Managing a website from the backend can be stressful, especially without a content management system (CMS) to help you. While you may be proud of your blog content, products, and services, SEO still plays a vital role in a site’s global success. Choosing the right CMS for your needs can alleviate much of the hard work when it comes to search engine optimization. Let’s take a look at some of the factors you should consider and the CMSs you should try out.
What is a CMS and Why is it Useful?
Content Management Systems are software systems that are used to maintain your website’s database. They are favored by content creators and marketers because they require no coding knowledge to use properly. Based on W3Techs, the most popular CMS platforms on the market as of 2021 are:
- WordPress (42.4%)
- Shopify (3.8%)
- Joomla (2.0%)
- Wix (1.7%)
- SquareSpace (1.7%)
- Drupal (1.4%)
WordPress is leading the pack for good reasons, but even a CMS which powers just 1% of the world’s websites is still very useful and popular. You would be hard-pressed to find websites that don’t use any form of CMS for content management purposes. Avoiding the use of CMS means that you need a web developer or programmer on staff at all times to manually place content on the website.
Perks of Using a CMS for your Website
There are several valuable perks to using CMSs, regardless of whether you work in SaaS, eCommerce, or other industries, such as:
- Speed (According to data, 40% of users will wait no longer than 3 seconds before leaving a website due to long load times.)
- User-friendly setup
- Ease of use to maintain the website’s database and security
- Cost-effective, with ready-to-use pieces of software
- Comprehensive SEO features through plugins
Frank Hamilton, chief writing editor and SEO specialist at SupremeDissertations had this to say about CMSs:
“CMS solutions have enabled everyone from journalists and bloggers to salespeople and editors to manage their websites. Because of that, their use both for content writing and SEO is unprecedented and shouldn’t be overlooked.”
How to Evaluate a CMS
How do you know which CMS is most suited to your website? Which CMS will empower your team to improve their workflow rather than hinder them in their daily tasks and site management activities?
Consider Your Target Audience and Staff Skillset
The first thing you should consider when it comes to picking your CMS from an SEO perspective is regarding its users. Who is your target audience? If you intend to work with developers and coders in your B2B network and want to give them backend access, Joomla and Drupal are great.
However, casual everyday web users might prefer using CMSs such as WordPress, HubSpot, or Shopify due to their simplicity and easy learning curve. The same applies to your own staff’s skill set. If they are not seasoned developers and programmers, avoid CMSs that allow for comprehensive manual coding.
Inspect CMS Support for Custom Plugins and Themes
Most site owners and web designers pick their CMS based on the number of plugins and themes they can access easily. WordPress is an undisputed king in this regard, especially when we consider SEO plugins and built-in content management features. The ability to develop a fully custom WordPress theme is often the reason this popular CMS is chosen.
However, it is not the only option, as many other CMSs have integrated SEO features available and may be more suitable to your business’ workflow. If you work with a CMS without a comprehensive content writing UI, you can rely on TrustMyPaper to get your articles and content written on time. Combining third-party tools with out-of-the-box CMS features is a great alternative if no official plugins are available for that CMS.
Explore the Community and Development Team Behind the CMS
Finding out how active the community behind different CMSs is can help you determine which one is best suited for your business. CMSs typically have active communities of fans, developers, and bloggers who contribute to everyone’s continued use of that platform.
You can find troubleshooting help, new plugins, and UI themes, as well as CMS, useful tips, and tutorials via these communities. The developers of each CMS also participate in community discussions and offer their insight and news on upcoming features and fixes. If a CMS doesn’t have this type of support behind it, using it might be difficult, especially without dedicated web developers on your staff. A safer option is to opt for CMSs such as WordPress which do have global communities backing them.
Check the Frequency and Stability of CMS Builds Over Time
To get a good sense of how active a CMS’s development is, you should visit its official website. Each CMS should have an official website where you can download its latest build and find the latest news about its development. You must choose a CMS which is still in active development and receives constant security patches and feature updates.
Using old builds of CMSs can drastically lower your site’s cybersecurity and make installing new SEO plugins or other tools difficult. Go over different CMSs and their development history, as well as how satisfied people are with the development team’s support. It’s best to avoid dormant or out-of-date CMS platforms which will likely fail to meet your expectations and make content management and SEO difficult.
Look at Each CMSs Scalability Features
To optimize your site’s SEO properly, you will need to enable/disable plugins, do database maintenance, as well as update content. CMS scalability refers to the CMSs features which allow you to easily add new tools, change its theme, or otherwise scale back on your plugins.
If it’s difficult to make minor changes to your active plugins or SEO keywords, imagine how difficult it might be to conduct full database maintenance. Avoid CMS platforms that require manual operations via coding and look for those which are more user-friendly instead.
Wrapping Up
It’s best to take your time when choosing a CMS for your website. Once you set it up and the site goes live, converting to another CMS would require significant changes to swap the CMS. However, with the right CMS for your business up and running, SEO optimization and website content management will become much easier to handle.