CMS Editing MasterCopy.co.uk

Transcription

1 CMS Editing MasterCopy.co.uk General notes 1. You may find it useful to print out these notes and add your login details to the space below. 2. CMS stands for Content Management System. 3. Please only use GOOGLE CHROME for CMS editing your site as it is the best browser for CMS. 4. Your website text and image information is held within a database on the server. Every time you update and save a webpage using the CMS you overwrite the database with your new information. Be very careful not to update the database with wrong information. If you are doing a big change then you can ask me to take a copy of the database before you start. We can revert to that copy if you make errors and wipe out things you did not intend to remove or change. If in doubt do not click the large red Update button. 5. I give you far more control over your webpages than is normal for a CMS so if in doubt please ask for my help rather than risk destroying pages your website. 6. After every change to your website you should check that your amendments show up appropriately for the public on mobile phone screens, tablets and large screens. Back up regime BE PREPARED. The Datacentre backs up your website for their own purposes in case there is ever loss or corruption of data on the server which is as rare as hen s teeth. Your computer failing, the web server misbehaving, you inadvertently overwriting or deleting important information, hacking and virus and many similar instances can all mean you can lose part of or all of your website. Hopefully, such calamities will never occur for you but it is good to be prepared. There are three elements of the website that need backing up: 1. The design and functionality of the site, excluding text and images. I will have a copy of this to restore to the web server if it is ever required. 2. The database. I periodically take a copy of this and store it. If requested I can send you a copy of the database once a week so if you every have a problem you can return it to me and I can upload. This will return your site to whatever data the database backup held when it was copied and sent to you. 3. The images and documents you upload. You must keep copies of the images and documents you put on the site so if they are ever lost from the server you can reinstall them. I do not backup the images and documents you add so YOU MUST make sure you keep copies of all you upload. Hopefully, nothing will ever go wrong but the three points above give us the ability to restore the website after a problem. As I mentioned at the start BE PREPARED. Editing using CMS version 2 17 th Nov 2017 Page 1

2 Logging in Click on the MW dot in the bottom right of any webpage. Enter your login details. You might like to write these in the spaces below. User name: Password: Upon clicking Login you will see that your webpage acquires a pink bar Logging Out When you have completed all your editing for a session please click the Logout button on the pink bar. Editing a page Go to the web page you want to edit. Click the box MAKE THIS PAGE EDITABLE: Editing Text Select the text you want to edit and a blue bar will appear with the editing tools. Hover over a tool say the B (Bold) and a popup will describe what it does. Click to apply this tool. There are no tools for the page title because the styling is set centrally on the website. If you have added an item from the blue toolbar, for example made a word bold, to remove the bold simply highlight the word that is bold and click the bold tool on the blue bar. When a tool is active then it has a darker background colour on the blue toolbar. Editing using CMS version 2 17 th Nov 2017 Page 2

3 Adding Text from a Word file or other source If you need to copy text from a Word document or by copying text from a webpage you must go through a cleaning process to remove all the hidden background codes. To illustrate this I will describe the sequence for cleaning Word text. 1. Open the Word document 2. Highlight all the text you want to add into your website page 3. Copy this text ( Control C is useful on a PC) 4. Close Word 5. Open Notepad 6. Paste in the text you copied from Word. Most the formatting present is the Word version will vanish. 7. Highlight the text in Notepad 8. Cut the text from Notepad 9. Close Notepad 10. Go to the web page on which you want to paste this text 11. Click MAKE THIS PAGE EDITABLE 12. Put the cursor where the text is to go 13. Paste in the text (Control V on the PC is useful 14. Click the red Update button. Adding an External Link To add a link to an external website highlight the text you want to link on the page, click the # symbol on the toolbar and paste or type in the website link including the e.g. Adding a PDF, Excel Spreadsheet or Word Document to the website On your computer give the PDF a friendly file name with no spaces or punctuation marks e.g. background stats.pdf is good but the filename back stats y?65.pdf is bad. To add a PDF to the website first click Upload Documents on the pink bar. You need to upload the PDF so use Choose file to find it on your computer and then click the green button Upload this Document Now look for the file you have just added in the table below and copy the path of the file from Path to copy for uploading purposes Editing using CMS version 2 17 th Nov 2017 Page 3

4 Now return to the page where you want to add the link and type in the anchor text you want to link. Highlight this anchor text and on the blue bar select # Paste in the path for the PDF. Click the tick to confirm. Adding a link to an address Add your anchor text to the page e.g. please John Highlight this text and click the link button. Write in John s address in this way mailto:john@abc.co.uk Click the tick and save the page. To add an image in the text Prepare the image you want to upload. Before you add a new picture you need an original that is 1024 pixels in width or larger and saved as a jpg file on your computer. Please use a human friendly file name for it with no spaces or punctuation e.g. party fun august.jpg is good whereas DSC ? Party sa.jpg is bad. The website can help with resizing if you do not have suitable graphics software on your computer. Another useful site is There is a free graphics program GIMP that you might choose to use. Put the cursor where you want the image. Push return and you should see a plus sign in a circle Click on the and it changes to Click on and find the file you want to upload. If it has a huge file size and your internet is slow it can take a long time to upload. Once it is uploaded it will be resized to 1024pixels wide and added onto you page. Editing using CMS version 2 17 th Nov 2017 Page 4

5 Click on the image to get a blue toolbar. Select Centre and 100%. The picture may be far too big in which case we may have set picture boxes on the page in which to place your pictures. Clicking on a picture will show a Remove button should you want to remove the picture from the page. Click on the words image cation below the picture and type in a caption for the picture When you have finished scroll to the bottom of the CMS page and click on the large red button labelled Update. It is a good idea to save frequently in case of computer glitches. Cropping an image to a specific size One method is to use If your internet connection speed is poor this can be a slow process as it involves uploading and downloading your images. Go to Click on Upload an image and select from your computer the image you want to resize Go down to the section Resize your image and type in the width you require for the crop Let the computer adjust the height of the image do not enter it manually Click Resize Image at the bottom of the page Download the resized image to your computer Editing using CMS version 2 17 th Nov 2017 Page 5

6 Start again and upload this resized image to Go to the Crop your image section Enter the W: and H: to your required values DO NOT use the square resize handles Click in the middle of the crop area to move the crop up and down to the required positon Click the Crop button The image will resize to your crop dimensions albeit slowly if your internet connection is poor Go to the bottom of the page and select Download Image You will now have crop of your chosen dimensions that is not distorted Many graphics programs (but not all of them) allow you to crop images so you might like to explore that option if you feel confident to do so the free graphics program GIMP does allow cropping. Editing using CMS version 2 17 th Nov 2017 Page 6

7 Cropping an image with GIMP version 2.8 This is available from 1. Open GIMP 2. File>Open>Select your image 3. Open Tools>Transform Tools>Crop 4. Draw out a rectangle crop box on your image 5. Type in a size say 800 pixels wide and 533 pixels high 6. Push enter when you have entered the second dimension of 533 pixels 7. Click and hold the left mouse button on the crop area and move the mouse to position the crop where you want it 8. Push enter 9. Go to File> Export as and save the cropped image to your computer using a suitable filename. Unless you have good reason to change them just accept the defaults settings 10. Save or discard the GIMP master file for this crop as suits you. It is useful to save if you want to crop this picture again Keeping your documents and images in a tidy fashion Over time one can accumulate documents and images on the site that are redundant. It makes things simpler if you remove these from the server. To do this go to the Upload Documents or View Image Pool page on the pink bar and follow the method outlined there. Writing your text The more content a web page has, the easier it is to get high rankings on the search engines. It is very difficult to get high rankings for very short pages with thin content. Editing using CMS version 2 17 th Nov 2017 Page 7

8 Google continues to say that high quality content is important if you want to get high rankings Recommendations for your content: Aim for a voice and tone that's conversational, friendly, and respectful without being overly colloquial or frivolous; a voice that's casual and natural and approachable, not pedantic or pushy. Try to sound like a knowledgeable friend who understands what the reader wants to do. Use standard spelling, grammar, punctuation and capitalization. Write short and concise sentences that are easy to understand. Use descriptive link texts, i.e. "download the user manual" instead of "click here". If you link to other websites, make sure that these websites are reliable and respectable. Avoid buzzwords and technical jargon. Don't use exclamation marks, except in rare really exciting moments. Consider headers, sub headers, numbered lists and bullet lists to structure your content. Make sure that your web pages contain enough content to answer the questions of a web page visitor. Search engines love content rich websites that answer the questions of searchers. The content of your web pages should have a clear structure, and it should be easy to understand and provide the answers to the questions the reader is enquiring about. How to write compelling text for your business It s important to understand the people that you re writing for you should know their needs, their wants and the things they care about. That way, you can pick a topic they actually want to read about. It s also a good idea to use the style of language they tend to use, so you can communicate your point in a way they can appreciate. For example, if your audience is not very technical, jargonlittered paragraphs that don t resonate with them will only turn them off. For example, let s say you sell outdoor clothing. Rather than writing about how wonderful outdoor clothing is, you could delve a little deeper for your readers and write an informative piece telling them about all the different types of outdoor clothing there are and how to pick the type that best suits their needs. Then, link back to your business by subtly informing customers about the types of outdoor that you offer. Be careful not to let this become a sales pitch, as your readers will see straight through this. Have an end goal for everything that you write. What would be the ideal action you d like your reader to take after reading your material? Whether you want them to make a purchase or explore another area of your site. You can use your copywriting to personalise the experience of your target audience by making sure you understand them. Think about things like: Where they re located What their likes and dislikes are Editing using CMS version 2 17 th Nov 2017 Page 8

9 What interests them What they want Once you ve researched your audience, you ll have a good idea of what to write about to grab their attention. You will also be able to make a connection between what your business offers and how that can be applied to your readers wants, giving you your angle. Updating the Whats On Events When logged into the CMS click on the pink bar Update What s On On the Update Whats On page click on one of the Events you see listed. Scroll down the page and you will find a section where you can upload a photo for that event edit its text an editing tool bar will appear as for normal page editing you can select the order the events show by selecting sort order. The higher the number the lower the events are in the listings Click on Save changes to What s on Events Editing the Photo Gallery Firstly prepare a picture of size 800 x 533 pixels and save it on your computer as a jpg file On the pink bar click Update Gallery Editing using CMS version 2 17 th Nov 2017 Page 9

10 To add a new image and its associated text Use the Choose File button to select the image you want to upload. The file name will appear in the white box adjacent to the Choose File button Add in your description Add in the category. The only category words you can add are the ones shown Add in the order. The higher the order number the lower the picture will appear on the Gallery page Click the orange Add to Gallery button To amend an image and its associated text On the pink bar click Update Gallery You will see a table summarizing what images are currently on the Gallery page Click on the id value of the row you want to amend Below the table you will see boxes for File, Category, Description and Order with the chosen items details. Edit these items as required. Click the green Add to Portfolio button Editing using CMS version 2 17 th Nov 2017 Page 10

11 To permanently delete an image On the pink bar click Update Gallery You will see a table summarizing what images are currently on the Gallery page TAKE CARE as deletion is not reversible. Click on the appropriate red button Permanently delete this image Editing the Calendar On the pink CMS bar click Calendar. Enter Password: Click Login Select Calendar 1 Use Start date, End date, Status and Change over days to set the booked and available dates on the Calendar. Click SAVE when you have finished. Google Map Location If you have a Google map then it will requires latitude and longitude coordinates. To find out what these are for your location go to large.php Editing using CMS version 2 17 th Nov 2017 Page 11

12 Move the map around until the pointer is over the desired location. On the top left of the screen you will see the latitude and longitude of that location. Copy these onto an and send them to me for inclusion on your Google map. Meta Tags These can be added when you are in page editing mode. Down the bottom of the page isa meta tag editing area. Meta Tags Make sure that you have used your CMS to add individualised meta tags for each page of your site. It is important to have title and description meta tags that reflect both the textual content of the page and the key words you are trying to get over on that page. The page title and description are used by Google in ranking and also play a particularly significant role when potential clients view your listing on the Google results page. Good page titles and description that appeal to humans can cause them to click on your link rather than one of your rivals. Meta information is there behind your pages to assist the search engines with listing your page. The CMS for each webpage has three areas you need to complete. The picture below shows where this information usually appears on a Google search. Article Meta Title It summarises the content found on a page. It will appear in three key places: the browser tab (see below), Google search engine results pages (see above), and external sites such as Facebook or Twitter. Each web page should have an individual title tag. Editing using CMS version 2 17 th Nov 2017 Page 12

13 Why are title tags important? The Article Meta title is the boldest, most obvious element in a search results page on Google and therefore plays a major part in the decision making process of whether a searcher will click on your result or not. How to write an Article Meta title The Article Meta Title must be highly relevant to the content found on that specific page Place important keywords and phrases close to the front of the title tag so they catch the eye Write naturally for visitors and avoid keyword stuffing Avoid duplication. Each page of your website will have a different topic so it needs to have a unique title Potentially include your brand name at the end of the title tag, but focus on getting your message across first Keep it between 60 and 64 characters. If you write a title that s longer than that, it ll get cut off, showing an ellipsis. Make it compelling. Your title tag should be appealing enough to entice visitors to click to find out more about what you have to offer The Article Meta description The description tag is intended to be a short summary of the content found on the web page. While the title tag is very limited, a meta description gives you a bit more space to tell users what you re offering, and it s an opportunity to give them a compelling reason to click through to your page. Write up to 20 words summarising the content of the webpage. If you write an Article Meta description that s longer than that, it ll get cut off, showing an ellipsis.. Article Meta Keywords These are no longer important but are worth adding. Compile a list of about 15 words or short phrases for each page separated by commas e.g. Exmoor, tourist information, National Park, holidays, walking, recreation, history, nature, farming, moorland.. Google Analytics Make sure you have the necessary and Passwords which I suggest that you write below Log into your CMS and on the pink bar click Analytics. A new tab opens. Editing using CMS version 2 17 th Nov 2017 Page 13

14 Click on SIGN IN and choose Analytics If necessary sign into Google using the following Password: Google Analytics is a complex package designed to link in with Google Pay Per Click Adverts. You will be able to see basic user stats on the Home page. To find out more about how to use Google Analytics click on Discover and select Analytics Help Centre. Promoting your website Your web site is effectively a portfolio providing plenty of space for you to carefully lay out your message and provide all the information you wish to impart about your website topics. People may find their way to your website through search engines, primarily Google and you have some control over your positioning by providing plenty of relevant text on each keyword phrase that you wish to be found under. There are 54,907 searches per second on Google alone. There are about 5 billion searches per day on Google. It's extremely likely that many hundreds of these searches are exactly for the things that you have to offer. Not all searches lead to sales. Some people search to find information, other people are looking for products. If your website specializes in garden buildings, it does not make sense to be listed for a general keyword such as 'houses'. Editing using CMS version 2 17 th Nov 2017 Page 14

15 However, the web is a very competitive place and for example searching Google on the phrase selfcatering accommodation Somerset returns 630,000 web listings. Clearly it is very hard to get into the page 1, top 10 listings on Google with such a phrase. You can get on the first page by paying Google using its Pay per Click i.e. PPC system but unless skilfully handled the cost of this can exceed the financial rewards it can bring so do be careful if you pursue PPC. Most internet savvy businesses now rely heavily on social media to attract clients to their websites. Effectively there are three social media categories social media platforms that help you network (like LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.); social media platforms that help you promote (like YouTube, blogs, etc.); and social media platforms that help you share (like Buffer, Hootsuite, etc.). There are hundreds of social media platforms. I will list the main ones currently used in the UK to help you choose which ones might benefit your business. Popular UK choices include Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube and Marketing to help you get your message out. Social Media Platforms that help you Network Facebook Google+ LinkedIn Snapchat Twitter Social Media Platforms that help you Promote Bing, Google and Yahoo aren t technically social media platforms, but they are tools that can be used to promote your product or service. Blogging Platforms Some of them, like Blogger and Tumblr are straightforward platforms that are great for people who want to do a simple blog about their vacation, their company or their family reunion. If you re ready to create a more robust blog that adds a lot of SEO value for your website, you ll want to use Joomla, Drupal, Typepad or WordPress. These are the blogging platforms used by serious bloggers. Marketing Platforms can often get overlooked in the world of social media, but if you define social media as tools that help you have a dialogue with your customers and prospects, then falls into the social media category. Popular marketing tools include Constant Contact. Flickr This is a photo sharing site that can be used to build awareness and drive traffic to your product pages. itunes This is not the only podcasting site, but it s the best known and most popular. If you re doing interviews with industry experts or if you re creating mini radio shows, itunes is the place to be. Editing using CMS version 2 17 th Nov 2017 Page 15

16 Vimeo Think of Vimeo as a high end YouTube. It s perfect for people interested in sharing their videos with a community of positive, encouraging creative professionals. Yahoo Like Google and Bing, this is not technically a social media platform. But it is a tool that ultimately can drive traffic to your website. YouTube YouTube is one of the better known platforms used to promote businesses. The key to YouTube is to keep the videos short and sweet. Make sure they solve the what s in it for me question. YouTube is perfect for How to videos, but it s not a good place to upload the CEOs annual speech to shareholders. Social Media Platforms that help you Share HootSuite This is a tool that allows you to manage multiple social media channels through one dashboard. Instagram A surprisingly fun photography app that s sweeping the globe. Install Instagram on your smartphone and, next time you take a photo, use it to enhance, stylize and share the photo with others in your network. Pinterest We live in a visual world and Pinterest leverages that. Tired of reading long blog posts (like this one) but still enjoy skimming through images that are worth 1,000 words? Wikipedia This user generated encyclopaedia is run by just a few dozen employees (along with hundreds of thousands of contributors around the globe). It s a great tool for legitimate entries. Don t try to game the system by adding overly promotional posts. But if your entry will be helpful to the Wikipedia community at large, add a page. An approach to SEO you could consider There are myriad businesses trying to sell you their Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) services. The purchase of website search optimising (SEO) services is an area to step into with great care as it can be a splendid way to spend a lot of money to little effect. I am assuming that your site is about garden design. The first thing you would need to do is to choose the phrases you want to be found under. For example, some phrases might be garden designers in Battersea, home improvements north London, garden water features designer London If someone searches Google for a phrase of say garden designers in Battersea then Google: Editing using CMS version 2 17 th Nov 2017 Page 16

17 1. Looks through millions of websites to find a site which has text that talks very informatively and with plenty of relevant information about the specific phrase garden designers in Battersea. It looks to see if the phrase garden designers in Battersea is talked about in depth on your site and has supporting text so that it is likely to be particularly relevant to the searcher. Google will be drawn to the websites whose pages best fulfil this for the particular phrase garden designers in Battersea. You can see that text is very important to Google for each phrase you want to list highly on. Naturally, Google cannot tell what a web page is about if it is principally pictures with minimal text. 2. Google also looks to see how many other sites are choosing to link to the particular page on which you talk about garden designers in Battersea. Google reasons that if other websites owners have chosen to link to your specific page then it must be very interesting and informative. It is hard work contacting other website owners and trying to get them to link to your pages. Incidentally, never use automated software to do this as the penalties Google places on your SEO rankings can be dire. A well crafted combination of the two points above is likely to cause Google to put your website near the top of the rankings for that particular phrase. Do note that, if you search Google for the phrase garden designers in Battersea then 815,000 websites are found by Google on 81,500 pages of results. You can see the task involved in trying to get onto page one of Google under any chosen phrase is considerable. It means that in Google s eyes your site has to better than 814,900 other websites on the phrase garden designers in Battersea. You will have to make sure that for every phrase you want to be found under fulfils points 1 and 2 above. Other SEO items There are a great many factors such as meta title, meta description, text structuring, ensuring your website is mobile friendly, alt tags, links to your website (see below), the age of your domain name, if the domain name contains key words and so on. These hundreds of factors have small influences on Google but points 1 and 2 above are the dominant features. Many businesses now enthusiastically employ social media to capture people s interest through their social media pages and hence encourage clients to visit pages on their website. This is a very good way to drum up custom but it takes time and determination to build up your followers and engage their interest. So to answer to the question I am often asked is there an organisation that I am aware of that will offer SEO at a cost that makes it worth using the answer is no? They may well do something but I have not come across any business that has used SEO companies with cost effective success. If I were you I would consider building a large social media presence on a variety of platforms including most importantly, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn. Be very active and build and retain your followers. Use your website as a Portfolio on which to show your photos, testimonials, credentials and background information so that once caught by your social media and encouraged to your website the potential customer can learn far more about your Garden design services. Editing using CMS version 2 17 th Nov 2017 Page 17

18 Links to your website Checklist for great backlinks The link comes from a website has a similar topic as your website The content of the page that links to your website is relevant to your website The link from the other website points directly to the most relevant page on your website The link is a text link (not a linked image) The linked text contains words that are relevant to your website A real person added the link to the linking page The link sends qualified visitors to your website The more boxes you can tick in the checklist above, the better the link. Checklist for low quality links The link comes from a website that is obviously spam The page that links to your website also links to dubious and spammy websites The link redirects through a referral script You paid for the link and it does not contain the nofollow attribute Pay per Click The other way to get to the top of Google is to use Pay per Click (PPC). In essence, you pay Google to appear at the top of the Google page one results. Every time someone clicks on your PPC link then Google debits cash from your account. You can see how carefully you need to manage this. If you used PPC for the phrase say shortcuts to better garden design it could be that ordinary people with no intention of employing a garden designer click on the link to seek ideas and tips. Every time they click your PPC chosen phrase Google will debit the sum you agreed with them (say 50p or 1 per click it depends on the popularity of the phrase). Thus if thousands of never to be customers around the world click on that link it will cost you a lot of cash for no financial return. However, you can turn PPC on and off, set totals costs per days, keep changing your phrase (for example you many want special phrase at Christmas or at the time of the Chelsea Flower Show). With skill, some luck and continually refining your PPC Campaign it can be an excellent and easy way to generate custom but most people lose money because they run their campaigns badly as it is hard, tedious, work to keep on top of the campaign day after day. Google Business Listing I would strongly recommend that you set up a Google Business Listing. It will help a great deal if people are searching for the products or services you can offer in your geographical area. For help on how to set this up go to This process will help you get into the 3 maps pack see below for normal searches Editing using CMS version 2 17 th Nov 2017 Page 18

19 and also be found through searches on Google Maps. Editing using CMS version 2 17 th Nov 2017 Page 19