Choosing a content management system (or CMS) to develop your website on can be difficult with so many options available. Different CMSs offer different things and the one you choose can have an impact on everything from design to SEO.
Our recommendation for your CMS best bet – WordPress. To back up our suggestion, this article will discuss the top 9 reasons to choose WordPress for SEO over other CMSs.
In this article, we’ll discuss:
- Why your CMS is important to SEO
- Why choose WordPress?
- Key Takeaways on WordPress for SEO
Why a Good CMS is Integral to SEO
Not all CMSs are created equal! The way a CMS handles certain aspects of a website can have a big impact on its SEO. When considering which CMS to choose it’s important to consider factors that will impact SEO such as the ability to customize page titles and urls, the ability to add alt attributes to images and the ability to use add-ons and plugins, to name a few.
9 Reasons Why WordPress Is The Best For SEO
WordPress is a favourite among designers and developers. Here are 9 reasons why this software takes the cake as the best CMS for SEO.
1. User Experience
User experience plays a large role in SEO – if users like your site, spend a lot of time on it and continue to return, your site will be rewarded will great traffic, lower bounce rates, higher engagement rates and therefore improvements in your search rankings. A combination of WordPress’ plugins and themes will help you create a beautiful, user-friendly website.
2. Metadata
Metadata is very important to search engines, helping crawlers to understand what your content is about. Luckily, this CMS makes it really easy to edit your site’s metadata. Simply add an SEO plugin, like Yoast SEO, and quickly and easily edit your SEO title and meta description.
3. Image Optimization
Almost all of the pages on your website will include at least one image. And when optimizing the aspects of your website, it’s important to include images as well! WordPress allows you to easily create alt text for your images as well as add descriptions – here you can include your focus keyword to help search engines understand what the image and your content is about. Editing the size of your image is also made easy and can greatly improve SEO and user experience by speeding up your site.
4. Permalinks
URL structure and content can also impact SEO – long, messy URLs can mean lower rankings. Make your URL short and attractive and include your keyword. The beauty of adding keywords to your URL is that visitors and search engines can use this information to discern what the page is about. This can help increase click through rates, as viewers will be more inclined to click on a link that is descriptive of its contents.
5. Site Speed
Site speed has a huge impact on SEO. A slow site can turn away visitors, resulting in a high bounce rate, and bring your site down in the rankings. Lucky for you, by picking a good theme and using a good hosting platform, WordPress sites generally run pretty fast. If you find your site is a bit too slow, the platform also offers many different plugins that can help you with improving your site speed.
6. Mobile Optimization
With the introduction of Google’s “Mobilegeddon” update, a website that is optimized for mobile usage is now a must. WordPress makes mobile optimization super simple – in fact, you likely won’t have to lift a finger to ensure you have a site that is optimized for mobile devices, as most themes are already optimized.
7. Plugins
WordPress offers a ton of plugins to make your life easier. And, while you don’t want to overload your site with too many plugins, the SEO plugins offered on this platform, like Yoast SEO, come highly suggested. Plugins like Yoast help you optimize your content, make it readable and create optimized metadata.
In addition to specific SEO plugins, it offers plugins like Google XML Site Maps and Google Analytics to help you further optimize and monitor your site to help with SEO.
8. SEO-Optimized Themes
Site design and user experience also play a role in rankings. WordPress makes site design easy with pre-made themes that are already SEO optimized. High-quality, SEO-friendly themes will help you create a beautiful, user-friendly site that also uses proper HTML markup – an important factor that makes your site easily understood by search engines.
9. Security
Nobody likes to be hacked! And even more than the hassle it can cause you to reclaim and repair a hacked site, this can also cause your site to be penalized by Google. If Google suspects your site of being spam or harming other sites in any way, which can result from someone hacking and taking over your site, you will see a decline in your rankings.
Luckily, WordPress offers a very secure platform to help protect your site. In addition to the security measures automatically taken, many security plugins are also available for added protection.
WordPress for SEO is a safe choice for SEO.
Key Takeaways on WordPress for SEO
With so many SEO strategies to incorporate, your number one focus should be on selecting the best CMS for SEO. In the long run this will make your life a lot easier, saving you both time and money! So, if you’re looking to create a beautiful, user-friendly site that also ranks well in the SERPs, WordPress is the way to go.
As a recap, here are the 9 reasons why WordPress for SEO is the best:
- User experience – create an awesome site that is user-friendly.
- Metadata – easily edit and optimize metadata.
- Image optimization – add alt text, descriptions and edit image sizes to optimize for SEO.
- Permalinks – create easy to read urls.
- Site speed – WordPress sites generally run quite fast and, in the case you need a little extra help with speed, plugins are available to make your life easier.
- Mobile optimization – most themes come mobile-ready.
- Plugins – get some help with specific SEO plugins or integrate Google Analytics and XML Sitemaps to improve your site.
- SEO-optimized themes – choosing a quality, SEO-friendly theme makes creating a beautiful, user-friendly site even easier.
- Security – protect your site from the threat of hackers. Doing so with the help of WordPress’ security measures will also protect you from Google penalties.
For the latest insights on CMS’ or SEO strategy, check out our blog.
