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Guide for Finding an SEO Friendly Website Content Management System

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What should businesses look for in an “SEO-friendly” content-management system (CMS)?

This document from KoMarketing Associates explains what a CMS is and the factors you should look for in a product that will facilitate SEO strategies & tactics.

A CMS is a system that allows people without technical backgrounds to develop content and collateral for a Website, without knowing HTML, scripting or Web Server configuration.

Unfortunately, not all CMS applications present Website content that is search-engine friendly or give users the ability to access and manage specific on-page factors related to SEO.

Here are a few key factors that usually come into discussion when working with a CMS vendor and looking at SEO-specific functionality:

Web Page Management and Web Page Development

  • It is essential that companies comparing CMS make sure that page properties essential to effective SEO are not locked or automatically generated, including:
  • Browser Title: (HTML TITLE Tag)
  • Meta Information: (Description and Keywords)
  • Page Headings: (HTML – H1, H2 and H3 if possible)
  • Content: (Edit/Modify Content on each page)

Page Creation/Navigational Considerations
You should be able to:

  • Expand the content you want users to find from a site-wide navigational perspective.
  • Exclude content, especially if you build pages with seasonal relevance or temporary, promotional campaigns.

    • Web Address /URL Generation

  • The Web address should not be rendered as a dynamic URL (none of the following: ?=… or &id).
  • The Web address generated should appear like a static, directory-style URL
    Example: domain.com/folder/folder/end (specific file extensions are not overly important)
  • The Web address should not contain session IDs for purposes of user tracking or authentication. While tracking is absolutely important, the CMS vendor should have some form of cookie-based or alternative way to track and record visitor information, not through a session variable appended to the URL.
  • The Web address should not change in direct correlation with Web page changes (such as a modification of an HTML title tag). The age of a URL is an important factor in search engine rankings.
  • Navigation should be consistent and “locked down”. That means that there should be no way to back door the page by entering in either a known dynamic query string or appending variables at the end.

Code Efficiency

  • Placing CSS and JavaScript in an external, linked file, versus directly in the page’s coding.
  • Bloated HTML/script-based parameters around formatted content and hyperlinks.
  • Extra white space generated in Web page output (while not a backbreaker this adds unnecessary file size to your Web pages).

SEO Best Practices

  • Text-based navigation
  • Being able to incorporate an “alt” or “title” property in your images
  • Using H1, H2, etc tags for page headings and sub headings
  • Proper use of CSS and other Web design technologies
  • No frames or framesets
  • Avoid Flash as the primary centerpiece for home page design and layout
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