Hi All,
I'm going to be designing a number of similar sites and would like to offer the clients the ability to update them via a simple CMS. Here are my requirements:

1) Simple for the client to update, if they can send mail or use Word, they should be able to update content or create new pages.
2) Very SEO friendly. Needless to say, I know, but indexing by Google is a must.
3) The web sites will initially be simple affairs with a few pages of information and a web form. It should be easy to add more services in the future.
4) Possible to administer all sites centrally? I would love to have the ability to add, for example, a newsletter service to all my client from one button click!
5) Easy for me to control user and group permissions.

I haven't used any CMS in the past and I'm currently looking at CMS Made Simple CMS Made Simple - Welcome to CMS Made Simple - an open-source CMS. Anybody used it before?
Looking forward to hearing your views.
Thanks,
Bearaman

Wordpress does all of your above requirements except for number 4.
To do that you would need to have each site sharing the same SQL db, this would basically involve you writing a custom CMS.

There is no logic, system wise, behind this requirement anyway.

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my blog | Apple Mac Blog | Indie Music Blog | *

I'd recommend ExpressionEngine - Publish Your Universe! for it's ease of use control panel for the client as well as being advanced enough for the developer to do all those things you discussed. Best of luck.

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David Behan
Web Design Ireland | Mortgages | Memorial Websites | Digital Printing

Thanks for the replies.
WordPress looks interesting. Is there a specific CMS version of it available or are you expected to do a hack? One other requirement I forgot to mention is that it would have to be easy to design different templates/themes. I take it both WordPress and EE do this?
Thnaks,
John

If you're looking for something really simple, I would recommend Joomla. It's great for designers who aren't overly technical. Once you're comfortable with the system, it really boosts what you can offer your clients.

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Joomla's great but it's quite a beast!

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Thanks for the info.
I've installed WordPress 2.2 and CMS Made Simple at home and I'm evaluating them both there. From initial impressions, I'd say WP seems to have the edge. Once I get my hands on some plugins, it should do all I want and more. I'll let you all know how I get on.
What does Joomla offer over WP?
Bearaman

WP is a blogging tool with a limited (but extensible) basic feature set. Joomla is more powerful, tiered templating and content management tool with much more powerful features and the ability to set up a more sophisticated site architecture.

Basically WP is for blogging and simple sites, Joomla is for medium sized sites or larger.

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Web Design | Flash Development | Property | Irish Fitness Forum

I use Website Baker (Website Baker: Start - Introduction) for my website and find it very good. Though not as powerful as some of the other CMSs it has a much much smaller learning curve. Setting up a site is done in no-time for beginners. I also has SEO urls.

With all due respect, what you are looking for is nowhere near a 'simple CMS'. No CMS will accept content from Word without going through some sort of filter to clean up the MS styling that feics up most content. That said, many editors have a paste from word or paste plain text, that *if* used by the end user, will help.

As for central management, Drupal has multisites in its core (ie install and deploy mother website, and then deploy sibling sites based on parent settings). Some of your other requirements are possible with considerable tweaking, but overall you are looking at spending a few weeks (or 3 or 4 ordinary websites) getting to know a CMS and then trying this project - or paying someone to set up 90% of the system for you, and working on the last 8% over a few weeks. The last 2% you will not be able to implement, trust me

You will not get 'simple to use', from an out of the box setup, with your specific requirements, so my friendly advice is not to keep looking for a perfect CMS (there ain't any) but choose a 90% one, learn it well, be realistic, and work from there on the 8%

HTH

Best of luck with it