The Content Management Aspect

The IntelBuilder content management system is developed and maintained by software creator Vesta Digital.  Like most CMS products, the software has the ability to create and manage basic content.  IntelBuilder is geared more towards the inexperienced user, designed to be easy to use and managed.  It makes it simple for administrators to add and edit existing content, delete content and add an unlimited number of pages to a website.  Some of the most notable benefits IntelBuilder offers include:

- Built for search engine optimization with SEO-friendly URLs and meta data management.

- Cross web browser compatibility

- Automatic submission to major search engines.

- Built-in support for Google Analytics

- Integrated reporting and web statistics.

In comparison to other proprietary commercial CMS products, IntelBuilder distinguishes itself through ease of use, a rich set of features and a high level of global compatibility.  Being a new solution, it is uncertain whether IntelBuilder will evolve into the award-winning content management solution its developers think it will be, but so far, it appears to be simple and powerful enough to suit the needs of most users.

The Social Media Aspect

IntelBuilder offers a social media platform that enables users to achieve a goal that is becoming increasingly popular on the web: being able to effectively distribute content.  Once your content has been published, the platform lets you distribute it over popular social networking sites like FaceBook and Twitter as well as social bookmarking sites such as Delicious and Digg.  It also allows you to send out content to major guns such as Google News and other prominent news and media outlets.  IntelBuilder gives you the ability to effectively manage your audience of readers and subscribers along with tools for monitoring your website traffic and statistics.

Price and Availability

In all honesty, the features and capabilities mentioned in this article can be obtained from a number of CMS products through various add-ons for free.  However, when going with a proprietary solution such as IntelBuilder, they will cost you some real money.  The software is available in a variety of pricing plans with the most affordable coming at $49.95 per month with a one-time setup fee of $295.  The platform is module heavy and very extensible, but the default installation comes with features such as a text editor, site map, RSS news, search functionality and Google Maps among others.  IntelBuilder could turn out to be worth every penny but before making an investment, we recommend examining the product a little closer to determine if it can suit all of your content management and social media needs.

The Importance of Search Engines

A search engine is like the local Yellow Pages book.  Whereas the Yellow Pages only contains listings in your area, a search engine offers world wide reach.   Each uses robots or spiders that crawl the web in search of pages to index in their database.  Search engines are driven by keywords as this is what a user types in the box to find the content they are looking for.  While keyword implementation and link popularity play a major role in getting your site to rank well, manually submitting your site is equally important.

Google and Yahoo

Google and Yahoo are easily the two most significant search engines on the web.  Although Google is arguably the most popular, Yahoo is often deemed as the best.  When performing identical searches in both engines, you will find that Yahoo gives you a lot of results Google looks over.  Be that as it may, both should be at the top of your list for search engine submission.  If your site isn’t listed here, you are missing out on a great deal of traffic.

MSN

A relatively new option, MSN is a search engine developed by Microsoft.  Though not as popular as Google and Yahoo, getting your site listed in MSN is equally important as it has become the third highest ranked search engine on the market.  With this search engine, you can either submit your site via Live Search or Submit Express, both of which are trusted links through MSN.

Lycos

Lycos is a combination of a search engine and online directory, quite similar to Yahoo.  It normally takes about four weeks to have your site listed which all depends on when you made the submission.  The Lycos search engine spiders typically operate every four weeks, so if you submit just before the next scheduled crawl, there is a chance that your site could get listed fairly quickly.

Looksmart

Looksmart is a search engine that specializes in commercial advertising.  This search engine is quickly gaining ground as more webmasters realize the benefit of online advertising.  The downside to Looksmart is that submitting your site will cost you a pretty penny along with a lengthy waiting period.  There is also an express service but this of course, is priced much higher.  Non-profit organizations can submit their sites on Looksmart for free.

Northern Light

The Northern Light search engine is becoming increasingly popular as it indexes all new site submissions in about three to four weeks.  This search engine is extremely easy to use and submitting to it will cost you nothing.

When submitting to a search engine, make sure the description of your site is longer than 24 words.  Avoid using HTML tags as well as any descriptions that can be viewed as marketing terms.  A submission will not guarantee you top ranking on the front page of Google, but is that first critical step to getting some decent exposure for your site.