SEO Keys For Choosing a CMS
Search engine optimization can be an absolutely terrifying concept when viewed from afar. The time commitment and knowledge necessary for a highly-optimized site can stimie even the most seasoned CMO. So when it comes to starting that inevitable transition to the web, you can save a lifetime of stress and mistakes by choosing the right content management system (CMS) for your business. The right CMS can make SEO easy, or seemingly impossible, depending upon your decision. Here are some keys to choosing the right CMS for your online presence.
Control over titles, headings and meta descriptions
It is almost SEO blasphemy that there are CMS’ that don’t allow you the control over these are basic page elements. What makes it even worse is that said vendors will charge you extra “customization” fees to change these elements. If a vendor charges anything for these capabilities, get the frakk out of there.
Control over duplicate content
Duplicate content is one of the most common mistakes made on websites. Great CMS’ will either avoid these problems all together, or proactively give you a way to deal with them.
Custom anchor text
Make sure that the CMS you use allows you to customize your anchor text. Many systems cannot do this, so do not assume that you have these capabilities.
Image alt attributes
Image alt attributes are the best method you have to tell a search engine what the image on your site is about. This capability is a must-have, so the ability to implement the alt attribute within your image tags is essential to a great CMS.
Customizable URL structure
Your SEO team or firm is the only group who should be deciding the URL structure of your website. If a vendor or CMS service does not allow you control over this, get the frakk out of there.
Sitemap generation
Having an XML sitemap for your site is absolutely essential for any website. Make sure you have a CMS that can help to create one.
Making sure that you are investing in a search-friendly CMS system is the most important decision you can make with your website. A great search-friendly CMS is Drupal, a free, open source content management platform that supports a variety of websites ranging from personal blogs to community-driven websites. Volacci is the leading Drupal SEO company and very passionate about your online success. By the end of your contract you will have at least as much additional business from your web site as you spend on our services... or we'll work for free until you do.
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About the author
Ben Finklea
Ben and the Volacci® team provide Search Engine Optimization, Paid Search, and Conversions Consulting to a varied client base - ranging from local real estate agents to Fortune 500 companies. Ben's book Drupal 6 Search Engine Optimization was released in September, 2009 and is available from Amazon.com.
Comments
Given that content and
Given that content and in-bound links are the two most important things in SEO and the stuff that you listed is just peanuts, I'm highly surprised that there is nothing related to either of these things on your list.
Well structured semantic markup is highly important to having your content understandable by search engines. Drupal excels here. It's also important to make it easy for your content creators to write the right thing. Drupal's getting better in this regard, and will be better yet in D7, but still has improvements to make.
And if it doesn't yet exist, it might be a good idea to have some sort of module internal to Drupal that periodically queries Google et al. to find out what external links your pages have. This info could be integrated with Views to provide a block for admins on each page listing the in-bound links, or as an administrative overview.