For better managing your custom design website, there are two types of Content Management Systems that you can choose from: the paid CMS and the open source CMS that you can have for free.

There isn't necessarily any best CMS in the online world today, there are only popular Content Management Systems. Here are some of them:

• Drupal

Drupal would seem to be one of the more advanced open source CMS available for download today. Being open source, thousands of people contribute to its development, and you will find no trouble at all finding a web programmer who knows Drupal, or finding a community of programmers who can troubleshoot your Drupal CMS just in case.

• MamboServer

Mambo is another popular open source CMS that is free for downloading and extremely easy to set up. Its main edge is that its system is scalable and you can actually incorporate it into the whole spectrum of custom web site design - from the really simple sites to the large company-owned sites. You can use Mambo to manage your advertisements or syndicate your content, among other things.

• Open CMS

• Joomla!

• Typo3

Typo 3 is another of those open source systems, although it is designed more for enterprise-level applications like corporate intranet. It addresses issues like branding, version control and maintaining templates in an application.

In choosing which content management system to incorporate to your website, regardless if it's free or open source, one of the key things to keep consider are your custom web design needs, and nothing else.

Sites that require users to log in to access certain information and/or purchase products add an additional layer of potential complication to the usability process. To avoid potential visitor confusion and the possibility for errors, it is important that any login process requires little or no thought on the part of the site visitor.

Once logged in, you must be sure that visitors are able to find the information they want and expect to find. My Account pages need to provide visitors with access and ability to view and change personal information, as necessary.

Login Access

Access to any login page (or the login form itself) should be available consistently across all pages of the site. Be sure the form or link is obvious and easily differentiated from other areas of the web page.

Security

If the information behind your login contains sensitive data, you need to use the appropriate security protocols, assuring visitors that that you take their information's security seriously.

Registration

If visitors are not already registered a link to a new user registration form should be present. It's also smart to have a global link to "register" for any new visitors to the site.

Account benefits

Non registered visitors should be treated to benefits of account registration. This information should be located on the same page as the new user registration form.

Lost password

All login forms should contain an option to reclaim passwords and/or username should they have been forgotten. This information must also be passed securely.

Remember me

You can provide additional convenience (though less security) by giving visitors the option of checking a "remember me" box which will allow them to stay logged in indefinitely.

Privacy

Provide a link to your sites privacy information/policy near the login form submit button or email field. This gives your visitors confidence that you will treat their information with respect.

Status

The visitor's "logged in" status should be displayed at all times with a ready access to logout at their convenience. When additional security is necessary it's a good idea to automatically log them out after a set period of inactivity.

Change info

Once logged in, visitors should have access to change their user information, including usernames, passwords, contact info, payment details, etc.

Change confirmation

Once the visitor has submitted their information to be changed, provide a confirmation screen that shows the old and new info. This prevents errors and helps insure information remains accurate.

Financial details

Provide links to relevant financial information such as transaction history, invoices, balances, payment methods, etc. Provide printable version of this information.

Up-sell opportunities

Visitors that are logged in provide you an interested, captive audience. Consider discreetly utilizing up-sell opportunities - without being overbearing.

Subscribed services

Provide visitors access to the information/services to which they are subscribed. Also provide additional subscription options, if applicable.

Information management

Allow users to change the way they receive information, providing alternate methods such as snail mail, HTML or text based emails or to turning off communication entirely.

When visitors create an account with you they are making a commitment to you to enjoy the services or information that you provide. It's important not to let the usability process break down after visitors are committed. In fact, it's even more important to treat registered visitors respectfully and appropriately, ensuring they have access to the information they need. This develops long-term relationships and keeps them coming back.

Just what is a 301 Redirect?

There seems to be a lot of confusion as to what to do when you move, delete, or want to redirect incoming web traffic from an 'old' web page to a 'new' web page. A 301 redirect is the most efficient method for web page redirection from an old web page to a new web page location. There is also some confusion as to how to handle the complete move or redirection from one web domain to another web domain. According to Google, "If you need to change the URL of a page as it is shown in search engine results, we recommended that you use a server-side 301 redirect instead."

How to Set Up a 301 Redirect

Depending on your web environment, there are several methods to set up a 301 redirect. A 301 redirect is not that hard to implement and it should preserve your search engine rankings for that particular page or web domain.

.htaccess 301 Redirection

The .htaccess file needs to be placed in the root directory of your old website. In this example, we are redirecting incoming web traffic from an old domain to a new domain.

Options +FollowSymLinks

RewriteEngine on

RewriteRule (.*) http://www.newdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

The .htaccess file is the most common method used for 301 web site redirection.

PHP 301 Redirection

You would place this code in a file at the old location.

Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );

Header( "Location: http://www.new_location.com" );?>

IIS 301 Redirection

• In Internet Services Manager, you need to right click on the file or folder you wish to redirect
• Select the radio button titled "a redirection to a URL".
• Enter the redirection web page
• Check "The exact URL entered above" and the "A permanent redirection for this resource"
• Click on 'Apply'

That is all there is to it.

There are other methods in addition to set up a 301 redirection which include coding for ASP, ASP.NET, Java, CGI, Cold Fusion and Ruby on Rails. The above are the most common that I've encountered. When set up correctly, a 301 redirect will preserve your search engine rankings when it is necessary to move files around or switch, or consolidate, domain names.