How to choose a CMS for SEO: Comprehensive guide

Choosing a content management system is already a big challenge as you must consider many aspects. Luckily, if you are reading this article, you know that SEO is one of the critical details in a CMS, as it plays a crucial role in determining a website's visibility and success. 

While some "experts" have tried to "kill" SEO multiple times with shocking discoveries that "SEO is dead," it's still here and still is a crucial source of organic traffic. 

So, the question remains:

How to choose the best CMS for SEO?

Selecting the right content management system (CMS) is a must to ensure your website ranks well on search engines like Google. But how do we determine which CMS is good enough? 

There are three main factors that shape SEO-friendly CMS:

1. Your CMS supports the key SEO features

A CMS must allow you to seamlessly integrate essential SEO tools and functionalities, simplifying the optimization process for your website. Some tools and functions can be built-in, and some can be added as third-party tools. 

2. It is easy to work for content editors

A user-friendly interface and intuitive content management system make it easier for content editors to optimize and update content regularly. This is essential for maintaining fresh and engaging content, positively impacting your SEO rankings.

3. It offers a quick page load to ensure better Google ranking

Page speed is a critical factor in SEO rankings. A CMS that prioritizes fast loading times can help ensure better Google ranking, as search engines favor websites that offer a seamless user experience.

Top 8 SEO features to look for in a SEO-friendly CMS

When evaluating different CMS options, consider the following features to choose the best CMS for SEO.

1. SEO plugins and apps

A CMS that supports SEO plugins can enhance your website's search engine optimization capabilities. These plugins often come as extensions or add-ons seamlessly integrating with your CMS.

For example, Storyblok provides users with a native SEO app and allows them to expand SEO-related capabilities by adding integrations via API.

2. Rich metadata fields

When it comes to SEO, metadata is your best friend. The ability to customize or add metadata fields within your CMS is instrumental for optimizing individual pages. 

• Title tags: Customizable title tags allow you to define the title displayed in search engine results. A compelling and keyword-rich title can increase click-through rates.
• Meta descriptions: As mentioned earlier, meta descriptions allow you to craft enticing summaries for your content, encouraging users to click through to your site.
• Keywords: Metadata fields often allow you to add specific keywords or phrases related to your content. Proper keyword optimization can improve your content's search engine ranking.

3. Page optimization

Optimizing the content on your website goes beyond just text. Images play a crucial role in user experience and SEO. A CMS that offers built-in tools for image optimization is a valuable asset. 

• Image compression: Image optimization tools enable you to compress images without sacrificing quality. Smaller image sizes lead to faster page load times, which is a significant factor in SEO rankings.
• Alt text: SEO CMS platforms with image optimization features allow you to set alt text for images. Alt text provides textual descriptions for images, making your content more accessible to visually impaired users and helping search engines understand your visual content. This also helps users to find relevant images on Google search. 

4. Ability to create redirects

Redirects are essential for maintaining a smooth user experience and preserving SEO equity when making changes to your website's structure. 

• Broken link prevention: Redirects ensure that users don't encounter broken links, which can frustrate visitors and harm your site's credibility.
• SEO equity preservation: When you reorganize or rename pages, redirects help transfer SEO value from the old URL to the new one, preventing a drop in search engine rankings.

5. Ability to generate a sitemap

Sitemaps serve as a roadmap for search engines, guiding them to all the important pages on your website. An SEO-friendly CMS that can automatically generate and update sitemaps provides several benefits:

• Efficient crawling: Sitemaps make it easier for search engine bots to crawl and index your site, ensuring that no valuable content is missed.
• Indexing control: You can specify which pages should be included in the sitemap, helping you prioritize content for search engine indexing.

6. Internal linking tools

It is critical to have other pages refer to your site in order to create the domain authority. This applies to both internal and external sources referring to your page, as long as the links are genuine and functional. When you use Storyblok's native fields to generate these internal linkages, they will always be up-to-date – even if the URL of the connected entry changes.

• Improved navigation: Internal links enhance user navigation, making it easier for visitors to find relevant content within your site.
• Distributed SEO value: Internal linking can distribute SEO value and authority to other pages on your site, improving their search engine rankings.

7. CDN for better page load

This is a better solution than a classical lazy load. Now, you can make your site or app load faster by processing, optimizing, and caching your images over a content delivery network. This provides quick, high-quality content that does not detract from the overall brand experience on any platform.

• Improved page load times: A CDN distributes your website's assets, such as images, scripts, and stylesheets, to servers located strategically around the world. This reduces the physical distance between users and your website's resources, resulting in faster page load times and a better user experience.
• Global reach: With a CDN, your website can effectively serve users from different geographical locations, ensuring that your content loads quickly and consistently regardless of where your audience is located.

8. Robots.txt

Robots.txt files allow you to control how search engine crawlers access and index your website. This feature provides critical control over your site's visibility in search results:

• Crawler instructions: With a robots.txt file, you can specify which areas of your site should be crawled by search engines and which should be excluded.
• Privacy and security: Robots.txt can also be used to hide sensitive or private sections of your website from search engine indexing.

Top 5 CMS for SEO to boost your website

Here are the top 5 best CMSs for SEO that offer the best search optimization:

1. Storyblok

Storyblok is an excellent CMS for SEO due to its headless approach, comprehensive SEO plugin, and rich SEO features. Its flexibility allows users to deliver content across multiple platforms smoothly and provides a wide range of SEO tools and customization options to optimize your website effectively.

2. WordPress

WordPress remains a popular choice for SEO-focused, purely informational websites. Its extensive library of SEO plugins, themes, and user-friendly interface make it a strong contender for improving search engine rankings, especially for small local businesses not looking to scale.

3. Drupal

Drupal is a highly customizable CMS with built-in SEO modules, making it a powerful choice for websites seeking to fine-tune their SEO strategies and scale their online presence.

4. Joomla

Joomla offers a user-friendly interface and various SEO extensions to optimize your website for search engines. It's a reliable option for those seeking a balance between ease of use and SEO capabilities.

5. HubSpot CMS

HubSpot's CMS is an all-in-one solution focusing on inbound marketing and SEO. It offers tools for content optimization, keyword tracking, and other SEO-related features, making it a valuable choice for businesses looking to combine content and SEO strategies.

Still wondering which CMS is best for SEO?

Storyblok stands out as the best CMS for SEO due to its unique headless approach, comprehensive SEO plugin, and rich SEO features. Here are the details to convince you:

Headless approach: Storyblok's headless CMS architecture allows for unparalleled flexibility in content delivery, enabling you to create SEO-friendly content and deliver it to various platforms and devices seamlessly. It also allows you to easily integrate sophisticated third-party solutions to improve SEO.

Own SEO plugin: Storyblok comes equipped with its own SEO plugin, offering a wide range of SEO features out of the box. This ensures that you have everything you need to optimize your website for search engines.

Rich SEO features: Storyblok provides a robust set of SEO features, including customizable metadata fields, URL customization, easy redirects, automatic sitemap generation, and much more. These features empower you to take control of your SEO strategy and achieve higher rankings.