmation pages, forms, autoresponder emails and more for each campaign. While a CMS can make it easier to build all of these, you’ll still need an experienced project manager, content manager or marketing manager to help you plan, develop and
implement them all. Don’t underestimate the amount of work needed for each campaign, and don’t expect that work to go away when you use a CMS. In fact, if anything, your team may have even more work to do because the content creation process will likely be easier.
A CMS will not necessarily shorten the web development lifecycle or simplify the process of building a website. You or your project manager will still need to plan realistic timeframes for strategy, design, development and deployment tasks. You’ll also need to set aside time in your schedule for the many tasks associated with planning and launching a site. I highly recommend to my clients that they utilize a project manager who has experience selecting CMS tools (if you haven't selected one yet) or who has utilized your specific CMS if you've already chosen one.
A CMS will not necessarily save you a ton of money initially --particularly as it relates to content strategy, interface design, information architecture, usability, quality assurance and online marketing. However, if you choose a CMS that offers pre-built functionality and you don't have a lot of custom development
requirements, you will almost always see significant cost savings for development before launch and ongoing maintenance tasks after launch. There are some exceptions to this rule, though. If you add on a lot of extensions, third-party tools or custom coding, your
development costs can increase again rather quickly. Simplify, simplify, simplify your requirements…start small and build in more
functionality once you know what you and your CMS can handle. This is the surest way to save money in your initial design and
development phase and over the long run.
Can’t I Just Build a Site without a CMS?
Sure, you could, but you’d be reinventing the wheel. Why recreate functionality and features that are included in many of the most popular CMS tools out there? You’ll also spend a lot more time maintaining and adding new functionality to a hard-coded site later.
Trust me, there are very few reasons to build a web site 100 percent from scratch these days. (In fact, I cannot recall the last time we’ve done that at my web agency.)
What Do I Need to Know about CMSs?
It’s absolutely critical that you follow the best practices, tips and processes contained with this guide when analyzing and selecting a new CMS. You can read it cover to cover or just focus on the chapters that are relevant to your situation right now, but make sure you take the time to really absorb and understand the material. You’ll avoid a lot of costly and
time-consuming mistakes, and you’ll thank me for it later. Are you excited to get started? So am I!
Chapter Two: A Brief History of Web CMSs
I’m going to provide you with an understanding of how CMS tools have evolved over time before we dive into the types of content management systems on the market today.
The Pre-CMS Stone Ages
When I first started working in web development during the mid-1990s, we hard-coded everything using basic HTML, tables and “frames.” Each page had to be built individually and all of the content elements on each page were painstakingly formatted by hand using hard coding. It was an extremely tedious process and took a lot of time—both to create and to update.
There were numerous “WYSIWYG” coding tools on the market during that time, but for the most part, they created clunky code that did not render well in browsers. Standardization and best practices in web development were pretty much non-existent, and web developers spent a lot of time
reinventing the wheel.
As web projects grew bigger and more complex, developers and decision makers—the people who controlled the budgets for web projects—realized that there had to be a better way.
The CMS Pioneers
Luckily, industry visionaries responded to the very real challenges faced by web teams, and started laying the foundation for formal content
management processes and systems.
Some of the key players in the early days of Web content management systems were Interwoven, Vignette, Microsoft, RedDot and NCompass Labs. All of these companies offered WCMS tools in the mid- to late 1990s to address the significant challenges that web developers, authors, editors and publishers were experiencing.
Although none of these early tools was as robust as the WCMSs in existence today, their popularity helped pave the way for Web content management as we know it today.
Types of CMS Tools
There are several kinds of CMS tools on the market, and each is geared towards businesses of a specific size and with common needs.
Enterprise-Level
Content management systems that fall into this category are designed for very large, multinational companies with extremely complex needs. They offer robust functionality and integration with sophisticated business processes and systems, such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, large ecommerce sites and custom databases.
Enterprise-level CMS tools are usually installed on a company’s own server behind a secure firewall, and they normally require a significant amount of planning and customization. Examples of enterprise-level CMSs include IBM Enterprise CMS, OpenText, Microsoft SharePoint and EMC
Documentum.
It’s not unusual for a large enterprise to spend millions of dollars on an enterprise-level CMS project, including software, hardware, design, development and implementation costs. This type of CMS typically costs hundreds of thousands of dollars─or much more─for the software alone, and enterprise-level CMS projects can easily take more than two years to plan and implement.
High-End
High-end web content management systems are geared towards larger organizations. Although their needs are not as complex as an enterprise, great care must still be taken to ensure that the CMS is capable of handling
High-end content management systems will often offer additional capabilities such as document management, multilingual capabilities, collaboration and integration with multiple systems and third-party tools (including social networking tools).
Stellent (Oracle), Ektron and Adobe CQ (formerly Day Communique) are examples of high-end content management tools, and these projects usually involve at least 18 to 24 months of planning, development and implementation.
Mid-Level
Mid-sized businesses that have robust needs but a finite budget typically utilize mid-level CMS tools. While they don’t offer a feature set as extensive as higher-end tools, mid-level CMSs still pack in a lot of power and are a big step up from hard coding or lower-end tools.
Examples of mid-level content management systems include PaperThin CommonSpot, CrownPeak and eZ Publish. Some mid-level CMSs offer both a licensed and an SAAS (web-based) version, and prices vary widely. Mid-level CMS tools typically require at least 12 months of planning,
development and implementation if you want to do it correctly.
Low-End
Low-end CMSs are built for small companies and startups that have a limited budget. If you choose a low-end CMS, it won’t include as many features or “bells and whistles” as higher-end tools. However, the trade-off is that low-end tools are more affordable than their pricier counterparts. There are dozens of low-end CMS tools on the market, including
ExpressionEngine, eazyCMS, WebSite Director, Barebones CMS and Symphony. You’ll usually pay a monthly fee or a low one-time fee for the software. Some low-end CMS tools use a web-based SAAS model. Plan to spend at least six to twelve months planning and implementing a low-end
content management system.
Open Source
Open-source CMS software is free and you’ll have full access to the source code. You can customize it, enhance it and easily add on to the out-of-the-box features using third-party plugins, modules, components or extensions. Don’t assume that source CMS tools are not robust. Many
open-source tools can be fully customized to address sophisticated needs and complex requirements, and it’s becoming more and more common for large organizations and even enterprises to utilize open-source CMSs.
You’ll typically find an extremely vibrant, engaged developer community for popular open-source CMS tools such as Joomla!, Drupal, Wordpress, Umbreco, OpenCMS and Alfresco.
Hosted
Hosted CMS tools are installed on the manufacturer’s web site as a software-as-a-service (SAAS) offering. This means that you’ll go to that company’s web site or your own customized URL to log into the CMS via a web browser, and you can access it anywhere that you have an Internet connection. The drawback is that if you don’t have a network connection, you will not be able to access or make changes to your site—not good news in the case of an emergency or an urgent task.
The SAAS vendor usually handles server monitoring, upgrades, patches and security issues for you. You’ll pay a hefty price for this convenience, though—usually in the form of a monthly fee. However, this may be a good choice for you if you need to get up and running quickly and you don’t have a technical staff in-house. Examples include Agility, CrownPeak, Kintera and WebSideStory (Visual Sciences).
Current Trends and Forecasts
As of 2012, most CMS vendors have integrated social networking and collaboration into their offerings. In addition, mobile capabilities (for both the administrative staff who will be managing content and end users who will be viewing it) have become the norm instead of the exception.
Content management systems have also embraced the concept of integrated marketing, wherein content owners can tightly tie together all aspects of their marketing and sales efforts—from initial search efforts to web and landing pages to online forms, email marketing touchpoints, social networking, lead generation and tracking, sales and conversion. If you’re not familiar with these terms and concepts, review the next chapter in this book. It contains a glossary of common CMS terminology.
Another area of interest is that CMS tools at all levels are becoming more robust and are better able to compete for the business of larger
organizations than was previously possible. It’s not uncommon to hear about large organizations who are considering open-source CMS tools or mid-level CMS tools, and the “big players” in the enterprise space now have a lot more competition than they had just a few years ago.
Chapter Three: Glossary of CMS Terminology
If you plan to select, implement or utilize a web CMS, you should be familiar with some of the basic terminology and technical terms. The following list is not all-inclusive, but it will give you a good start to understanding some of the terms used in sales materials or by CMS vendors and agencies.
Want to learn about more technical web development terms or online marketing terms? Subscribe to the JUMP START blog to be notified when our Web Development and Online Marketing Glossary is published in 2012. That document will contain additional definitions for a wider variety of
terms, such as Flash, JavaScript, canonical URL, email marketing, funnel,
iframe, landing page, integrated marketing and more.
80/20 Rule
The “Pareto Principle”—commonly referred to as the 80/20 rule—is a popular management principle stating that roughly 80% of the results
comes from 20% of the effort. Keep this in mind when planning, developing and designing a web site or you will likely spend 80% of your time on tasks, projects or customers with little to no value. Focus on the 20% that matters and remember that you can—and should—measure results and refine your
site on an ongoing basis after launch.
Admin (Slang for Administrator)
An administrator is someone who has “super-powers” in the back end a content management system. Typically referred to as an admin, he or she has full access to everything in the CMS.
Admin Interface
The “back end” of the CMS where you can configure your site and manage its content. You’ll receive a username and password for your admin
Approver
A person on the web team who is responsible for approving content within the CMS or via email
Author
A person who writes content or creates a web page in a CMS.
Back End
The password-protected area or site where you log in to manage your site’s content, design, functionality and other administrative functions.
Back-End Development, Backend Development
Do not confuse this with the back-end (admin) area of your site. The term “back-end development” is used to describe complex development and coding such as PHP or ASP.
Beta Version
A “test” version of a web site. It may be available to the general public or only internal reviewers, but it is made available so users can identify issues and problems before launching the “real” site. It’s important to emphasize to users that they are part of a beta test.
Beta Testers
People who review a “test” web site in order to identify issues and problems
Business Process, Business Workflow
An offline or online process used by internal employees or team members within a business. Examples include requesting vacation time, sending qualified leads to a sales department and sharing documents with other team members. Some higher-end CMSs—particularly enterprise-level CMS tools that are used for intranets—automate or streamline these business processes through built-in or customized functionality. Not to be confused with content workflow (see separate entry within this glossary).
Call to Action (CTA)
The text, link, button or other content that directs users to your goal.
Examples include “Download this white paper now” or “Buy Now”. Also see
Callouts
Small ads, graphics or promotional items found on a web site (typically located in the right or left columns)
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
CSS files are used to describe the presentation (i.e. the “look and feel” or formatting) of an HTML document
Content
Anything that appears on a web page, including text, images, multimedia or functionality. A common myth is that web content only refers to text, but this is inaccurate.
Content Production
The act of creating or editing a page, article or other content in a CMS
Content Management System (CMS)
A web-based or standalone software tool that is used to store and manage content, templates, functionality, metadata and more for a web property.
Content Manager
A person who is responsible for ensuring that all content (including text, images, multimedia and all other content) is written, approved, loaded, reviewed and updated as needed.
Content Migration Plan
A document—usually a spreadsheet—that is used to plan and track the status of each individual page to be moved from one platform or CMS to another.
Content Workflow
The process by which content is created, edited, reviewed, approved and published. Most modern CMS tools allow for robust content workflow processes, including email notifications that are automatically sent to authors, editors, approvers and publishers as appropriate. Not to be
confused with business process or business workflow (see separate entry within this glossary).
Conversion
A user “converts” when he or she reaches a goal that you have defined for a landing page, web page or online marketing campaign. Goals might include downloading a report or white paper, requesting more information, filling out a form, purchasing a product or signing up for your mailing list. Every campaign that you run should have a clear conversion goal and a clear “call to action” that directs people to that goal.
Database
An organized collection of data in digital form, typically stored within a Database Management System (DBMS) such as MySQL, SQL or Oracle. Content management systems utilize databases to store their data, such as content.
Deliverable
A document, file, code or other output produced during a web effort.
Examples of deliverables include site maps, content migration plans, SEO reports or code.
Development
Refers to the act of coding a web site, but the term “web development” is also sometimes used as a general umbrella term to encompass all other aspects of creating and implementing a web site (i.e. design, content
strategy, information architecture, business strategy, project management, etc.)
Development Environment
The specific hardware, software, technologies and languages being used for a site
Device
A PC, mobile phone, iPad or other hardware used to view or use a web site or application
Domain name
The URL for your web site, such as www.companyABC.com. Note that a domain name consists of multiple “parts”, including the subdomain (www),
the domain name (companyABC) and the top-level domain or TLD (.com, .net, .org). Subscribe to the JUMP START blog and you’ll be notified about
my upcoming events about hosting and domains.
Drupal
A robust, open-source (free) CMS tool that is used most frequently by developers due to its power and sophistication
Dynamic
Content that is built “on-the-fly” when a user views a page, based upon certain query parameters or other backend coding. The content itself is not hard-coded into the page, but rather is assembled when the user views it. This is useful when content changes frequently or when complex,
interactive functionality is desired.
Editor
A person who is responsible for editing pages or articles in a web site
Email Marketing
The act of targeting users via newsletters, emails or announcements using an email marketing tool such as Aweber, Constant Contact, Vertical
Response or other email marketing tools
Enterprise Content Management (ECM)
Web content management is a subset of enterprise content management. ECM is broader and includes all content within a large organization,
including internal systems and applications. A web CMS is focused only on web sites and other web properties.
Enterprise Content Management System (ECMS)
An ECMS is used to manage and store content for a large enterprise, including content used in internal tools and systems.
Extension
A plug-in or add-on for a content management system, which adds functionality to the CMS
Extranet
A password-protected web site that is geared towards external users outside the organization, such as partners or independent sales reps
Flat Site
A site that does not have very many levels or “deep” pages. A flat site
typically has first-level and second-level pages only, with very few pages at the third level and beyond (if any).
Front End
The “public” version of a site that users see in a web browser window
Front-End Authoring
The ability to edit pages, upload images and complete other administrative or backend functions directly from the front-end (public) version of the site without needing to go to a separate admin URL. Front-end authoring is available on many popular CMS tools.
Front-End Development
Front-end development is a more basic type of development than back-end development. Front-end development languages include HTML, CSS and Javascript. Not to be confused with front-end authoring.
Front-End Editing
See Front-End Authoring Functionality
Elements of a web site that require backend coding, such as registration forms, login, checkout processes or other interactive content.
Goal
What you want a user to do within your site or on a specific page. Goals might include downloading a report or white paper, requesting more information, filling out a form, purchasing a product or signing up for your mailing list.
Graphical User Interface (GUI)
Pronounced “gooey.” Refers to a type of image-rich user interface with which a user can interact, rather than just using text commands.
Hard-Coded
A web site that is coded manually (sometimes referred to as “from scratch” or “by hand”) instead of using a coding tool such as Dreamweaver or a CMS such as Joomla!, which automatically create the code for you
Host
The company that owns the servers where your web files live
Hosting
A service offered by companies that own web servers where web site files can live. Usually paid on a monthly or annual basis.
HTML
Hypertext Markup Language, the most popular language used to build web sites
HTML Editor
A type of software that a web developer or coder can use to create HTML, the code used for web sites. Examples include Textpad and Notepad, but there are many others.
Images
Photos, graphics, illustrations or other visual elements on a page
Intranet
Refers to an internal central web site or a group of internal sites that may use multiple domains. It is sometimes preceded by the term “portal.”
Joomla!
An open-source content management system that is extremely popular due to its ease of use, large number of extensions and design templates, and active developer community.
marketers. You’ll find ebooks, webinars, audio CDs and reports in the JUMP START community.
LAMP
Stands for “Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP” and refers to an environment that utilizes all of these technologies
Landing Page
A single page that is created about a specific topic, product or service. Typically does not include your site’s branding or navigation, and almost always includes an opt-in form where users can download something, request more information or otherwise “convert”. Generally used as the destination for paid search and online marketing campaigns (including social networking and email campaigns). Every product or service that you offer should have at least one landing page—or often, more than one. Lead Generation
The act of creating qualified leads or prospective buyers of your products and services. Various tactics can be used to generate high-quality leads, including the use of landing pages and targeted search.
Maintenance
The ongoing act of keeping a web site up and running after launch. There is no end date for maintenance, since all sites require some amount of monitoring, troubleshooting, fixes, enhancements or other changes after launch.
Metadata
Information entered into a web page’s code that is used by search engines, directories and users. Includes the meta title, meta description and meta keywords.
Meta Description
One or two sentences that describe a page’s purpose and what users can expect to learn or receive by viewing that page. Meta descriptions are coded into a page and are used by search engines and directories.
Meta Keywords
The words or phrases that users would use to search for or describe a page. Meta keywords are coded into a page and are used by search engines and directories.
Meta Title
The phrase or words that appear at the very top of a browser window and in organic search results. The meta title should describe the specific topic or purpose of a page, and it should include the keywords tied to that page. Meta titles are coded into a page and are used by search engines and directories.
Migration Plan
A spreadsheet or other document that is used to plan where content is moving as part of a migration effort (for example, when moving from one CMS to another). A good migration plan should show the page’s old and new location in the site, URL, owner, approvers and status, among other things.
Open Source
A piece of software (including CMSs), an application, a language or another technology that can be used and modified freely by anyone.
Out-of-the-Box
A feature or functionality that is available as a core part of a CMS or software tool
Pereto Principle
A popular management principle. See 80/20 Rule.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
An Internet advertising model in which web site owners (advertisers) post an ad on a publisher’s web site, then pay the publisher each time users click on that ad. Can be one of the most expensive forms of online marketing, so proceed with caution. We recommend that startups and online marketers with limited budget or experience utilize other online marketing and advertising tactics first before spending money on PPC.
A file that has been created by Adobe Acrobat or saved in Portable Document Format
Permissions
The capabilities that have been assigned to a user or administrator for a piece of software or a CMS, such as editing permissions, authoring permissions, viewing permissions or full administrative permissions. Permissions can typically be granted to individual users or to groups of users.
Plugin
An add-on or piece of software provided by a third-party company or developer to enable additional functionality or features to a CMS or other software
Production
Refers to the act of producing pages, images, functionality or other content. Also refers to the live version of a site.
Production Environment
The software, code, admin screens and other components tied to the live functioning version of a web site
Production Server
The computer being used for a live version of a web site
Project
A web site, online marketing or other initiative with a clear objective and a definitive start date and end date
Project Management
The act of planning, managing, controlling and monitoring a project
Project Plan
A document that describes a project’s start and end dates, milestones, tasks, deliverables, dependencies and resources. Used by a project manager to track and monitor a project throughout its lifecycle.
Quality Assurance (QA)
The process of testing a web site’s content and functionality (including links) via hands-on review and click-throughs of the site’s pages and functionality
Scope
The features and functions required to successfully complete a web project or the work that needs to be done to deliver the desired product or result
Scope Creep
“Creep” occurs when a project’s required features or functions change in the middle of a project—that is, the end state or result to which
stakeholders originally agreed shifts or changes after work has already begun. Avoid any kind of scope creep by carefully documenting a project’s desired state, features and functions (scope) at the beginning of the effort, and handle scope creep by creating a change order to document the
impact of the new request in terms of money, time and/or resources.
Search-Engine Friendly URLs (SEF URLs)
User-friendly versions of URLs, such as www.abccompany.com/our-services instead of www.abccompany.com/7818765443-svcs. SEF URLs increase page rankings for Google and other search engines or directories, and are generally preferred by users.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
The act of adjusting sites or pages to make them more attractive to search engines or directories. Can be done by adjusting a page’s content,
metadata, keywords and other elements; by revamping a site’s overall structure, design or code; or by making other changes to conform to search algorithms or “rules” defined by Google and other engines/directories.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
The process of gaining traffic through free SEO efforts or paid search advertising
Separation of Design and Content
An important concept that specifies that a site’s design and content should be defined separately, via its CSS (design) and HTML (content) files
Sharepoint
A popular and robust CMS used by enterprises for large-scale web sites, intranets or portals
Site Map
A document that describes a site’s high-level structure or architecture, including the first-level pages that typically appear in a main menu, second- and third-level pages within each category, utility items that normally
appear in the top or upper-right section of a site and footer items that appear at the bottom of the page. Large sites may also have a full-blown “site architecture” document that shows all pages and functionality within the site.
Social Networking Service, Social Media
An online platform, site or service that allows individuals to interact and communicate with other users who share common interests, backgrounds, skills, professional connections or interpersonal social snetworks.
Examples include Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Social Networking
The act of interacting with other users on a social network
Static Content
Text, images and other content that is coded by hand and typically does not change very often. Does not involve any database calls or the creation of dynamic content “on-the-fly” as a user is viewing a page.
Static Web Site
A web site that is coded “from scratch” or “by hand” and typically contains content that does not change very frequently
Syndication
Template
The file or code that defines a site’s or a page’s overall structure--i.e. the way that elements on the page will be presented to end users
Theme
Themes are used instead of templates for some CMS tools, such as Wordpress. Themes typically include multiples files (often saved as a zip archive) that define a page’s or site’s structure, layout and design.
Third-Party
An external developer or company that creates or provides code, software (such as plugins, add-ons, components, modules or extensions) or content (such as news feeds)
An online social networking service and microblogging platform. Twitter users can view, send and receive text posts containing up to 140
characters (“tweets”) to other Twitter users.
URL
Acronym for Uniform Resource Locator. URLs allow users to find web sites on the Internet, and they most often use a format such as
http://www.company.com.
Use Cases
A document that describes typical user processes on a web site or application, such as login, registration, creating an account or other functionality. Typically created by a business strategist or analyst, this
deliverable is used by developers when building the specified functionality.
Version Control
The ability to view or revert to previous versions of a page
Web Content Management (WCM)
A web content management system allows users to create, manage, upload, edit, share and publish content for a web site. WCM also refers to the act of managing content for a web site or the field of content
Web Content Management System (WCMS)
A content management system that is specifically used for web content. Also see content management system.
Web Property
A site, application or tool owned by a company or individual. Examples include public web sites, intranet sites, password-protected extranets for partners or vendors, Facebook business pages, landing pages and custom tools or applications such as online calculators.
Wordpress
A popular open-source CMS and blogging tool
Workflow
See content workflow and business process/business workflow entries within this glossary
WYSIWYG
An acronym for “What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get”. Most modern content
management systems include a WYSIWYG editor that allows non-technical users to create and edit content via a user-friendly interface that does not require any coding. Looks similar to a word processor such as Microsoft Word.
Chapter Four: Defining a Content Strategy
It’s critical that you define your overall content strategy before you select a content management system for your web site or sites. You need to have a firm understanding of the scope, purpose, goals and impact of your content before you figure out how to manage it properly.
In this chapter, we’ll delve into why it’s so critical for you to define your content strategy now, before rushing into a CMS analysis and selection effort.
Why Content is So Important to Your Site’s Success
You’ve undoubtedly heard the old adage, “Content is King”—and for good reason.
Content is the single most important element of your web site—more important than design, more important than code and more important than whatever CMS you’ve got running under the hood. If you don’t offer
engaging, informative and relevant content, users will not return to your site. Period.
The Internet offers users a huge variety of options where they can find the information that they need, and most people don’t have the patience to wade through cluttered, disorganized or sparse web sites that don’t immediately offer real value to them. They’ll come, they’ll look and they’ll leave if they don’t find what they’re seeking right away.
Google recently introduced the “Zero Moment of Truth” concept, which describes the way that users typically shop for products and services these days. Gone are the days where people would do most of their research and education with a live person on the phone or in a bricks-and-mortar store. Instead, according to Google, the Internet has completely changed the buying process. Users now self-educate themselves by browsing the Web to learn as much as possible before interacting with a live person (if they even do so). This means that the more information that you can provide to a user about how your product or service can solve their problem, the better chance you have at making it into their short list of potential
solutions. Do as much as you can do teach, inform, engage and educate your users on their own time.
This might include a blog, online events (such as webinars), free
downloads such as ebooks or white papers, frequently asked questions or any other content that will set you apart from the competition as a trusted expert. If a user trusts that you will deliver what he or she needs in the form of valuable content, you’re halfway to closing your sale.
Another reason that high-value content is so critical is that it’s a major consideration for search engines and directories. Your site will rank more highly if you offer relevant, engaging content that is valuable to users. This can be measured by the frequency that your content is shared (via social media or other methods) and the amount of traffic and links directed to your site. Think about what your users want and deliver it via your content.
What are Your Goals for Your Content?
What are you trying to accomplish with your content? In other words,
what’s the ultimate goal that you want to achieve with your site and related online marketing materials? Are you trying to get more traffic, generate leads or increase conversions? Make sure your content reflects those goals by focusing on the needs of your users at different stages of the buying cycle.
Do you have different goals for specific user groups who visit your site? If so, that’s okay—in fact, it’s good that you’ve taken the time to identify those different user groups. Take advantage of that fact and tailor content
specifically to their unique needs. They’ll thank you for it by returning to your site more frequently.
Keep these goals in mind when assessing different CMS tools. If your goal is to get more traffic, you’ll want to look for a CMS that offers great SEO, blogging capabilities or integration with blogging tools, and social sharing. If you’re trying to generate leads, you’ll want a CMS that will help you create landing pages. If you’re most focused on increasing conversions—such as getting users to buy—you’ll find CMS tools that integrate with Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) tools and email marketing tools most useful.
What Kind of Content is Important Online?
Online content is vastly different than print content for a few reasons. First of all, users who are viewing content online want to do it quickly and easily, without a lot of clicks or a lot of thought. Always offer content in easily digestible chunks, utilizing headings, subheadings, bulleted lists and lots of graphics. Remember, graphics are content too!
When assessing CMS tools, pay particular attention to the editor that you’ll be using for content creation and editing. Does it offer common formatting options and does it allow you to post different types of content, preferably from a wide range of devices? You want to make it as easy as possible for yourself or your team to post that timely article at any time—whether that’s from your phone, your iPad or your PC. The CMS should also allow you to easily upload, edit or manage your photos and other images via multiple devices using its digital asset manager.
It’s also important that you offer your content in multiple formats. While one user might like to read pages of text, others prefer more interactive formats such as videos, recorded events or webinars and social networking or blog posts. Break up your online articles or product pages with content in these other formats. Not only will your users appreciate it, but your pages will also rank much more highly with these high-value content elements. Look for a CMS that supports a wide range of content types, including multimedia, blogs and posting or sharing with social networking tools.
Regardless of the format that your content takes, it’s critical that it is tagged correctly for search purposes. All of your pages, images, multimedia files and other web content absolutely must be prepared and tagged with appropriate keywords and metadata in order to appear in search results— so make sure that whatever CMS you choose allows this.
The most critical requirement for your online content is that it MUST tell a story. Even the most mundane, technical or dry topic can be transformed into engaging content by making it real for your users.
What’s the unique value proposition that you or your company offers to them? How can you or your experience help them in real and tangible ways? Don’t just spew out boring facts, figures or statistics…reel them in with a story about your company, your product or your offerings. Engage them through videos, a blog, case studies, downloadable reports or other content that clearly and unequivocally demonstrates your unique voice. Don’t turn your site into forgettable “brochureware” that looks exactly like thousands of other sites out there…give them something to remember you and they’ll return again and again.
Who Will be Managing Your Content?
Think carefully about who will be responsible for creating, editing,
approving and managing your content. Depending upon the size of your team, you may or may not have a formal content workflow in place yet—but in most cases, you’ll want to include that on your CMS wish list so you have room to grow.
Most companies handle content management, including content
development or writing, in-house. However, if you don’t have adequate resources to do that, make sure you choose a CMS that will allow third-party content managers or content developers to access it and upload content on a regular basis. In that case, you should also strive to find a CMS that supports all major browsers for both PC and Mac.
Time Management Tips and Tricks for Content Managers
The sheer volume of content required for most web sites—even very small web sites—can be overwhelming, even for the experienced web manager. This is where time management, discipline and a little bit of creativity can go a long way.
If your time is limited, you’ll want to search for a CMS that has robust content workflow capabilities—including email notifications so you and
other members of your team know when a piece of content is ready to be edited, approved or published.
You’ll also want to use an editorial calendar—a planning document that lists out a schedule for your weekly, biweekly or monthly content—to plan content topics in advance. Even more importantly, you’ll want to make sure that your CMS allows for content scheduling in advance, so you can
theoretically create all of your content for January before the late-December holiday rush.
One final consideration for the time-challenged content manager is the ability to clone or duplicate pages. This is a must-have if you’ll be creating a lot of web pages, forms or landing pages on a regular basis. Play around with the CMS tools on your short list to see if they’ll allow you to easily duplicate pages.
Estimating Content Costs
Assume that it will take you or your content team at least one to two hours
per page to plan, write, edit and distribute each page for approval. If you have a lot of lengthy or complicated pages of content, increase that estimate accordingly.
It’s easy to underestimate the effort required for content development and ongoing content management, but this is one area where you don’t want to sell yourself short. Content is the most critical component of your web site, so give it the justice that it deserves and plan ample time to do it right the first time.
You should also assume that it will take an experienced content manager a fair amount of time to tag and optimize your pages for SEO purposes.
Usually, a good content manager or writer can do this within 10 to 15 minutes per page. If you don’t have that expertise in house, you’ll be wise to outsource your SEO efforts to an external agency, consulting firm or freelancer who’s familiar with SEO best practices and search algorithms. Again, in that case, make sure that the CMSs that you’re considering will allow you to grant those folks their own usernames and passwords for the
Finally, don’t forget to plan adequate resources for ongoing content management, including web pages, landing pages, blogs and social
networking accounts. Study potential CMSs to find out if your content team can update all of those via one administrative interface and via multiple devices (including mobile).
Reassessing Your Strategy
Even with the best planning a solid content strategy in place, most
companies should revisit and reassess their overall content strategy every year or so.
It can be helpful to have analytics data on hand when you’re ready to reassess your content strategy, so look for a CMS that will show you how many users are coming to your site, how they’re coming, how long they stay, when and where they exit, and what pages they’re visiting. Many CMS tools that are currently available offer integration with Google Analytics and other popular analytics software.
Chapter Five: Understanding Content Production
When comparing CMS tools, you’ll need to consider the tools that each CMS offers for content production.
What is Content Production?
Simply put, content production refers to creating, uploading and editing your content within your chosen content management system.
Questions to Ask
You should ask yourself a few questions about each tool:
How and where will you create and edit pages in the CMS?
Can you edit and create pages while viewing the front-end version of your site, using mobile devices or only by logging into the
backend administrative site? Ideally, you should be able to do it in all three places.
When you log into the backend tool, do you immediately see where you would go to create or edit pages and upload images? These are the most common nontechnical tasks that web site owners and
content managers complete on a daily or weekly basis.
Does the backend interface look appealing and welcoming—or is it boring and flat? You’ll be spending a lot of time in the backend of this CMS tool. A simple interface isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it
shouldn’t be ugly.
What WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) editor does each CMS use? Most CMS tools on the market these days use one of two editors: TinyMCE or FCKEditor. (No, that is not a typo or a profanity.) Both are sufficient and are similar to a word processing program’s interface and controls.
Can you customize the editor at all? For example, Joomla! offers multiple extensions or add-ons, including the very popular JCE editor that is far more robust than the out-of-the-box WYSIWYG editor.
Can you access the source code if you don’t want to work in a
WYSIWYG editor and can different members of your team choose to work with different editors or directly in the code if they individually desire?
Can you upload images directly within a page or article—or do you need to log out of your content editor and open up a separate image manager (also known as a digital asset manager or DAM) just to upload a new image?
Where and how can you load metadata? Can you define global
metadata or metadata for parent and category pages? Do child pages always inherit metadata from their direct parent as the (editable)
default? You want your CMS to be able to do all of these things.
Getting Under the Hood
You can find answers to all of the above questions by spending less than an hour “under the hood” of a CMS. This means that you’ll log into a demo version of the administrative (backend) tool and actually use it to create or edit articles, upload images and complete other common tasks.
Most CMS vendors offer a demo version on their site, along with a
username and password so you can log in as an admin. Look for a “Demo” button on the vendor’s site or call, tell them you’re considering buying it and ask for access to a demo site. Note that if you create any pages or make any changes to this “fake” site, your changes will usually be deleted within a few hours or so.
Some vendors also offer free access to a trial version for a limited time. You might not need a credit card to sign up—but if you do, read the fine print and make sure that your card won’t be automatically charged in 30 days or on a recurring basis.
This is a great way to learn how you’ll create and edit content in a particular CMS. It’s also one of the best ways to determine whether a CMS will work
for you--but be careful to evaluate other factors as well, as described in this book.
In the next chapter, I’ll describe how you and others on your team can “share” pages using a formal content workflow process in many CMSs.
Chapter Six: Leveraging Content Workflow
Who will be writing, editing, reviewing and approving your content? How will they communicate with each other? In what format will they share files and how will they know if someone else is editing those files?
A good content workflow can document answers to these questions and formalize this process, so everyone knows what they’re supposed to do and when. You absolutely need a CMS with workflow capabilities, unless there is only one person on your team who manages content and you are 100% certain that you’ll never add additional team members.
What is Content Workflow?
Each piece of content that appears on your site will need to be created, edited, approved, loaded into your CMS and published. In most cases, these tasks will be completed by more than one person, so it’s important to have a formal process in place for all of the people involved. This process is called “content workflow” and most content management systems offer this capability.
It’s best to find a CMS that offers multiple roles for a content workflow (i.e. author, editor, reviewer, approver and/or publisher) AND one that includes automated email notifications to each player as relevant to his or her role. It’s also important that you can define and adjust these roles and the order in which they “touch” your content. Some people prefer to write content in Word or text files and get them approved offline before loading the content into the CMS, while others write, edit and approve within the CMS itself. Again, it’s best to choose a CMS that offers email notifications as part of its content workflow. For example, when John (an author) writes a piece of content and saves it into your CMS, the system should automatically send an email notification to Susie (an editor) to let her know that the article needs to be edited. When Susie edits it, the CMS should automatically notify Mary (the approver) so she can give it her final blessing and hit Publish or tell another team member to publish it.
The Content Players Authors:
Content authors are responsible for writing content and (usually) loading it into a CMS. These might be writers or content managers on your team, freelancers, subject-matter experts within your organization or others.
Editors:
In some organizations, the original author is also responsible for editing his or her own work before it’s loaded into the system. Other organizations have dedicated editors who are responsible for reviewing each content piece for spelling errors and grammatical issues or to ensure compliance with a company style guide. You can usually decide whether or not you want to include this as a dedicated role in your content workflow.
Subject Matter Experts and Reviewers:
Your organization may want subject-matter experts (such as product
managers or division managers) to review some content before it goes live. In some CMS tools, you would set these folks up as editors or approvers. Others will allow you to create a custom role just for these types of
reviewers.
Approvers:
A publisher or approver is ultimately responsible for completing a final review of each piece, but only after it has been reviewed and approved by other members of the content team. The system will usually provide a “Publish” or “Approve” option to people with this role. Approvers can typically author or edit content as well.
Why You Need Workflow
You may be hesitant to take the time to understand workflow capabilities of different CMS tools or implement workflow in your CMS, but make sure you do it—and do it right—from the outset.
“We don’t need workflow,” you might say. “We’re too small…”, “We’re too big…” or “No one around here will use it anyway.” Not true! In fact, most people who utilize workflow love it and can’t imagine going back to their previous process.
In my experience, I’ve found that almost every organization can benefit from a formal workflow process that is documented and fully configured in their CMS tool. It’s really not that difficult to set up in most CMSs and then it basically runs by itself.
There are numerous benefits to implementing a good workflow. A good, robust workflow:
Saves you time because it automates tasks that you previously had to do manually (such as calling someone and asking them to review a file or manually sending an email and attachment to someone)
Saves your organization money because resources (people) don’t need to spend time on inefficient tasks
Helps everyone on the team clearly understand his or her role Ensures that all key players are involved or informed as needed Can help you avoid future battles about page X being published
without someone’s consent or without proper authorization
Is extremely helpful for resource and project planning purposes, so your team can better understand the people, time and effort required for each page. These translate directly into tangible costs per page. Can help to identify and alleviate bottlenecks or inefficiencies in your
Makes your content production and approval process more efficient, particularly if the workflow includes email notifications and approvals via email
Is quick and easy to set up—set it up once and forget it (except when you’re enjoying all of the time that it’s saved you!)
Take the time to understand and implement workflow immediately when launching your CMS. After you use it for a few days, you’ll wonder how you ever survived without it!
Next up: why support is a critical factor when considering content management systems.
Chapter Seven: Getting Support and Online Help
Support is one of the most important factors to consider when evaluating in a CMS. Be sure to thoroughly research various CMS companies to see if any (or preferably ALL) of the following are available to you after you
purchase. Don’t assume that just because there’s phone support, you’ll get outstanding service, documentation, instructions or assistance.
Online Help System
One of the definite “must-haves” is an area where you can go online to submit and track your support requests. This might include bug reports, feature requests, troubleshooting technical issues (including “how do I…?” requests) or possibly enhancements needed for your site.
Most commercial CMS tools have this available in your account area and have representatives monitoring incoming support tickets during regular business hours.
If you choose an open-source CMS, you’ll want to find an established agency that can help you implement, configure and customize the CMS or help with ongoing maintenance of your site. It’s important to identify these partners before you choose a CMS—you don’t want to implement a CMS
that does not have a readily available pool of development talent to help you with those kinds of ongoing needs. You should find a team that is familiar with that CMS and an easy way for you to contact them or track your online support requests.
Online Knowledge Base/FAQs
Another support option that you must have available for your chosen CMS is an online knowledge base or frequently-asked questions area where you can find solutions to support questions and issues yourself when needed. Again, this might be sponsored by the CMS vendor or a third-party (such as an agency or industry site), but it’s absolutely imperative that you have this resource available to you.
Check the following items in any knowledge bases that you find: Is the content updated frequently?
By whom? Paid employees, unbiased third parties, developers, current users? All will have their own agendas when replying to questions. Consider the source when reading replies.
If the content is mainly posted by employees, how many employees are posting? Just one? What if he or she gets fired? Look for a vibrant employee support community.
Are the posts recent or old? Do the posts reference the current version of the CMS or an older version?
If the FAQs reference multiple versions of the software, does each post clearly indicate to which version it refers?
Does the knowledge base include videos, how-to instructions and screen shots that clearly show you how to resolve issues? Or just vague responses that instruct you to call someone? (Remember, that won’t help you at 11:00 p.m. on a Friday night.)
Is after-hours emergency contact information posted somewhere in the FAQs?
Do the FAQs seem geared more towards prospects (i.e. sales
questions) or current customers (how-tos, troubleshooting tips, etc.)? Steer clear of any CMS that only posts sales questions in their
knowledge base. You will not get good support from them.
Are instruction manuals, guides or checklists posted in the FAQs? How many different knowledge bases are out there for this particular
CMS? Just the one sponsored by the vendor or other public knowledge bases?
