Content management
Content managementrefers to when software tools (usually browser-based software run-
ning on a server) permit business users to contribute web content while an administrator
keeps control of the format and style of the web site and the approval process. These tools
are used to organise, manage, retrieve and archive information content throughout the
life of the site.
Content management systems (CMS) provide these facilities:
structure authoring: the design and maintenance of content structure (sub-compo-
nents, templates, etc.), web page structure and web site structure;
link management: the maintenance of internal and external links through content
change and the elimination of dead links;
search engine visibility: the content within the search engine must be stored and linked
such that it can be indexed by search engine robots to add it to their index – this was
not possible with some first-generation content management systems, but is typical
of more recent content management systems;
input and syndication: the loading (spidering) of externally originating content and the
aggregation and dissemination of content from a variety of sources;
versioning: the crucial task of controlling which edition of a page, page element or the
whole site is published. Typically this will be the most recent, but previous editions
should be archived and it should be possible to roll back to a previous version at the
page, page element or site level;
security and access control: different permissions can be assigned to different roles of
users and some content may only be available through log-in details. In these cases,
the CMS maintains a list of users. This facility is useful when a company needs to use
the same CMS for an intranet, extranet or public Internet site which may have differ-
ent levels of permission;
publication workflow: content destined for a web site needs to pass through a publica-
tion process to move it from the management environment to the live delivery
environment. The process may involve tasks such as format conversion (e.g. to PDF,
or to WAP), rendering to HTML, editorial authorisation and the construction of com-
posite documents in real time (personalisation and selective dissemination);
tracking and monitoring: providing logs and statistical analysis of use to provide perform-
ance measures, tune the content according to demand and protect against misuse;
navigation and visualisation: providing an intuitive, clear and attractive representation
of the nature and location of content using colour, texture, 3D rendering or even
virtual reality.
From this list of features you can see that modern CMSs are complex and many CMSs
are expensive investments. Some open-source CMSs are available without the need to
purchase a licence fee which have many of the features explained in this section. One
example is Plone (www.plone.org) which is used by large organisations’ web sites such as
NASA. Dave Chaffey uses Plone to manage the contents for updates to this book which
readers can find on his web site (www.davechaffey.com).Initiatives to keep content fresh
It is often said that up-to-date content is crucial to site ‘stickiness’, but fresh content will
not happen by accident, so companies have to consider approaches that can be used to
control the quality of information. Generic approaches that we have seen which can
work well are:CHAPTER 9· MAINTAINING AND MONITORING THE ONLINE PRESENCE
Content
management
Software tools for
managing additions
and amendment to web
site content.