Web presence optimization is a more holistic strategy of online brand building. Although SEO is central to building a strong web presence in search, social media and content marketing are two additional elements that play big roles growing your brand's web presence.

Exponent CMS is well-suited for web presence optimization in that it caters to certain needs to execute a cohesive strategy. Below are three ways in which you can leverage Exponent for web presence optimization.

1. Integrate Social Media Icons

Without question, social media can have a momentous impact on your brand's web presence optimization strategy. "Social signals," (such as Tweets, Facebook Likes, Shares, Pins, and Google +1's) are becoming strong ranking factors for search. For this reason, it's a smart to include social media icons on the pages of your site with social and SEO value (e.g. blog posts.)

The social media marketing component of your brand's web presence optimization strategy will coincide with content marketing (mentioned below) and search engine optimization. This is because most of the content that you create will be shared and promoted via social media. As a result, you can better engage with your target audience and inbound direct traffic to your Exponent site.

2. Create a Blog for Content Marketing

Content marketing is a powerful portal to expand your web presence and make your voice known. Blogging is one of the easiest ways to start content marketing. By created awesome content and sharing it with your social media followers, you can direct quality traffic (and in-market leads) to your website.

Exponent makes it easy to build a blog on your website. Here you can take web presence optimization to the next level by publishing articles, videos, and other forms of engaging content. You can the leverage this content for both SEO and social media marketing.

3. Keyword Optimize Your Pages for SEO

The last web presence optimization tip focuses on SEO - which offers amazing potential to expand your web presence and increase web traffic. The nice thing about Exponent is that it's well-suited to easily keyword optimize the pages of your website. 

The fields that you'll want to ensure are keyword optimized for SEO are the:

• SEF Name (or URL of the page)
• Page Title (also known as the "Meta Title")
• Keywords
• Page Description (also known as the "Meta Description")

All of these fields can be found by click the "Pages" button on the blue column bar (when logged in to Exponent,) and then selecting "Edit This Page."

This keyword optimization is essential for SEO and establishing relevancy on your pages. As a result, you can maximize your SEO and web presence optimization potential.

By now, you should be well aware that Exponent is one of the most SEO friendly CMS platforms available for free on the web. Professional web designers love Exponent because it automatically makes a number of web design elements and tasks SEO friendly. This can offer a number of efficiencies for SEO-conscious web designers and developers. 

If a SEO-friendly web design is priority for your website, then consider the follow three ways in which the Exponent CMS makes certain web design elements SEO friendly.

1. SEO Friendly Web Content

Certain tags that define web content are more SEO friendly than others. For example, the strong tag is considered more SEO friendly then the bold tag, although it performs the same function. This helps search engine spiders crawl and index a page for greater keyword relevancy and on-site SEO authority.

Exponent has been developed with SEO as a top priority. As a result, tags that define content are all defaulted to represent SEO best practices. This makes it easy for add optimized content to a page without having to open-up the website's backend.

2. Social Media Integration Made Ease

A truly SEO friendly web design will have social touch points integrated and easily visible. This touch points may be as simple as social sharing widgets for blog posts, or site-wide social icons to promote for Facebook or Google Plus followers.

With Exponent, you can easily integrate social meda on your web design. In addition to help growing your social media following, this can encourage "likes, tweets, +1's, etc" (or social signals) that can influence your pages' rankings.

3. SEO Friendly Media Elements

Aside from text, media elements like images and videos can either help or hinder SEO performance. Skilled web designers can optimize robust media files so they do not stand in the way of SEO. However with Exponent, this process is made more efficient.

Media files can be easily adjusted and keyword optimized directly via the CMS editor interface. Users can adjust the sizing, image Alt tag, linking, and other attributes on the fly.

Interested in learn more about SEO friendly web design? Check out the SEO Friendly Web Design blog for related tips and insights. Or scope YisooTraining.com for Internet marketing courses and online training courses.

Recently I had written an article on using graphics and files which was common to most modules using either the WYSIWYG editor or as 'attached' files.  In this article I want to explore how to take advantage of the unique features of each module based on their designed purpose.  Again, you can use the text module to mimic the output from most of the other modules, but why not 'use the right tool for the job'

We'll start with the 'News' module.  The strengths of the news module are: each news item has a publish and an optional unpublish date, meaning the first date to display and the last date to display.  Also the items can be sorted several different ways by date in addition to manually (by rank).  You may also set the priority of the item by 'featuring it'.  A featured item will displayed in all views, where if not featured it may be hidden on some displays if the 'show featured' setting is on.  You may also publish the news items as an rss news feed or pull another rss news feed into the news module to be displayed as news items.  News modules may also have user subscriptions using the optional E-Alert feature.  Additionally, the a news item may be tagged so it can be associated with other similar news and non-news items based on the keyword tag(s).  Therefore the 'News' module is best suited for news or announcement type information.

In some ways, the 'Blog' module is like the news module on steroids.  It allows user comments on blog items and optionally allows groupings by category.  It has a 'draft' feature where the article will only be visible to the editor or administrator until published.  Unlike a news item, a blog item/article does not have an unpublish date, is only sorted by publish date, and doesn't pull in external rss feeds.  As it title suggests, the 'Blog' module is best suited for managing articles or web logs (blogs).

The 'File Downloads' module is very versatile, especially when contrasted with the blog module.  It deals with 'attached' file directly instead of the system generic method.  In addition to the attached file, you can attach a 'preview' image to be displayed on the site, or point the download to an external link.  It can optionally publish it's items as a Podcast.  It can optionally display attached media files using a media viewer to play the audio/video within the item.  It does not proved the user subscription feature.  If you need to provide file downloads or a Podcast, the 'File Downloads' module is your best bet.

The 'Portfolio' module deals with lists of data.  It does not store publish dates but can be ordered either manually or alphabetically.  It also provides a 'feature this' option.  It does not allow comments nor provide an rss feed option.  The 'Portfolio' module is best suited for directories or other lists of information.

The 'Photo Album' module deals with photos or images.  Its views focus on the attached image rather than the title and description, such as the gallery or slideshow views.  In addition to being sorted manually, photo items may be displayed randomly.  It also deals directly with an image file, meaning one photo item per image.  It should go without saying, but the 'Photo Album' module is bested suited for photos and images.

The 'Flowplayer', 'YouTube', and 'Media Player' (new to v2.2) deals with audio and video files.  While the 'file download' module can provide some features, the focus on these modules is displaying the media by playing it on the web site.  It provides greater control over the actual display of the media player being used.  These modules are best suited for display media on your site.  The 'Media Player' replaces both the 'Flowplayer' and 'YouTube' modules primarily because it can handle both types of media and is HTML5 compliant (Flash is not required)

Hopefully this article has provided some insight on choosing the best module for the task at hand.  I'll plan to write a follow up article on some of the more unique modules.

Exponent is a very active project and frequently receives new features.  Issues or anomalies are also corrected shortly after being identified.  You'd think those would be great incentives to update to the most recent stable version, just to make managing and maintaining a web site much easier.  Here are some tips to help in upgrading a site, or to prepare to upgrade a site.

As a quick overview, an Exponent web site consists of five (5) components:

1. the Exponent software, which gives you an empty site and is the starting place for all sites whether being built from scratch, moved to a new server, or restored after a server failure. This is the part of the update that we provide for you.
2. the custom theme, which gives your site a unique character apart from all other web sites.  While we provide some sample themes (either in the package or additional ones on the download site), most users want to customize their own theme.  The user must maintain (update?) the custom theme and ensure it does not contain obsolete commands or calls.  It is stored/contained in the '/themes' folder.
3. the site's configuration settings, which hold the basic information about the site.  It is stored in the 'config.php' file which is created and updated by the Exponent software.  It is unique to each web server.
4. the site's content, which is the majority all you see on the web site.  This is stored in the database and is updated automatically during the 'upgrade' process.
5. the site's support files, which includes all the images used on the site, and any files made available though the site.  These are stored in the '/files' folder and are not affected by upgrades.

The first step in preparing to upgrade a site (and preventing disaster in general), is always maintain a BACK UP of your site.  In order to back up the five (5) components:

1. The Exponent software is always available on Sourceforge and through GitHub, so there's no need to keep a local copy.
2. The custom theme was created by you and in most cases you'll already maintain a copy.  However in v2.2.0+, there is a new 'Export Theme' command available in the Theme Manager to easily package and download your custom theme for restoration, or to move to a new site.  The theme may be restored/added to a site using the 'Install Extension' command.
3. The 'config.php' file is located in the '/conf' folder (v2.0/2.1) or the '/framework/conf' folder (v2.2).  The easiest way to quickly get 'back up and running' is to restore a copy of the config.php file.  For security reasons Exponent provides no automated method to retrieve nor restore the config.php file.  However, we highly recommend you use cPanel or ftp to obtain a copy.
4. The site's content (database) is easily saved or restored using the Import/Export EQL (Exponent Query Language) File commands. The export command allows you to tailor which information/tables are saved, while the import command replaces any database tables with the ones stored in the EQL file.
5. Lastly, the site's support files are easily saved using the Import/Export Files commands.

So once you have a backup of your site, especially the site's content (EQL file), you may proceed.

In a very simplistic sense, upgrading to a new version of Exponent is an easy two (2) step process.

1. Install the new software version on your server by either extracting the .zip file to the root folder/subfolder, or using 'git pull' from ssh or a shell.
2. Browse to your site and follow the instructions in the 'upgrade' notice which now appears.

That sounds so simple, what could go wrong?  Well, here are some common issues or problems which might prevent a smooth upgrade:

• Your custom theme (or a custom view) is outdated and uses obsolete commands.  Though the basic format of an Exponent theme hasn't changed much from the v0.9x days, many of the 'commands' have been updated and streamlined.  Here's the documentation on the theme template format to check/update your theme.  Here's a good article on checking for and updating themes to be v2.2.0+ compliant.  As we move into version 2.2.0+, many of the obsolete calls will no longer work.  The easiest way to confirm the problem lies in the custom theme is to switch your site to a 'shipped' theme and see if it works as expected.  If for some reason you can't log onto the site, the current theme is stored in the 'config.php' file on the line with DISPLAY_THEME_REAL.
• Your site crashed in the middle of an upgrade and now is 'broken'.  While this rarely occurs with the 'stable' software, it can exist after a test with pre-release software.  Your best bet is to run the upgrade again by manually kicking it off with a browse to your site via www.yoursite.org/install/index.php.  In many cases this will detect and correct a half-upgraded site which may also correct the issue.

While we realize that many Exponent users are actually providing a paid service to clients and their 'time is money.'  Therefore, if a site is up and running, why 'donate' your valuable time to a paying customer.  However, if YOU are the one doing most of the site content, it sure helps to have access to the 'user suggested' new features and have those annoying quirks and bugs fixed.

Though Exponent is designed to be 'easy to use' and 'flexible', sometimes the overlap of features between modules can make it  seem a bit complex.  Most modules allow you to display text and graphics, however each module is different in how content is displayed (how it appears to the user and acts as a web page) or administered.(managing and updating the content such as editing).  In this article I'll attempt to show the various features and limitations available to help you determine which is right for your particlular application.

The easiest method to display content on a page is to use a 'text' module. In fact you can mimic the content of most of other modules using a single text module if you're willing to do a lot of work to manually manage it.  In it's default state a text module item simply has a title and WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) content.  However, you can optionally add file attachments using the module configuration settings 'Files' tab.  First let's look at how we can use graphics and files in the WYSIWYG content.

The WYSIWYG editor allows you to insert insert graphics and links in the content.  To insert a graphic into the text, click on the 'Image' icon (looks like a landscape picture).  In the 'Image Properties' dialog which appears, the 'Image Info' tab determines which graphic will be used and how it will appear in the text.  You can either type in the url to the graphic, or use the 'Browse Server' button to open the File Manager.  Once you've selected a graphic, the File Manager will close itself and the graphic will appear in the 'Preview' pane of the Image Properties dialog.  You can adjust the graphics appearance by using the settings to the left of the Preview and evaluate the results in the Preview pane.

The WYSIWYG editor Image Properties dialog also allows you to assign a link to the graphic when it is clicked.  Using the 'Link' tab you can enter a url to be sent to, or use the 'Browse Server' button to bring up the 'Insert/Modify Link' Manager.  This window allows you to easily select from any of the pages on the site in either the 'hierarchy' or as a 'standalone page' which returns you to the Image Properties dialog.  You may also link to a specific module on a page by using the 'Click Here to Link to Content' link in the top center.  This will bring up a copy of the web site, but you'll notice that all the 'chrome' menu bars now have replace the module menu with 'module type - Link to This Module'.  Browse to the desired page and click on the 'module type - Link to This Module' to select it and be returned to the 'Insert/Modify Link' Manager, where you can click the 'OK' button to return to the Image Properties dialog.  Or you may link to a file by clicking on the 'Switch to File Manager' link in the upper right corner of the 'Insert/Modify Link' Manager.  You may also select how the 'link' opens when clicked by selecting a 'Target' in the 'Links' tab of the Image Properties dialog.  Click OK, to place the image in the text.  You may manage existing graphics by dragging them around, or right-click to bring up a menu to change link or graphic settings.  As you can see, there is a limited amount of flexibility even at this point.  

However, let's say you want to associate graphics with the content, not necessarily embed them within it.  You can attach files to the text item  by turning this feature on using the 'Files' tab in the module Configuration Settings dialog.  This will activate an area below the WYWSIWYG editor to select and attach up to 10 files.  You can delete or rearrange the attached files using this same area.  The default setting on the 'Files' tab is 'This module does not use files' however you can attach files by selecting one of four display styles: Downloadable Files, Gallery, Showcase, Slideshow:

All four display styles allow you to set the Display Box.  You can adjust the 'box' placement (above, left, right, or below the content), its width, and its margin.  Exponent does its best to display the attached files within the display box and wraps the item content around it.  Any thumbnails will wrap within the display box, so if you do not set a display box width, you'll see a column of thumbnails.

• Downloadable Files displays a list of all attached files as names with links to download the file.    For the Downloadable Files, you may also set the Title above the list.
• Gallery is used to display one or more graphics with an optional 'lightbox' display.  You may select to only display the primary or first image on a listing or showall view, with all images displayed on an item or show view.  You can set the size of the thumbnails and their placement in relation to the primary image.
• Showcase is used to display one or more graphics with a larger version of the current/selected graphic.  This also can be set to only display the pimary image on a listing page.  You can also set the action to display the thumbnail in the larger graphic by either a click or hover.
• Slideshow is used to display a set of graphics as a slideshow.  And in v2.2+ you may optionally display the slide title and/or slideshow controls.

This has been a preliminary introduction to files and graphics in Exponent.  I plan to write another article to pick up on some module specific features dealing with files and graphics.

The remnants of 'old school' Exponent are numbered...meaning very soon we'll no longer be strapped to the modules, subsystems, etc... of Exponent 0.9x that were necessary to get Exponent 2.0 up and flying.  For the most part, we've been able to disguise the great differences between the 0.9x coding architecture and the 2.x MVC coding architecture.  This was done by updating some of the  old school (0.9x) module admin interfaces to look (and act?) similar to the 2.x modules.  However this was done at some (resource) cost, and the complexity of having to deal with two different animals.  Therefore we'll modify our release and development strategies to best accommodate existing installations, yet not restrict such a bold move into the future!  What follows are some notes to Administrators/Designers and another set to Developers about how this will occur.

For Administrators/Designers - Putting out less-than-stable code for the upgrade of a production server is NOT what any administrator or user would expect, nor want to hear.  However, moving to a fully updated 2.0 system (no old school code) would likely temporarily disable some sites, and may diminish the stability of a running site.  That is, until some custom features (like a theme?) are upgraded on that site.  So how can we maintain stability (a stable code release line), yet vastly change the way things work (implement a major change without stagnating the release flow)?  By moving to a parallel release/development strategy!

What this means, is that while there will be many bug fixes and feature additions found in the next release (v2.1.1), it really won't be different from many of the releases over this past year (though looking back, some of the releases since 2.0.0 stable could be considered to have required major changes).  And you can likely expect at least one more (late spring?) release in like manner (v2.1.2), but it may likely be the last of the 2.0/2.1 line.  However, even that will NOT be a dead end, because it will be an easy move into the 'next' version (v2.2).  Version 2.2 will leave 0.9x (old school) compatibility behind, but will continue to be backwards compatible with any v2.x themes, modules, etc...  So things like any lingering old school modules (the ones found in the /framework/modules-1/ folder) or calls the old school theme compatibility layer (exponent_theme_xxx) will simply NOT exist (meaning the page will probably crash/break)!  However, things like YUI2/YUI3 (javascript/styling library) will still be fully available, but begin moving into a background role.  What will take front, center stage will be a reliance on 'Twitter Bootstrap' (styling library) and 'jQuery' (javascript library)!  We may also leave PHP v5.2.x compatibility behind since v5.5.x is about to be released and the use of v5.3 itself is no longer recommended.  The biggest change found in v2.2 will be a moderate change to the database which will prevent regressing to an earlier version (except by using an EQL backup)!  In fact, installing the v2.2 code on an existing site will give you the impression the site was wiped out...until you run and complete the 'upgrade/install' process!  So the big question is how can we move from a fully stable v2.1.2 to a fully stable v2.2?

Well the answer is to have both a stable release line (v2.1.x) and an unstable pre-release line (v2.2.x) running simultaneously.  In some respects, we already do this with the stable release ('master' branch of the git code repo) and the working development code ('develop' branch of the git code repo).  The BIG departure will be that unlike the 'develop' branch which is updated moment by moment and may be broken at times, the 'unstable' release will only be created as needed and should be a working set of code.  Therefore, when you see v2.1.1 hit the street in the near future, you can expect the release of v2.2.0-alpha1 almost simultaneously.  Any changes made to the v2.1.x line will also appear in the v2.2.x code, so if there are any future updates to the v2.0/2.1 line, it'll already be in the v2.2 code.  Then once v2.2 becomes stable, the v2.0/2.1 line would only receive critical patch updates, with the intent being a move to the v2.2 line.

This strategy should allow for the stability needed by most production sites, and yet allow (early) access to new features in a somewhat less than 'bleeding edge' manner.  For all intents and purposes, v2.2.0-alpha1 should be fully functional, but will NOT have been tested under many scenarios.

For Developers - Most of the changes will affect how we develop and release software updates, but primarily how we manage code branches.  Though these won't be much different from how we've been managing code using the Git-Flow paradigm.  For the most part, 'master' will (always) still be the most recent stable release.  'Develop' will still be the primary place for code updates to the stable release...in this case prep for a possible v2.1.2, but NOT the move to Twitter-Bootstrap, nor the Container 2.0 changes.

The big change however, will be the creation of several new branches of code in the git repo.  There is already a new branch called 'feature/container2' which will become v2.2.0-alpha1.  It already holds container 2.0, Twitter-Bootstrap, and a new bootstraptheme.  These are the major changes slated for v2.2.0.  The 'feature/container2' branch will be updated (merged) from the 'develop' branch on a regular (daily?) basis.  Conversely, the 'develop' branch will NOT be updated from 'feature/container2' until just prior to the release of v2.2.0 (stable).  We may also create a new 'hotfix' branch based on master AFTER the release of v2.1.1.  It will be where any fixes for v2.1.1 would be coded and will be merged/updated into 'develop' (which in turn is merged/updated into 'feature/container2').  We will also create an 'unstable' branch as a substitute for pulling from the the repo using a tag like v2.2.0-alpha1.  And as always there will be temporary (release testing) branches created between a code freeze and code release, which also includes any alpha and beta releases.  Therefore, there will be several branches of code in the Exponent git repo:

• master = most recent stable release (currently v2.1.0)
• develop = changes/updates slated for the next stable release (currently v2.1.1 pre-release).  It will hold any changes planned/needed for the v2.1 (2.0) line.
• feature/container2 = work on the next major release v2.2.0, updated from 'develop' regularly.  Will exist until AFTER v2.2.0 stable is released.  At that point, 'master' would then hold v2.2.0 stable (the most recent stable release at that time), and all code work would move to the 'develop' branch.  This branch can be thought of as the develop branch for v2.2.0 until it is stable.
• hotfix = fixes need for the most recent stable release.  Any work here wil1 eventually becomes a patch release to the current stable release.  'develop' is updated from this temporary branch.  We will automatically create a 'hotfix' branch once v2.1.1 is released to hold any fixes that need to be applied to v2.1.1.
• unstable = snapshot of 'feature/container2' at time of most recent unstable release, which is a substitute for pulling from the repo using a tag like 'v2.2.0-alpha1' or 'v2.2.0-beta1'  This makes it easier to update/test on a site using git pull instead of the unstable package release.

So, if you want the most recent stable release, you'd pull from the master branch.  If you want the most recent unstable release (alpha, beta, release candidate, etc...), you'd pull from the 'unstable' branch.  If you want the pre-release of the next stable version, you'd pull from the 'develop' branch.  And if you want the bleeding edge code, you'd pull from the 'feature/container2' branch.

For the most part this is a tried and true approach. It only seems new, because we didn't have a stable branch to deal with when we were working toward the first stable release of v2.0.0 .  Most likely things will work there way back to how we operate now once v.2.2.0 is released as stable.

Whether you own local business or an ecommerce brand, optimizing your company's website is must in today's digital age.

Below I share with you an insightful video describing  some of the ways in which you can optimize your Exponent website (many of which I highlight in my training course at YisooTraining.com). The video shares a number of simple website optimization tips that your company's webmaster or marketing team can employ.

Even if your website is not using the Exponent CMS, you can employ some of these website optimization tips. To learn more website optimization tips and strategies, click here to visit the Web Presence Group, a professional website optimization company that specializes in organic SEO, PPC, social media marketing, content marketing, and more.

This article was produced by Tyler Tafelsky. Tyler offers over five years of experience in the website optimization profession. To learn more, you can connect with Tyler on Google+.

Content management systems (CMS) are massively popular when it comes to building and operating a website. When seeking a CMS platform for your website, you should take into account search engine optimization (SEO), for organic SEO is a powerful way to get your blog and website content exposed in the search results.

Organic SEO is simply the practice of optimizing your content in an effort to earn higher rankings in the organic search results (unlike PPC advertising where users bid on keywords for search exposure.) The CMS platform you choose will ultimately impact how efficient your content can be optimized, and thus its potential at getting ranked for organic search marketing.

For this reason, it's important that you choose an organic SEO friendly CMS to ensure your website can be properly optimized.

If you plan to develop web content and manage a blog or website using a CMS, you'll definitely want to pinpoint a software platform that's highly SEO friendly. The following three attributes that define an organic SEO friendly CMS will help you determine which platforms will work best for your website.

Elements of Organic SEO Friendly CMS Platforms

• Effective organic SEO utilizes a number of website elements, such as a footer, HTML sitemap, and a number of off-page and on-page SEO elements. It's critical to ensure that your CMS caters to these necessary organic SEO friendly website elements.
• It's imperative that your CMS enables you to write custom page titles (or "Meta titles,") Meta descriptions, and URL's per page. These pieces of content contribute heavily to organic SEO. And although some CMS platforms have these features built-in, others systems require you to download or purchase plug-ins.
• Organic SEO friendly CMS platforms will generate the coding of a website to be very crawler-centric. In other words, some CMS platforms produce websites using seamless HTML coding structures (ideal for organic SEO,) whereas others use cumbersome coding structures that can limit SEO performance. Understand these back-end considerations before making your final decision.

Bonus Tip!

In addition to the latter three qualities that define an organic SEO friendly CMS, check the categories feature of the CMS. Some CMS software platforms do not allow users to create categories and subcategories. This is particular important for blogging, as well as structuring multi-folder URL naming conventions for organic SEO.

There's a lot of consideration that goes into choosing the right CMS. These are just the foundational elements that make a CMS friendly for organic search marketing and SEO. Keep these qualities top of mind when searching for that ideal, organic SEO friendly CMS platform to manage and optimize your web presence.

About the Author:
 

Tyler Tafelsky is organic SEO expert for the Web Presence Group, a full-service website optimization company that specializes in web presence optimization. Tyler has worked with several CMS platforms to optimize websites, and he's well-adept the features and functionalities that constitute organic SEO friendly CMS platforms. You can connect with Tyler on Google+, or follow him on Twitter.

The Exponent CMS is the ideal platform for online stores, especially when it comes to ecommerce SEO. Not only does Exponent generate website's to be SEO code-friendly in the back end, but Exponent makes keyword optimization easy in the front-end user interface.

In this video, we share with you some tips on how to go about properly keyword optimizing the product pages of you ecommerce site for better SEO performance. We start with some brief insights on keyword research and selection, then move forward on some of the best practices of optimizing your company's website via the page title, meta description, keyword, and URL.

If you'd like to learn more about the SEO strengths and weaknesses of you ecommerce site, visit ClickCentric SEO for free website assessment. The experts at ClickCentric will perform a hands-on audit and evaluation of your website.

Unlike most previous releases, the release of v2.0.9 has seen it's share of problems.  Though most of these are minor issues, they can seem to be an obstacle if not addressed.  Here's some things to watch out for, and steps to correct these issues:

Git Pull upgrade creates a merge conflict and the site 'crashes':

'Git' is supposed to prevent this, but for some reason when updating (git pull) a 'git' maintained site from 2.0.8 (or the patches) to 2.0.9, you'll receive a notice of a merge conflict and the site will no longer work.  The problem lies in two files (exponent_version.php and framework/modules-1/calendarmodule/class.php).  There are a couple different options to fix this, so you'll find the details in this forum post.  We are working to alleviate this issue!

Menus don't work the same as before the upgrade:

Even though the new navigation controller includes some compatibility to still allow old style navigationmodule modules to work...this apparently isn't true in all circumstances, especially complex menus.  The solution is to update the calls and the templates/views to the new 2.0 navigation module format.  This is a fairly simple change as it entails copying and renaming those custom templates.  You'll find the details in this forum post.

My customized site 'crashes':

This occurs if you are running customized modules (controllers) on your site.  Because PHP v5.4.x enforces greater code standards, we've had to update some of the main code which in turn requires updates to any custom modules (controllers).  This is a fairly simple update as it entails adding the 'static' keyword to the static functions inherited from the parent expController class.  You'll find the details in this forum post.

We'll keep this article up to date as things progress.