Growing your business requires the right tools.
This includes having a Content Management System (CMS) that allows you to showcase and manage the content on your website.
A CMS helps ensure your website is able to load properly and be effectively crawled by search engines. It’s essential for search engine optimization (SEO) and for attracting users.
The right CMS serves as a technically stable platform for your website. The wrong CMS, however, may bog you down with features you don’t need or make your site unnecessarily slow. You don’t want to hinder your website’s ability to scale!
In this guide, we will cover what a CMS is and how to choose the right one for your SEO goals.
What is a Content Management System?
A content management system is a platform that allows you to create, edit, and post content on your website. It gives you the technical foundation to showcase your business, attract users, make sales, and so much more.
A stable CMS is essential for SEO because helps ensure that your website is able to be crawled and indexed by search engines. This makes it easier for people to find you online.
What’s great is that many CMS platforms integrate with SEO tools to make optimizing your website even easier. These take the guesswork out of choosing keywords, writing titles, adding metatags, etc.
What Criteria Should You Look for in a Content Management System?
There are a few essentials that every CMS should have.
Strong architecture
It’s important to look for a CMS that offers clean site architecture, redirects, and customizable URLs. You’ll also want to choose a CMS with internal linking tools so you can interconnect the pages on your website.
It’s also helpful to have Categories and Tags to better organize your content and make it easily discoverable by users.
Mobile-friendliness
It’s also essential that the CMS you choose has mobile-optimized themes and templates. This ensures your website can be rendered on tablets, smartphones, and other mobile devices.
Security
You will want a CMS that has built-in security features. Most CMSs offer SSL certificates, which is now the standard for SEO and site security. SSL certificates are a message to your visitors that your site is secure. Search engines also prioritize sites with SSL certificates in their rankings.
9 Best Content Management Systems for SEO
When choosing the right CMS for your website, you will want a platform that supports SEO. This may include built-in features or compatible plugins. SEO will help make your website rank in search engines and drive more traffic.
1. WordPress with Yoast SEO plugin
WordPress is the CMS of choice for 43% of the world’s websites. WordPress gets the highest marks when it comes to customization. There are endless ways business owners can craft their websites.
There is a helpful suite of tools for website owners doing it themselves. The built-in page builder creates permalink URLs, titles, meta descriptions, and tags. Plugins are available to help with more advanced redirects and sitemaps, for example.
With plug-ins like Yoast, it’s easy to submit a unique XML sitemap to Google Search Console to improve the indexation of your website. Once the sitemaps are installed, they can update automatically without any further input.
Only Business or eCommerce plan subscribers have access to the Advanced SEO Tools. However, free plug-ins are widely available to everyone.
Basic WordPress plans start at $0/month. $40/month on the Business Plan gets access to advanced SEO capabilities.
2. Squarespace
Squarespace is one of the most popular, easy-to-use CMS options on the market. Artists and creatives gravitate towards its dynamic designs and content capabilities. All plans include clean URLs, site maps, automatic redirects, and built-in mobile.
The page editor lets users change URLs, meta descriptions, and meta tags. Users can also opt-in for a free SSL Certificate.
One drawback is that the installation of outside plugins or third-party tools isn’t allowed. But, it does integrate with certain extensions for additional capabilities. The site also lacks advanced SEO features. Squarespace doesn’t use industry-standard terminology for its SEO tools. This may be a minus for more technical users.
Pricing for a custom domain begins at $16/month. All pricing tiers include tips for ranking your site high on search engines.
3. Wix – SEO Wiz
Wix is the third most-used content management system after WordPress and Shopify. It powers 3.4% of the world’s websites. It is a popular option for entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Wix offers a template-based website builder that can be more or less complex depending on your needs. On the bright side, SEO-optimization tools are included with all levels of membership.
SEO Wiz lets users customize page titles, meta descriptions, headings, URL slugs, and image alt attributes. It also lets users set up canonical tags and create a robots.txt file. The SEO wizard generates a sitemap that is submitted to Google Search Console.
Some of the other advantages of Wix are that all websites come with free SSL certificates. Users can also set up 301 or group redirects. It also features several integrated tools. It’s possible to use Google Search Console to track your site’s performance from inside the Wix platform. Local search is a strength here. You can access your Google business profile from within Wix to manage and update it as needed.
Wix pricing is competitive. Professional-looking sites with full SEO-optimization abilities start at $8.50/month.
4. GoDaddy Website Builder
GoDaddy Website Builder is a simple tool that can get you started with SEO. The built-in website optimizer is available starting with the Premium Plans. With this tool, users can create meta titles, meta descriptions, and a robots.txt file. Responsive design and XML sitemaps are also included in this tier. On the downside, users cannot create canonical tags or control headings.
GoDaddy aims to be a one-stop marketing shop for small businesses. If you want full customization options, this may not be the CMS for you. But GoDaddy Website Builder could be worth a look for providers looking to get up and running fast.
5. HubSpot – CMS HuB
HubSpot’s CMS Hub offers many more integrations than other content management systems. The HubSpot CMS Hub works in collaboration with HubSpot’s other Marketing, Sales, and Operations systems. Entry-level plans include an SSL certificate, website themes, and a drag-and-drop editor. Users also get all apps and assets, and access to HubSpot’s free tools. The next plan starts at $340/month. Access opens to A/B testing, content strategy, SEO recommendations & optimizations, and more.
HubSpot’s CMS Hub works with its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools to give businesses insight into their sales pipeline. It allows businesses to create content in a very mindful way.
HubSpot offers special pricing plans for non-profits and start-ups.
6. Storyblok
Storyblok is a headless content management system that’s great for teamwork. It offers a combination of visual editing tools and highly customizable content blocks. Companies that have SEO localization needs across many countries and languages benefit from this feature.
With Storyblok, there’s no need to use separate CMSs for mobile, IoT, or AR/VR. It’s possible to scale better content experiences across all channels at the same time. It’s flexible for both developers and users.
Companies with a worldwide reach can create localized pages for a globalized audience. The visual editing and custom collaboration workflows enable teams to easily work together.
Both technical and non-technical users can use the platform.
While Developers are necessary to build the initial tools. After that, marketers can update the tools themselves. Marketers can make their own changes as needed and there is less strain on the technical team.
Storyblok offers a free tier for developers and freelancers.
7. Zyro
Zyro combines a website builder with a content management system. This makes each aspect of launching a website easy. Zyro’s content management system is optimized for search engines. The console also gives users the power to look more deeply into a site’s SEO.
Zyro is one of the most affordable options on our list of content management systems. Annual subscriptions start at $12/month with a free domain for a year. It’s also one of the quickest ways to get your content uploaded and live. The subscription includes live chat as well as access to Google Analytics and a free logo maker.
8. IONOS 1X1
Ionos has one of the most affordable content management systems available. It is priced at $1 per month for the first year. This choice is best for providers who don’t need an e-commerce store as Ionos does not offer this capability. It also doesn’t feature cloud hosting. Monthly fees range from $30- $60/month with a one-time set-up fee of $199.
As an add-on, they offer the rankingCoach service. At plans starting at just $8/month, you can boost your SEO rankings and web presence. It offers keyword planning and optimization tools. For $20/month, Google Ad planning tools are also included.
SSL certificates are available for an affordable fee starting at $20/year. SSL certificates encrypt your data for your security and to increase your trustworthiness.
The disadvantages to IONOS as a CMS for SEO are that it’s simplistic and may not offer more advanced features.
IONOS also offers the MyWebsite Design Service. A design team works with you to build your website including up to 7 subpages. The team includes copywriters and search engine optimization specialists.
9. Web.com
Web.com is a well-established company in the space. It offers a host of business services including a content management system. Their optimization service, SEO Tool, starts at $29.99/month. The service finds and fixes problems so that your site ranks higher in search results.
An automatic SEO health check is included along with an action plan. It provides an analysis of page speed, broken links, duplicate meta tags, and more. Analytics and reporting tools are included to track your website’s performance. The tools make it easy to target one or more keywords to rank for and choose from more if needed. Customer support is available via phone or chat to answer any questions.
A higher-tier service includes on-site SEO content and off-site link building. This service offers on-site SEO services from its team of website developers.
Finding the CMS That’s Right for You
It’s important to choose a CMS that supports your website SEO and includes the necessary features to support your business. Every website is different, so the right CMS will depend on your specific needs and goals. If organic traffic is important for your business, then choosing a CMS with SEO capabilities will be essential.
At Keys&Copy, we support businesses in their content management and SEO efforts. Learn more about SEO content, content marketing, and more on our blog. Or, send us a message if you are interested in SEO content services.