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We have a travel website with around 3000 html pages created in Dreamweaver. As you can imagine a great deal of time is taken up by updating these pages manually and were wondering if it would be possible to use a Content Management System to help us.
We would like the pages to remain html pages to help in SEO but the content for individual hotels (name, description, rating etc) to be brought in from an Excel spreadsheet which we are provided with.
We do not know any database languages like PHP or ASP and are just looking for a simple, automated way of including these details on our site.
Do you think a CMS would work for us?
>>Do you think a CMS would work for us?
Sure, why not. CMS's make content much much easier to manage.
You may find something that suits you here [opensourcecms.com].
What does a CMS then offer in addition to being able to static pages?
At a very minimum.
1) Integration with a database. A good CMS will allow you to put your content in a database and then allow you to build search functions which are relevant to your user.
For example, if you're searching for 1 bedroom, pet-friendly hotels, various fields can be used within the database, through a search module.
2) Multi-user capabilities: Systems like Dream Weaver and all are good, but they do not allow you to assign people / editors / writers the capability to edit, move and essentially change those pages.
A good CMS will allow you to potentially outsource content creation and management.
3) User generated content: A good CMS will allow your visitors to interact with the content. Things like forums, ratings, reviews, comments are what bring a lot of visitors back.
Like suggestion above, take a look at what is out there. I can almost assure you that nothing will fit your requirements out of the box, but there will be one or two CMSs which will get you more than half way there.
When I'm faced with this situation, I then spend a fair amount of time looking at the forums, mailing lists related to that CMS to see what people have done with it, modifications that are available and the mid set of the developers.
Often, I've then been able to go back to the core developers of that CMS and request the modifications in exchange for a fee.
Sorry, cant be of more help, as it is the last working day before Christmas and I've still got 20 other things that I need done.
Don't hesitate to ask more questions. :)
