Choosing an SEO-Friendly CMS

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Many people view SEO as an afterthought — a strategy you start to work on when your website has already been launched. In reality, SEO should be at the forefront of your mind from the minute you start planning your website. There are a number of decisions you can make from these early stages that will set you well on the way to SEO success.

The first of these decisions is which CMS platform you will use. There are plenty out there, the most popular of which is certainly WordPress. In fact, recent studies suggest that 43.2 percent of all websites on the internet have been built using WordPress, which represents a colossal market share. But is WordPress the most SEO-friendly CMS platform out there? Are you better off using Drupal or Kentico CMS? We’re about to find out!

SEO basics

SEO stands for search engine optimisation, a digital marketing strategy that aims to improve the quantity and quality of leads to your website. When implemented correctly, SEO strategies should not only increase the number of visitors to your website, but they will be more likely to actively engage with your content and company in both an online and offline capacity.

SEO activities are divided into three broad categories: technical, on-page, and off-page.

Technical SEO: As the name suggests, technical SEO refers to the technical performance of your website and how that impacts the user experience. Facets like speed, security, and structure all fall under the umbrella of technical SEO. Your choice of CMS will have a significant impact on your ability to maximise your technical SEO performance.

On-page SEO: Closely related to technical SEO, on-page SEO activities are concerned more with the actual content of your website rather than its performance. Optimising content — whether it’s blog posts, captions, or meta descriptions — with relevant, targeted keywords is part of on-page SEO. On-page SEO also considers the overall user experience, with an eye to reducing bounce rate and increasing the amount of time visitors spend on your website.

Off-page SEO: Finally, off-page SEO. Any activity that is taken outside your own site sits in this category. This includes link-building, guest blogging, and contributing to local directories. While your choice in CMS won’t have a significant impact on your ability to employ off-page SEO activities, you still want to be providing users who arrive at your website from referred posts and links with a positive experience, so the two are related, if indirectly.

SEO and CMS

To a certain extent, your choice in CMS can make or break your SEO performance. Opting to use any of the most popular platforms — including WordPress, Kentico CMS, Drupal, Shopify, Joomla, and Magenta — certainly isn’t going to harm your SEO performance. However, smaller platforms may not come equipped with all the tools you need to maximise visibility and engagement online.

Before signing up with a CMS platform, check that it will allow you to perform all of the following activities.

Customise page elements: The term ‘page elements’ is quite broad. When used in this context, it refers to the title, meta description, and image alt text of your content. These attributes can all be optimised using relevant keywords — providing that your CMS allows you to edit them.

SSL certification: Google places high value on security. If there is a risk that your website could be hijacked, putting user data at risk, they are unlikely to recommend it to your potential customers. An SSL certificate is a must have, providing an encrypted connection for users. Don’t use a CMS platform that doesn’t offer this and other security features.

Responsive themes: Gone are the days of building a website purely for the desktop or laptop computer. These days, visitors expect to be able to access your site on all types of devices, including smartphones of varying shapes and sizes. To ensure your site is clear and accessible regardless of screen size, responsive themes are the way to go.

Simple blogging tools: On-page SEO is all about publishing high-quality, unique, relevant content. You want this process to be as easy as possible, particularly as the job will likely be left to your marketing team, who may not have high-level technical skills. Opt for a CMS that offers an easy-to-use blogging interface.

Analytics tools: The only way to tell if your SEO strategy is working is to have analytics tools set up to track user behaviour. While there are third-party tools you can use, this process becomes infinitely easier if your CMS has them in-built into its platform. Kentico CMS, for example, provides a wealth of information about user behaviour that you can use to improve your website and customise marketing campaigns.

In the end, the best CMS is the one that enables you to build a high-quality, user-friendly website. To discuss your CMS options and how to improve the visibility of your website, speak with a professional web development company in Melbourne today.