Programming, implementation of CMS
Here the technical activity of a programmer and layout designer began. These people need to understand web development techniques to make a really good product.
The meaning of this tool is the ability to embed additional content and modules on the site without unnecessary difficulties. Masters teach entrepreneurs how to work with the system so that they can work with their own site.
How to choose a CMS
Otherwise, CMS is called the site engine.
Consider what are the engines for creating a site.
WordPress – the share of this engine is more than 30%. This is the most popular free solution and the creation of absolutely any site falls into the range of tasks to be solved. The easiest installation, thanks to which you can quickly start the development process.
1C-Bitrix is a popular but paid solution. A reliable system for sites with a high load or for those where extra reliability is required. Sometimes it sins that it takes a long time to load the main page of the site.
UMI.CMS is the third most popular solution. The process of site management on UMI.CMS is so simple that it does not require any special knowledge, except for standard MS Word skills.
Programming
The site is built using web technologies, programming languages and databases. Pages, menus, dynamics, guest book, forum, news feed are created, hyperlinks are placed. There are different languages for creating websites (HTML, PHP, ASP). Each is optimal for their tasks.
The important points of this stage are as follows:
- The site code should be “nice and clean”. This means that the code should be as small as possible and it should be easy to read by a specialist.
- Then, the site will load faster, and its chances for high positions in search engines will increase, and the cumbersome code will make it difficult for the site to work and the process of its promotion in the search results.
Cross-browser layout (Cross-browser) is a mandatory requirement for modern sites. Remember for yourself how infuriating was the image of poor quality on sites ten years ago, which was stretched on the screen because it was optimized for other platforms.
The result of this stage should be a site without any content. The performer, at his discretion, can place his images and texts on the page to show how the result will look like, but at this stage the main thing is the structure and drawing of the elements.
Creating semantics
The next stage is the formation of the semantic core. This is a set of related and adequate user queries in a search engine. This set is the basis for the promotion of the future site and must fully comply with its theme.
This includes:
- Collection of all keywords in your business, including their synonyms and misspellings
- Building a hierarchy of meanings. You can collect not only requests to “create a website” (since we are talking about sites), but also requests “which hosting to choose” and so on.
- Search associations for your search terms. Can’t you see the connection between the queries “Create a website” and “credit”? And some top web studios see it. Their price tags are available to many only on credit. Therefore, the role of associations is very important in the collection of semantics.
- Filtering collected keys for junk words and dead ends. It is recommended to delete requests with high and low frequencies.
What should not be done? Collecting semantics means selecting keywords that most closely match your business theme. We recommend avoiding cold requests in your theme.
Cold requests are requests that do not clearly express the desire of the user to buy your product. To be clear, the keyword “toothpick” will not sell the “hadron collider”.
Site content
Now that the site is ready, it remains to fill it with content. There are two ways to fill the site:
- The customer provides photo, video and text material to the contractor. In this case, specialists integrate the content with the body of the site. Experts may update it periodically.
- The customer delegates the content creation process. Then the creation of content for the site is completely entrusted to the performer. Photos and videos are being taken. Texts are written by a seo copywriter, taking into account the collected semantic core.
- Images that are used in working with the site are optimized for web placements, it is most convenient to upload videos to the site not directly, but through video hosting. For these purposes, YouTube is best suited. You can simply integrate the video code into your website code. So you solve two problems – do not take up disk space and create “content islands” that we have already written about.
After the content is ready, it is embedded in the body of the site. Now your resource is completely ready for tests.
Site test
The preparatory part is completed: the code is written and optimized, the design is in order, the content is loaded and displayed correctly, but that’s not all. Before the site is seen by the public, it needs to be tested to see if it works.
Testing is best done in three stages:
- Test by the contractor’s specialists.
- Recruitment of people into a focus – a group to get an independent response to your resource.
- The third stage is the most difficult. The contractor needs to present his work to the customer. It is understood that this is the final presentation and the project is handed over to the client. The presenter should be immersed in the project in such a way as to answer all the client’s questions in as much detail as possible and justify the choice of any solution used in the work.
Website development and promotion
Yes, you can stop. You can not update the content and design – just leave everything as it is. Clients will come, but each time there will be less and less of them. This will happen as your content and design becomes obsolete.
Such a process is inevitable. But only if you don’t take care of it. You can draw an analogy between a website and an aquarium fish. If she is not fed or the water is not changed, the end will be near.
This is a good metaphor also because neither the pebbles at the bottom nor the beautiful underwater castle are important for the well-being of the fish. And for your site any unnecessary lotions are not important. In the restaurant website example, there was no need for overly pompous design. Comfort was important delivery functionality.
But, this does not mean that the promotion of your resource can be neglected. What methods exist:
Adding to thematic and industry directories. At the beginning of the article, we mentioned the directory, which contains more than 7,000 agencies working in digital. There are such directories in many areas – be sure to use them.
Search engine promotion or SEO. Create content and each heading based on the semantic core. This can bring your resource to the top of the search results and provide you with an influx of customers from organic search.
Adaptive design (adaptive design) – the addition of adaptive design allows your customers to comfortably browse the site. This has a positive effect on sales.
Add metrics. Connect to the site metrics to track the effectiveness of your work. You can understand what content users like, and after working for a year or more, you can predict your sales by months.
You can add functionality. Now that the site is up and running smoothly, you can add functionality.
You can experiment endlessly with the usual buttons on the site (as it became known that users are more likely to click on green buttons with rounded corners than red and angular ones).
Add a chat with the administrator (use JivoSite). Adding a calculator saves time on preparing a quotation. This way you will immediately know the needs of your client. Design a beautiful drop down menu.
What are CMS. Self-written and boxed, studio and designers. Self-written ones are used for large projects. They can be written by a web studio or your IT department if you can afford it.
For small and medium-sized businesses, boxed ones are usually used – it’s easier and cheaper. But their functionality is usually limited by the capabilities of the platform, it can only be expanded if the source code is open.
WordPress
WordPress is the most famous and popular CMS in the world, a kind of niche symbol. It was written to create blogs, but in the process turned into a universal engine thanks to the developers of plugins, templates and community activity.
The control panel has built-in libraries of plug-ins and templates with an immense assortment. Everything has reviews, ratings, instructions, ratings. You can sort by various criteria – it’s easy to choose.
Many studios draw templates for this system. Mountains of videos with lessons and kilometers of discussion forums are included. Learning to use it is easier than many others.
WordPress operates on two types of content – page and article. The button for creating a post is placed separately, you can publish a post directly from the site – everything is geared towards the convenience and speed of publishing a news feed. SEO is implemented through plugins, as well as speed optimization, security, and much more.
To create stores, landing pages, forums, and other things, there are many specialized, powerful plug-ins, resembling a separate, full-fledged software in terms of capabilities. It also exists in the format of a website builder for those who are more comfortable using a ready-made boxed version.
Pros:
- Popularity: a large number of developers work in the WordPress ecosystem, constantly expanding / improving the range of plugins and templates;
- There are many hostings that have a separate tariff with settings optimized for this CMS;
- A huge number of available educational materials of any format;
- Relative ease of development, more or less suitable for beginners;
- A large number of high-quality and useful free plugins;
- Most templates have fairly detailed customization settings without the need to edit the code;
- Able to withstand huge traffic with decent hosting;
- Versatility due to plugins, suitable for creating voluminous sites.
Minuses:
- More than a third of all sites in the world are powered by WordPress, which makes this system one of the main targets for attackers and inexperienced developers;
- Out of the box, the system is suitable for creating a simple blog or business card;
- Creates a considerable load on the server, hosting must be good;
- Produces duplicate pages, although this can be fixed with a plugin.
Joomla
Joomla allows you to create quite complex types of sites with simple types of content. Here is a great interface for administering a large number of articles. E-Commerce developed due to plugins, although it’s better not to make a big store here – the engine has an average performance, a lot depends on optimization and hosting quality.
There are an infinite number of templates, they contain a variety of functionality: some contain more than a hundred built-in modules with kilometers of settings screens. What’s good is that the templates are easy to edit with code – it’s based on HTML and CSS. Knowing them, you can modify almost everything. Flexible, interesting mass CMS.
Pros:
- Suitable for creating any type of sites, the main thing is not to overload the engine with modules and the volume of the database (content), otherwise with weak hosting there will definitely be problems with page loading speed;
- Adaptability for launching social networks of a decent level – not many engines can do this;
- Powerful ecosystem, information and experienced developers in abundance;
- There are many templates, plus they have a huge range of functionality;
- The richest selection of plugins and components, among which a significant part are free;
- Full access to the code, minimal editing skills required.
Minuses:
- The control panel is confusing, in the eyes of the average beginner it looks complicated;
- The speed of work is average, although this gap is filled by fast hosting, optimization by plugins and settings;
- Powerful template instances are hard to set up – you rarely get by without reading the instructions;
- The level of security out of the box is mediocre, needs to be improved by plugins and hands;
- Engine updates do not always work correctly, can lead to failures up to the inability to enter the control panel or data loss.