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~^ Welcome

Welcome to the first FLUiD CMS newsletter of 2005! This is a monthly publication full of news, of course, but also full of tips and advice on using FLUiD CMS. So when someone somewhere has relevant news for us, or finds a faster, better way to do something in FLUiD CMS, please send it to info@feedstream.com .

In this issue:

• Introducing our new Web site--Goodbye Big Hair guy, Hello Hook

• Check out one of the new sites made with FLUiD CMS

• Coming soon: FLUiD CMS integrates an XML Database

• Featured tips, "10 Steps to Search Engine Optimization using FLUiD CMS"

• Meet Mike and Pam in Toronto

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~^ New FeedStream Web site

After several toolings and re-toolings we're pleased to announce the launch of the new FeedStream Web site, www.feedstream.com. The new FeedStream FLUiD CMS Web site was built entirely with the out-of-the-box version of FLUiD CMS in an attempt to show how we can push the boundaries of the system even without customizations.

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~^New Northern Uniform Service Web site

Also using the out-of-the-box version of FLUiD CMS, the design team at Planit Design created the very friendly-looking www.northernuniform.com.

The site was given a clean, white background with only a small amount of animated gif or Flash added so that it conveys an honest, hard working image, with lots of pictures of smiling employees.

Check out some other sites made using FLUiD CMS: www.feedstream.com/fcontent/showcase/index.asp

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~^FLUiD CMS Integrates an XML Database

Clients who need custom FLUiD CMS solutions will now have the option of an integrated XML database--and it won't be long before the database is part of the base package.

In addition to the database that needs to be installed on the server, there is also a server component required in order to allow FLUiD CMS to communicate with the database.  In previous versions of FLUiD CMS, no server software was required.  But for large multi-user authoring environments this approach had some limitations. So our developers built in Berkeley DB XML 2.0, which is now included with the purchase of FLUiD CMS 5.0.

Our system will now support XPath 2.0, which allows for the selection of a portion of an XML document. XQuery is the emerging standard ( www.w3.org/XML/Query ) for XML data access similar to the SQL standard of relational databases.

It allows developers to quickly and efficiently retrieve data stored in XML documents. According to XML experts Tim Matthews and Srinivas Pandrangi at http://www.devx.com, "With transformation powers that rival XSLT, XQuery goes where no query language has gone before because it not only provides query results, but can also prepare those results for presentation."

The use of an open source XML database as a content repository is a major advancement in FLUiD CMS's evolution. It's going to open up some incredible new possibilities for the software, as well as providing more efficient ways of accomplishing existing tasks.

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~^10 Steps to Search Engine Optimization with FLUiD CMS

FLUiD CMS handles most of what is needed for achieving a good search engine ranking (like properly formed HTML code and content stored in a format that Google's crawlers can access).  But since your Web site is unique there are a few things that you need to do yourself if you want the best rank possible. The following 10 steps will get you started with search engine optimizing your Web site with FLUiD CMS.

Determine your keywords

Try to identify the specific words and phrases that people would use when they search for your Web site or for your product.  Be specific; you want to attract targeted visitors.  There's some good advice on keyword selection at www.searchenginestrategies.biz and a tool for creating keyword alternatives at www.google.ca/ads/

Enter your Keywords

In the FLUiD CMS Workspace, click on a folder in the Folder Pane, and then select the Properties tab, Folder Options. Scroll down to the Search Engine Optimization section and enter your keywords in the Meta Keywords field. If possible, the keywords for a folder should be relevant to the contents of that particular folder, as opposed to copying the same

keywords for the whole site.

Enter a Description

In the FLUiD CMS workspace, open your Content Files one at a time and select the Options tab in the Editing Pane. Scroll down to the Search Engine Optimization section and enter a summary of the File in the Meta Description field. Again, this description should have your keywords in it.

Enter the Web Page Title

The title that appears at the top of the browser is very important—it should contain some general keywords about the whole site as well as some keywords that are specific to that Web page.  To add a Web page Title, go to your Design Files and select the General Settings tab.  Enter a general Title with some keywords, and probably your company name, into the Web Page Title Prefix field.  This controls the first part of your Title.  Now go to your individual Content Files and select the Options tab.  Scroll down the Search Engine Optimization section and fill in the Web Page Title field with the second part of the Title, describing that particular Web page. If you leave this field blank the system will use the Content File name or the Folder name.  For example, the FeedStream Web site's "Clients" section has the following Web page Title (in the blue bar across the top): The first part, up to the comma, comes from the Design File. The second part, "Clients", comes from the name of the Clients Folder. You can use a comma, a space, or a hyphen to separate the parts.

Write good content

Make sure that the text throughout your Web site is relevant to, and loaded with, your keywords and keyword phrases.  Be careful not to sacrifice readability.

Work on a good linking strategy

Add new links to other Web sites that are relevant to your Web site, and try to get other relevant sites to link to you.  The search engines assign a popularity ranking to your site, so what you really want is for large Web sites, who are themselves well ranked and who are relevant to your Web page, to link to you.  This means that when you issue a press release make sure that you include a link back to your Web site.  You can see who links to you by going to Google.com and typing in (using our Web site for example) link:www.feedstream.com.

Keep your content fresh

Add new images and text frequently, as well as new outbound links. The search engines, and your visitors, prefer fresh content.

Watch for dead links

FLUiD CMS manages your internal links, but if you're adding external static links the system cannot control them. So make sure that the places you are linking to still exist; the crawlers will penalize your site for dead links.

Don't cheat

There is a temptation to try to jam your site with keywords, or to join link farm Web sites that link to you from hundreds of bogus sites.  Avoid these tricks--the Google crawler will eventually detect them and your site may get excluded as a result.

Double-check your work

You can make sure that everything came out the way you wanted by looking at the Web page Title in your browser, as well as the code behind your FLUiD CMS-created Web pages.  To do this, go to your Web page using Internet Explorer, then from the main menu choose View>Source.  Look for the META tags called 'keywords' and 'description'.

These 10 steps should get you a long way towards a solid Google ranking.

For more information on how FLUiD CMS is used for Search Engine Optimization, go to the SEO section of the FeedStream site, at www.feedstream.com/fcontent/product/feedstream_reports/

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~^Meet Mike and Pam in Toronto

FeedStream founders Michael Bardeggia and Pam Nelson will be in Toronto in February.  They'd be happy to meet with you--give Mike a call at 705-677-0143 to set up a meeting, or email him at mike@feedstream.com

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