Users that lack coding skills are blessed by content management systems. Even if you lack sophisticated technical skills, a content management system (CMS) will allow you to effortlessly publish and update material across your website. However, usability is not the only factor to consider. Choose a CMS with SEO in mind if you want your website to rank in Google’s top 10.
Any website must have a content management system (CMS). Otherwise, you risk being lost and spending your time on pointless tasks. For this reason, in order to administer your site, you need to have the greatest CMS platform at your disposal.
This post will explain how to choose the best CMS for SEO and which well-known systems work best for websites that mostly rely on organic traffic. Without further ado, let’s get started by creating a list of characteristics that a CMS should have in order to be SEO-friendly.
What characterizes a strong CMS for SEO?
The majority of custom content management systems have little or no SEO-related capabilities. Beyond posting and improving your material, there isn’t much else you can do (especially if you lack technical ability).
To correctly optimize your material from scratch would take so much time, even with a coder on your team. Here are several reasons why CMS could save your life.
It can help you manage your material more efficiently, save you time, and boost your SEO results. However, there are many CSM platforms in the market.
Have you ever considered the qualities of a good CMS for SEO?
You have to know this answer before you even pick a CMS platform because you won’t be able to pick the best platform for you if you don’t understand what characteristics a CMS should have. To clear up any confusion, we wanted to address this subject before offering you the list of the best CMS for SEO.
In general, you should go a little more and consider the capabilities the platform offers when selecting a CMS platform. Most of the time, we don’t pay much attention to the features and instead choose the product that a friend or internet review suggests. But you must never commit this error. Look over the features to see if the platform has what you require for SEO optimization.
Let’s have a look at what exactly those features are.
1. Custom URL Settings
Accordingly, this is perhaps the most important element that a good CMS should have in order to be SEO-friendly.
URLs significantly affect SEO performance.
In addition to making it easier for users to grasp what your material is about, having a clear URL structure is beneficial for search engines as well.
The default URL structure in the majority of specially created CMS is the page title. Additionally, it lengthens the URL and gives it a spammy appearance.
Because of this, using a custom URL set enables you to create unique URL structures (you can use your primary keyword as your URL). You won’t need to worry about this, though, as practically every CMS platform today includes this capability.
2. Being able to alter page elements
You should be able to easily edit important page elements like page titles, meta descriptions, image alt tags, title tags, and subheadings on a solid CMS platform without having to make any coding modifications.
These are the most crucial components you must alter if you want to make your content SEO friendly and rank higher in search results. Because default meta descriptions, title tags, and picture alt tags can knock you out of the running in the same way that the default URL can. It’s very straightforward: if any CMS prevents you from changing these components, you shouldn’t even put that platform on your shortlist
3. Outstanding Loading Speed
One of the most important ranking variables for Google is page speed.
In fact, Google intensified a “page speed update” in 2018, and it became official that page speed would now be one of the top ranking factors for mobile search. Google released another update in 2021 based on website users’ experiences, dubbed “core web vitals.” The update will also be impacted by page speed. If you’re trying to rank your website high in Google search results but it loads incredibly slowly, you should probably abandon the plan.
It will be quite difficult for you to rank and keep your rating on Google in the long run if your website doesn’t load quickly. Because of this, whenever you select a CMS, make sure it doesn’t affect how quickly your website loads.
4. Easy Redirection
We frequently duplicate or remove pages from our website. Duplicate content and 404 error pages on your website might have an adverse effect on your site’s reputation in addition to its SEO performance.
It is advised to redirect certain pages into an existing page for improved user experience and SEO performance. Redirection, however, is a major issue with many CMS platforms. A good CMS platform typically offers simple 301 redirection options.
You’re in good hands if the CMS you decide on offers this feature.
5. Simple XML Sitemap Creation
The XML sitemap is essentially an XML file that catalogs and preserves all the links to your website’s most important pages so that Google crawlers may rapidly browse through your website’s most crucial pages.
Your sitemap may be automatically generated on some CMS platforms, but on other platforms, you may need to manually create the sitemap using plugins.
You must manually construct your XML sitemap if either of these solutions is not offered by your CMS.
5 Best CMS For SEO
1. WordPress
WordPress has a market share of 60% in the CMS industry and is the most widely used CMS platform available.
WordPress is the best option for everyone, regardless of whether you’re a web developer, non-techie, or business owner.
More than 14% of the biggest websites in the world are powered by WordPress, including TechCrunch, Microsoft News, the TED blog, Skype, and many others.
It differs from other customary CMS platforms. It’s a full-featured website construction software that not only enables you to manage your content but also to create amazing hybrid websites devoid of scripting.
For those who don’t want to learn how to code, bloggers, eCommerce companies, and small and mid-size organizations, this CMS platform is the ideal option.
In general, it’s the most adaptable and feature-rich CMS platform you’ll ever find.
Key SEO features:
- Simple URL structure changes.
- Using plugins, creating an XML sitemap is really simple.
- You may optimize your pages for improved search ranking using an SEO plugin add-on.
- Alternative text for photos is a choice.
- The loading speed is extremely quick because of simple and light coding.
- Easy options for redirecting
- Can quickly, and without restrictions, update any part of the page.
- Do follow or no-follow links can be set.
- Adding canonical tags is an option.
2. Joomla
Another well-liked CMS platform is Joomla, which you should unquestionably investigate. Its market share in the global CMS market is 6%, and it has more than two million active websites online.
You may create, modify, manage, and publish your content on this ideal CMS platform without any specialized experience. You may use Joomla on any kind of website, whether it be for a little business or a major multinational, without giving it a second thought. It doesn’t have as many features as WordPress, of course, but it does have all the essential SEO elements you’d need to rank on Google.
Let’s now examine the SEO features that this CMS platform has to offer.
Key SEO feature:
- Option to enable URLs that are search engine friendly.
- Delete index.php from your URL if you choose.
- Edit the title and meta descriptions.
- To your photos, add alt tags.
- Options for do-following or disavowing links.
- Mobile-friendly
- features that speed up pages.
- Use free extensions to make a sitemap for your website.
- Any URL should have canonical tags.
- Markup structured data with this.
3. Wix
Wiz is more than just a CMS platform; it’s a full-featured website builder that gives you the ability to create web pages and manage your material from one location without knowing any coding.
Additionally, Wix offers a ton of SEO capabilities that you may employ to rank higher than other CMS platforms. Even though Wix’s main selling point is its fantastic design, they nonetheless don’t skimp on the website’s loading time.
Since Wix used to have several severe SEO flaws, including bad URL structure, no option for alt tags for photos, and more, it has drawn a lot of criticism. But instead of taking this criticism personally, they used it as motivation to develop some amazing SEO features for the platform.
Let’s take a closer look at some of Wix’s SEO features:
- For your website, Wix automatically creates and updates an XML sitemap.
- The product pages and blog entries automatically include structured data markup.
- For your website, it immediately creates a Robot.txt file that you can easily change.
- Your meta tags, such as your meta title and meta description, are simple to change or update.
- To pages, add canonical tags.
- 301 redirects for several pages can be easily created.
- Mobile-friendly.
- Add alt tags to your photographs and optimize them.
- Integrated SSL certificate.
- The blog area has AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) enabled.
4. Drupal
You can simply publish, manage, and SEO-optimize your material with Drupal, an open-source content management system. Drupal is not particularly well-known, in contrast to other CMS platforms that we’ve covered before on this list.
You simply can’t undervalue this platform, with over a million active Drupal sites and a 2.4% market share. No matter what field you work in—FinTech, sports, eCommerce, media, etc.—you may use Drupal without any reservations.
Additionally, this platform includes some excellent SEO capabilities (although not better than the CMS platforms mentioned above).
Check out these characteristics:
- Automatic creation of an XML sitemap.
- Customizing a URL.
- Edit your meta-data and make changes.
- Simple redirects for your dead pages.
- There are several beneficial SEO add-on modules.
5. Weebly
Over 50 million websites worldwide are powered by the free website builder and CMS Weebly. It is among the most well-liked CSM platforms and website builders on the market.
Thanks to its user-friendly layout, you can utilize this platform even if you’re new to the CMS industry and lack any technical expertise.
Small enterprises with a narrow target audience are typically best suited for this CMS platform.
Although it can’t compete with WordPress for SEO functionality, it does include some fundamental SEO elements that would be sufficient for a tiny website.
Let’s take a look at some of Weebly’s SEO features.
- HTML formatting that is tidy and SEO-friendly.
- Edit your meta description and title.
- Add a unique URL.
- Add Alt tags to your photos.
- Responsive design for mobile.
Conclusion
Therefore, these are the top CMS platforms available now for SEO. You should always look for the five essential SEO elements that we covered previously in this piece, regardless of the CMS platform you decide to use.
However, due to its adaptability and wealth of SEO tools, WordPress is our top CMS platform suggestion. This guide should have been helpful in helping you decide which CMS platform to utilize for improved SEO performance.
