What is a CMS?

A content management system is a piece of software that helps you create, manage, and make changes to content on your website. In more simple terms, a CMS helps you build a site without needing any coding experience because the software does the coding for you. A CMS handles all the infrastructure work like creating your pages and storing your images so you can spend your time on other aspects of your business. There are many different content management systems out there including:

• WordPress

• Joomla

• Drupal

• Magento

• Brix

• and many more

Why Go With a CMS?

If you want to make sure all the elements of your website work in harmony, you should definitely consider using a CMS. You can enjoy many benefits with the right CMS in place such as increased website traffic, more leads and sales, and better authority in your industry. But with so many options out there, choosing the right CMS can be a daunting task indeed.

Factors to Take into Consideration

Here are 3 factors to consider when choosing a CMS platform to use:

User Friendliness

In order to get the most out of a CMS, you need to be able to easily perform all the functions it offers. This is why it’s important to choose a CMS that that is user-friendly. You should choose a CMS that makes it easy to add and edit content and one that is simple to navigate.

If it takes you hours to update content you’ll become very frustrated and waste valuable time. This is why it’s a good idea to watch video demos of different CMS systems so you get a feel about how the user interfaces work. It’s always wise to do a test run with a CMS to make sure you feel comfortable using it before you make a commitment.

Your Site’s Complexity & Pricing

If you have a small to medium sized website or a blog, a simpler CMS like WordPress should meet your needs. But if you have a large website with many different page types, you’d be better off choosing a CMS that can handle your more complex site with advanced features like Drupal.

Of course, you’re going to have to pay for a CMS that offers more features so the cost factor should be considered along with your site’s complexity. When narrowing down your choices in CMS platforms, compare the prices to make sure you don’t end up with a half-finished website because you’ve completely used up your budget.

Level of Support Offered

Unless you’re very well-versed in CMS technology, it’s inevitable that you’ll have some questions or run into problems with the CMS you choose. This is why you need to make sure the platform you decide to use offers a good support system. Look for a system that provides great customer support so you can reach out via email, text, or live chat anytime you need quick answers or a solution to a problem you’re having. There’s nothing worse or more time-consuming than finding yourself stuck because of non-existent or very poor support.

Takeaway: The right CMS platform will put full control of your website into your hands. It’s very important to ensure the CMS you choose is really going to work for you. See to it that you choose the best software that will boost your SEO efforts by driving more traffic and making your site easy to navigate.

For best results, hire an SEO company to avoid the common mistakes make when trying out content marketing for the first time.

The post 3 Factors to Consider when Choosing a CMS appeared first on PGAS 2013.

Not Defining Your Audience

A mistake made too often by content marketers is failing to define their target audience. If you’re creating content for the wrong audience, you’re wasting your time. Remember that every audience reads different sites and needs different solutions for their issues.

You should define your audience and then produce your content, focusing on the interests and needs of this group of people. Once you get started producing content for the right audience, you’ll find it easier to come up with topics to write about.

Producing Tons of Content

Many content marketers produce loads and loads of content because they think more is better in terms of ranking high in Google. However, what Google (and your audience) really wants is quality, consistent, and predictable content. When it’s time to add content to your website or blog, make sure it’s information your readers want to see. Never just produce content for the heck of it. When you provide quality and value, you’ll get the results you’re aiming for.

Failing to Proofread and Edit

Because Google and your readers place a high value on quality when it comes to content, you should not get into the habit of failing to proofread and edit your content. While it may seem easy to throw some words together, those words may not provide any value if they’re full of grammatical errors or lacking substance. Your goal should always be to produce excellent quality content that’s informative and enjoyable to read.

Using Dull Headlines

People like the ‘Wow!’ factor when it comes to headlines. Did you know that only 2 out of every 10 people who read your headlines will actually take the time to read the rest of your content? Focus on creating headlines that turn heads like those creating a sense of urgency or mystery or headlines that promise solutions to problems your audience often has.

Not Promoting Content

Many content marketers fail to promote the content they produce. If you’re producing content for your site and blog and just leaving it there to be found by Google searchers, you’re missing out on a lot of potential traffic. With social media being all the rage today, you should be sharing and tweeting your content regularly. Take the time to find out what social sites your targeted audience is the most active on. Then find out what types of content they want to consume. If they like articles, give them articles. If it’s research reports they prefer, give them research reports. And by all means, engage with your followers by responding when they comment or ask questions.

Being Too Eager to Sell

Everyone who visits your site or blog knows that you are trying to promote and sell your products and/or services. Of course, you should be working on generating leads and converting more readers into paid customers. Just don’t overdo it. Too much selling in your content looks desperate and cheap. Instead of going overboard with your selling, aim for giving your audience good quality content that will help you become more credible and trustworthy in their eyes. Otherwise, you’ll be viewed as a greedy self-promotor who is only interested in making money and nothing else.

If you want to up your content marketing game, stop making these common mistakes that can cripple your return on investment (ROI). Remember to always keep your audience in mind when creating content and to optimise that content for good rankings in Google.

One common mistake made by those without the right seo expert services company, is not understanding the connection between SEO and content marketing. By better understanding this link, you can ensure your efforts are high-quality, white hat and that much more effective.

The post Are You Making These Content Marketing Mistakes? appeared first on PGAS 2013.

Answer Specific Questions with In-Depth Answers

A featured snippet is very informational in nature. The bottom line is that if your content fails to answer questions, it will never get into the featured snippet box. Google’s algorithms pour over tons of sites to locate the content that best answers a user’s questions. Once the content is found, it’s displayed in a featured snippet, which makes it easy for people to find the information they’re looking for. You need to stay focused on providing in-depth answers to people’s specific questions.

Understand Your Audience

In order for you to know what type of content to produce that best answers people’s questions, you need to understand your targeted audience. When you understand how these people search online for the types of products you have, you’ll be able to choose the keywords for your content that they’re using. A quick way to see what people are searching for is to type your keyword into Google and see what other terms show up.

Another way to learn about your audience is to visit forums related to your industry where your targeted audience hangs out. Find out what they’re interested in and learn what questions they’re asking. Then you need to create true, high quality content containing some main keywords. Your content should be comprehensive, engaging to the readers, and very user-focused.

Don’t Skim the Surface, Go Deep

Instead of just barely delving into specifics about your topic, dive in deep and provide some depth to your content. Take the time to use visual content to back up your text and use visuals like infographics and screenshots. Try tailoring your content to meet the needs of beginners in your industry by taking the time to carefully explain things. When you provide lots of detail, you’ll be setting yourself up as an authority, and giving Google what it’s looking for in its featured snippets.

Make sure all your content is unique. Once you’ve created a piece of content, read it over and look at it to see how everything is structured. Your content should be easy to read and digest. So use those bullet points and great headlines to please your readers and the search engines. 

Organize Your Content into Short Sentences & Paragraphs

The majority of featured snippets contain between 40 and 50 words. This means your content should be organized into short sentences and paragraphs. To help you do this, stay focused on providing specific answers to questions your readers may have about your topic. If your content is about giving step-by-step instructions, then use numbered or bulleted lists to help increase your chances of getting into a featured snippet.

Offer Question & Answer Pages

Websites with question & answer pages that are well-formatted and contain complete answers have a better chance of making it into featured snippets than websites without them. Plus, a Q&A page helps your users find complete answers to their questions, to provide your website with better value. If need be, drop links in the answers that provide your readers with even more details about the topic.

Finally, keep asking questions and looking for new tips, you can easily avoid most content marketing mistakes simply by asking an established SEO agency or professional for advice and guidance!

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