I have a pc game demo download site that has been built from scratch in dreamweaver (see sig for link) and am aware that it looks very basic. Do you think i should switch to something like drupal, joomla or wordpress to give my site a more professional look? Also how would this switch over affect SEO on my site?
Personally I think you would benefit from the change while your site is still developing as opposed to later on down the line. I think Joomla or Drupal would be better for you than WordPress however
I'm quite familiar with joomla but the only thing im worried about is ad compatitbility. On each game page on my site their are product ads from tradedoubler. I know you can get adsense to work with joomla but are tradedoubler ads compatible?
I would definitely move it to Wordpress or Joomla, it helps a bit in SEO and not to be mean, but even basic free templates will give your website a more Web 2.0 look which is really important nowadays. szkoda - there is a Special HTML module for Joomla, in which you can post ANY html, try your ads on a test site with Joomla on it and see if they work.
so which CMS would you recommend out of joomla drupal and wordpress? Im inclined to go with joomla at the moment becuase I have used it before but was wondering if their are any major advantages/disadvantages with these CMS in conjunction a site like mine... Also, how would you go about switching over and installing the CMS without having to take my site down? should i install it into another directory then move it all to the root of the server once its ready?
Joomla is probably your best bet. That mod is on the Joomla mods site, I'm forgetting the URL right now, but back in the day when I used Joomla I used that mod.
Why limit yourself to just 2 solutions? There are so many CMSs out there why just start with the first two that people throw out? Personally, I would look into a CMS that will integrate with the popular forums, such as Vbulletin and SMF. This will allow for future expansion of your site. Joomla - The joomla developers do not like their software tied in with a commercial product, like Vbulletin. Some forums like smf stopped offering a bridge for their product and joomla because of what the joomla developers were doing. Joomla also has several security flaws. There was a guy that posted here last week that his joomla site had been hacked. So Joomla would be my last choice. I had a joomla site for 6 months - finally gave up and turned to something else. Wordpress is a quality product, I recommend it. But out of the box with the basic install its just a blogging platform. With some tweaks it can turn into a nice site. MKportal - http://www.mkportal.it/ integrates with some of the popular forums on the market today. This can give you a powerful CMS for later expansion. A site such as yours would be perfect for a forum, so it should be something you seriously consider. PHPfox - http://www.phpfox.com/ This is a commercial product, so its not free. Sometimes you get what you pay for. There is supposed to be a plug in that will tie phpfox in with a VBulletin forum. But official support for VB integration was dropped some time ago. PHPportal - http://phpportals.com This cms is more focused with integration with VBulletin. PHPcow - http://www.phpcow.com/ PHPcow has lots of mixed reviews. One review can be found here - http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=49497 CMS bridges for a Simple machines forum - http://www.simplemachines.org/download/?bridges IgamingCMS - http://www.igamingcms.com/ This one might be of interest to you as its focused towards the gaming community. There is a bridge offered at the SMF forum website (see above link). The forums at Igaming are running VBulletin. If there is a bridge for igaming and VB this could open the door to some serious expansion of your site later on. If you decided to add a forum a few months down the road, this CMS already has a bridge for SMF (a free forum solution). For a free CMS solution, personally I would look at wordpress, MKportal and Igaming. These are flexible enough for you to expand your website later on and will integrate with different forum solutions. Joomla has tons for mods, but that community is like a drama queen. As for support, get ready to beg for help in the joomla forums. I posted some support questions that were never answered. SMF also pulled support for its smf to joomla bridge after the joomla developers started their BS. There are other solutions out there, such as - phpnuke, postnuke, dragonfly, mambo, mdpro, cms made simple, xoops, drupal and lots of others. Some of those communities are dying off, slowly being replaced by wordpress, mkportal and joomla. I just listed them as examples. The point is - dont limit yourself to just 2 or 3 right off the bat. Think about future expansion and the growth your site may experience.
Wordpress and igamingcms are both nice and easy enough to intergrate with other commercial and open source products such as VBulletin
For what you are doing a CMS wouldn't hurt. However, I would recommend getting a custom designed theme and install for your site. Then you could hire writers and publishers. Best of luck.
If you're planning to update often and add more pages, a CMS will be a great timesaver. You should 301 redirect your old, popular url's to their new url's if they change. Doing so would negate most ill effects of changing urls.
I would recommend Joomla. I have tried many CMS but Joomla for me is the best. Being hacked is the most horrible thing that could happened to your site. But we shouldn't forget, no script is perfect. The next question is, are these scripts supported? With Joomla, I can say it is actively supported. What I love with Joomla is the community and tons of add-ons you can use to extend its capabilities. Whether you are selling something or managing a membership site, you can find these plugins free or charge.