Georgetown Online Web and Graphic Design Blog - Website and Graphic Design Blog

A content management system (CMS) is a special type of software installed on a website server to power a website that can allow multiple contributers to publish information to internet from virtually anywhere in the world where there is an connection.

The contributers require no knowledge of HTML (website scripting language), or other technical skills. Information is entered into a custom user-interface, minimizing the potential for problems or inconsistencies to be introduced into the publishing process.

Once a CMS is implemented, the headache of site maintenance disappear. Routine tasks like updating the sitemap will be done automatically without the need for custom programming. A wide range of plug-ins such as forums, shopping carts, and picture galleries can be easily added.

The visual presentation of the site rests with the multiplicity of templates which are available for installation and tweaking by the web designer.

The only barrier to CMS implementation may be the support for dynamic content by some web hosting company.

The number of CMS programs available is growing, but the most popular ones are Joomla, Mambo and Drupal.

• Website Developmment

When you hear the term “light weight website”, it refers to a website that has relatively fewer media (images, audio, video or flash files) or media with extremely small file sizes embedded in the pages. It also refers to websites using tableless designs, or website designed with div tags. The benefits of a light weight website are considered here:

1. Faster Loading Time – Depending on your internet connection speed, there is a maximum rate at which data can be delivered to your website browser when a page is requested. This is referred to as the bandwidth. It therefore follows that the smaller the files, or the lower the number of files embedded in each webpage, the faster it will load.

2. Search Engine Friendly – Websites designed without the use of tables enables easy reading by search engines. When tables are replaced by div tags, the associated style sheets – commonly referred to as “Cascading Style Sheets” or “CSS” – allow the web design of the site to be independent of data.

3. Cleaner Code – Websites using div tags and CSS inherently generates cleaner code. This cleaner code permits crawlers of search engines to read the actual content.

4. Less Bandwidth Consumption – For those hosting plans which come with limited bandwidth consumption, there will be savings in this area. Once the maximum bandwidth is exceeded, you will be charged by the web hosting company.

5. Higher Google Ranking – Google will soon (January 2010) factor faster loading websites into their search robots algorithms. This means that a lighter website will rank higher that it’s competition.

6. Lower Bounce Rate – How long do you stick around for a webpage to load? Perhaps the most notable benefit of a lighter website is a lower bounce rate. Visitors tend to leave websites (for good) when it takes long to load.

Web visitors deserve quality experience which includes fast loading websites. If marketing your products and services are important to you, consider redesigning your website with these factors in mind.

• Website Design