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Law Firm Marketing Solutions, Issue #30 – CMS & Why Should You Care – November 2008
November 17, 2008

Law Firm Marketing Solutions

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November 2008, Issue #30

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In this issue:

Content Management System (CMS) Websites
Why Should You Care?

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Many firms (with or without their knowledge) have websites built with Content Management System (CMS) software. Why should you care? While using a CMS has some advantages, most of them have some very serious downsides that could cost you more money in the end and put you at a major disadvantage with search engine rankings. So let’s dive into the discussion.

First let me define what a “Content Management System” is for you. A CMS is software with an interface that enables a user (including non-technical users like you or your staff if the vendor allows you that access) to add, subtract, or change content on a website. A CMS stores text, images, graphics, etc. in the system so that content can be delivered to one or more pages on your website. The CMS enables the user to write and publish online without having to write HTML code (the computer language of the web). CMS software can be extremely complex or reasonably simple to use. A CMS can be bought off the shelf, downloaded for free, or be accessed online through hosted services. If you want to learn more details on defining a CMS system go to Google and put in “define:content management system” and up will come tons of definitions.

If you go the CMS route via a vendor who is building your site you must be extremely careful to select the right CMS since there are so many of them out in the market. Additionally if your site is currently running a CMS (or you are considering a vendor using or telling you it is good to use a CMS system) you need to ask plenty of penetrating questions based on the information below. The advantages you are likely to hear is that you will be able to change, add, or take off content from the site for yourself. While that is true you shall see the “rest of the story” as Paul Harvey would say as we move forward.

Let’s start with the advantages of a website running a CMS. To keep it simple let me list them:

  1. You will have the ability to modify the content of your website without web design (HTML) knowledge. In some cases you’ll also have the ability to add/remove pages to your site. This saves you from tracking down, waiting for your web developer and paying for a web developer.

  2. Large websites with many pages and sections can stay better organized and have better control over their website with a CMS. That said, even a small site can take advantage of a CMS.

  3. Website vendors often sell inexpensive websites (simple websites rather than Internet marketing websites) and advertise the ability to modify content through a CMS.

  4. If you are a vendor like Martindale-Hubbell or FindLaw building thousands or even tens of thousands of websites for many different firms you would use a CMS to do it quickly and cheaply.

  5. If the search engine optimization (SEO) is done correctly and the CMS selected is implemented well, the chances for cost savings for the firm are likely both in the short run and the long run.

  6. Many CMS systems are expandable, allowing you to have a fairly static website for starters, but can easily add on features such as blogs, RSS feeds, calendars, clients-only areas, site search, video players, audio players, slideshows and more with relative ease.

  7. Easy growth. One of the hardest things to maintain on a non-CMS website are the menus and links. With a CMS, these elements are often updated automatically as you expand and edit the website.

Now let’s list the disadvantages of using a CMS. Again I will list them for you.

  1. Most CMS unfortunately will not allow you to customize the URL structure for each page and this is a major disadvantage and cost you plenty in lost revenue. An example of a search engine friendly URL might look like this:

    http://www.yourwebsite.com/personal-injury-attorneys/florida/john-smith/

    The URL below is an example of an URL that is not search engine friendly and will cost you in the rankings:

    http://www.yourwebsite.com/index.asp&contentid=2345

    Three CMSs that can allow you to customize the URL structure if your vendor knows SEO standards and will do it are WordPress, Expression Engine and Joomla. If your CMS won’t allow the following (at a minimum) you will have SEO problems and thus lower rankings at search engines:

    • keyword-filled URLs for each page or post
    • unique title tags on each page
    • unique meta/description tags on each page/post
    • H1, H2, etc. heading tags for keywords

  2. Some CMS unfortunately are not friendly for Google to crawl the site with their robots so they can’t index the site. This is an obvious problem for search engine rankings and will cost you plenty if you have a CMS that is not search engine friendly. That said some CMS systems will enhance the process by dynamically creating Google or Yahoo site maps on the fly so the emphasis on this point is the word “some” in this disadvantage.

  3. The vendor selling you the website will be telling you that you can update, add, and subtract pages for yourself on your website using their CMS. This assertion is probably very true. What they may not tell you is that it is not likely (unless you know how to follow SEO standards) you will be able to write pages that will rank well at the search engines even with an SEO-friendly CMS. Additionally, do know that making changes on a website will not be as easy as writing a Word document on your computer. You or your team will need to be trained on how to use the interface the CMS software uses.

  4. If you are using a CMS that is on another server (referred to as “hosted CMS” in the business) and is not your software then you will be required to upgrade your site when the vendor updates the software that is used on that system your website is on. This may involve fees to you and may require that you change things on your website that don’t work on the newer updated software and may require training for you or your team so you can use the upgraded software.

  5. If you have a CMS for your website and decide to change where your website "lives", for instance you are changing hosting companies; it may not be a simple process. Unless you are using a "hosted CMS" solution then you will need to move the website files, database and configuration options; this can be tricky. With a "hosted CMS" you simply need to provide your new login credentials so that it knows where to publish your files.

  6. Unless you have free CMS software, you might have to pay the costs of upgrades and security patches. All CMS packages (except hosted CMS) do require periodic security updates and while it may be an easy process for a webmaster/designer/host to make these upgrades or security patches it is typically a bigger technical process than a law firm would want to take on.

  7. Vendors will often try to sell inexpensive websites that use premade templates rather than custom-made designs or marketing funnels. This can negatively affect your firm’s image and marketing funnel and thus conversion results from visitors to clients.

  8. Some types of CMS software will require premium hosting services so you can’t put them on a “budget” hosting plan. Here we have the “some” situation again. Typically CMS will require a MySQL database and PHP which even the most basic hosting plans have included these days and it is something to be aware of in selecting a system.

  9. If you decided to change vendors after setting up a CMS-powered website, you have to find someone who knows that particular CMS software. This can limit your options to the point where you feel like you have been kidnapped or are being held hostage by the current vendor. This is why it’s important to use a CMS that has a large and established user base. I am very sure about the widespread availability of professionals building with WordPress and Joomla for instance and I don’t see much problem with Expression Engine. In all fairness it should be noted that you can get in a “kidnapped” or “hostage” situation with a HTML static site vendor as well but for different reasons.

  10. Some vendors, especially hosted CMS vendors, use a proprietary CMS system that is only available from them, fixable by them, and operable by them. In a worst-case-scenario much of the functionality you think you might have as part of your website could be eliminated if they go out of business or if you terminate your relationship with them.

Conclusions

Clearly I would not rule out CMS systems totally as they do offer many advantages. You must be careful, however, to pick the right CMS and have it implemented properly by your vendor especially if SEO that enables good search engine rankings are important to you as they should be. From my experience, research and talking to two different CMS experts I have confidence in, I can say that WordPress, Expression Engine and Joomla can do the SEO you need if the vendor knows SEO techniques and follows good SEO standards. Unfortunately choosing a proper CMS and having it setup correctly is very technical, so find someone you can trust that knows the subject well.

Additionally, I would not want you to think that the ability to make changes and add/subtract pages on your own is going to be like writing a document in your word processing software. It is going to take more knowledge and will require more training to make changes on your own than you think it will be, and probably harder than some vendors will acknowledge. It will be easier with say WordPress, Joomla and probably Expression Engine than many, many others. Even if a CMS is setup to be SEO friendly, the content that you write must be written with SEO in mind for your website to be effective for SEO. Do consider that if a staff person is primarily doing this task when they leave the firm you have to transfer that knowledge. If you are not going to be updating or adding to your website frequently then going with a static HTML website could be easier to maintain and maybe cheaper to host (especially if there is a licensing cost to your CMS). I would recommend you have conversations with someone who is an expert third party with no financial interest in your decision to help you make the final choice.

One other caution. Hosted CMS systems are probably systems better avoided. Unless they contain all of the functionality that you could ever want it is very easy to out-grow them and very difficult to do custom functions. Unfortunately this isn't totally obvious to the lay person as it was not to me initially, but with a hosted CMS, the database is on the hosted system. So when it comes time to publish, it actually publishes straight up flat html files. Thus if you want to install something like a WordPress blog, or a calendar, or some other nifty piece of software that should integrate with the website it's very hard to maintain that installation because there are no common shared elements, like the navigation for instance. Also, you're at the mercy of the provider. If they raise rates, go out of business, etc. you're out of luck. Given this information I would suggest avoiding hosted CMS.

Well a lot to consider. Want to learn more? The website http://www.cmsmatrix.org provides a comparison tool that allows you to compare the features of up to 10 CMS systems at a time. They have reviews and feature reports of 990 CMS software packages including open source, commercial and hosted solutions. It’s a good place to fact check what a vendor may be saying.

The website http://www.opensourcecms.com provides live demos of almost every active open source CMS system and allows users to try out both the front end and back end of the system. Additionally, many commercial and hosted packages offer online demos.

OK, is there anything else I should know about CMS type sites? Yes, one more thing. Do find out now if your current website is a CMS type site. Your vendor may not have told you your site is constructed with CMS. If your site is CMS then find out what type of CMS. If it is not WordPress, Expression Engine or Joomla then you are likely to have a problem at least with SEO. The vendor may tell you that what you need is search engine optimization and want to sell you that service. I would not do SEO with them unless I knew what standards they were using to do the SEO and the site was WordPress, Expression Engine or Joomla or you had an unbiased third party assess the SEO standards used and the CMS you have currently. You may be faced with changing vendors and building a new site using another type of CMS or even a non-CMS site if you hope to be competitive with search engines.

If you want me to help you with this CMS business call me and let’s talk for 20 or 30 minutes (my compliments) and see what I can do to make a difference for you in Internet marketing.

Comments, ideas, questions or topics you would like to see addressed in future newsletters? I would love to hear from you. Just reply to this newsletter and tell me what you think.

To your success,

Henry Harlow
Founder, www.Law-Firm-Marketing-Coach.com

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