How can using a CMS help with SEO?
If you want your website to rank highly with search engines such as Google and Yahoo, it is a good idea to manage your website and its search engine optimisation with a content management system (CMS).
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is about creating and providing up-to-date, useful, content on your website and making sure that search engines can find and understand it easily. So how can a content management system (CMS) help with SEO? The simple answer is that a CMS makes it easy to update and add new content to your website.
What is a CMS?
Content management system is the software used to enter, edit, import, export, schedule and publish websites and other files and information. This software makes it easy for users with no programming skills to edit and maintain a website.
A content management system can be a strong tool to help with search engine optimisation, however first you need an SEO strategy. You need to work out the right keywords or phrases that visitors might use to find your site. Ideally, you should plan your SEO strategy during the initial website design and documentation phases.
4 ways you can use your CMS to help with SEO
Add Meta data tags
Meta data tags are used to specify a page’s title, description, keywords, author and the last time it was modified. They are not displayed on the web page, but are read by search engines and factored into the search rankings. Meta data elements also influence a searcher’s decision to click on a link in the search engines results page. For example the Meta description tag is a brief summary of the content on a page and is the information a searcher will see when they search for your website.
Using a CMS makes it easy to assign and edit the title, description and keywords on each page of your website. This is an important tool to help search engines understand what each website page is about.
Generating a Sitemap
The Sitemap is a page on your website that lists and links to ALL the pages of the site in an organised and hierarchical fashion. This page allows search engines spiders and site visitors find all your pages easily.
A CMS can generate a sitemap and will automatically update it whenever a page is added or moved within your website.
Managing social media and community content
The best way to attract search engines is with updated and new content. Social media and community content like comments, blogs, and forums are a constant stream of new content that is on topic, full of keywords and links. Keywords and links are a very important part of search engine optimisation. Having a CMS makes it easy for visitors to create content on your site and simple for you to then manage it.
Tracking traffic to your website
SEO is all about getting more visitors to your website so being able to track who’s coming to your site, where they have come from and what keywords they are using to get there is a very useful tool. You will also want to track how a change to your website affects traffic to your site. Most CMSs have at least a basic tool to help with this. You can track traffic trends on your site and the statistics will indicate which keywords or phrases visitors are using to find your site.