Weekend SEO - Practical Guide - Choosing a SEO Friendly CMS

The next step after buying a domain and hosting is choosing a SEO Friendly CMS.

By the way, What is Content Management System (CMS) ?

CMS is based on Web2.0 concept with main focus on User Generated Content (UGC).

"A content management system (CMS) is the collection of procedures used to manage work flow in a collaborative environment."
Source: Wikipedia

Types of User Generated Content ?

• Forums / Message Board - Users discuss and share thoughts in the form of group discussion. Example: phpbb, vbulletin, etc.
• Blogs - A blog (a blend of the term "web log" is a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog. Example: Blogger / Blogspot, WordPress, Movable Type, etc.
• Social Networking Sites - a site where users could communicate by sharing media (such as pictures, videos, music), blogs, etc. with other users. Example: Youtube, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, etc.
• Wikis - A wiki is a website that allows the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Example: Wikipedia.org

Why do we need CMS ?

• Content production without programming or web design experience i.e Designed with non-technical content authors in mind.
• The CMS provides a rich graphical user interface that allows an editor to create content, add images and multimedia files (audio or video) and much more.
• Installing and setting up a website with basic CMS features is easy and can be done quickly within few minutes.
• Allows dynamic content
• User friendliness - Better navigation
• Customization - Easier to change the look and feel by changing theme, enabling/disabling certain modules, access rights, etc.

According to me, Top 10 CMS Software List [ in no particular order ;-) ] ?

• Drupal
• WordPress
• ExpressionEngine
• Joomla
• Media Wiki
• Mambo
• Liferay
• Blogger/Blogspot
• Movable Type
• Liferay

This is just a small list of most commonly used CMS and there exists many other CMS on the web.

How can I compare or learn more about various CMS

CMSMatrix.org - The content management comparison tool lists feature by feature comparison of chosen CMS from the huge list.

My personal experience w.r.t choosing a CMS

• My first preference is Drupal CMS - Most of my websites runs on Drupal CMS, a PHP based open source CMS. It is recommended for websites that are very complex and requires a very flexible CMS for development.
  

  Turn your Drupal into SEO Friendly CMS

• Second preference is Wordpress - Recommended for bloggers as it is the most popular CMS for blogging.

"Weekend SEO is a unique place to share the experiments that I did w.r.t SEO". - Nanda Kishor