Why It’s Important to Have a Search Engine-Friendly CMS

August 12, 2009

Your Content Management System (CMS) is the pulse of your website. Regardless of the breadth and depth of your internal and external link networks, the quality of your content will dictate your website’s statistics.

Content management systems are put in place to provide those with website authority to post, edit, and remove content. There are a lot of choices out in the market, but don’t get distracted by bells and whistles. You have to consider your needs and the level of technicality that you and your colleagues can handle. It is definitely suggested that you seek the opinion of your SEO consultant, as he too could be one of your content authors. Just make sure that your consultant takes your website’s needs into consideration and the different people who will be logging on to your CMS.

Before considering the tools, templates, and all the different options that will make your articles attractive, the most important factor to consider is whether or not your content management system choices are search engine-friendly. Meaning, your CMS should NOT give Google, MSN, and Yahoo a hard time crawling over your content. Here are the top 3 reasons why your chosen CMS should be search engine-friendly, without fail.

1.    You’ll be easier to find

The top 3 search engines rely on search engine spiders to crawl through page after page of web text to pull up information that the user needs. If the platform you choose requires you to load images or complicated file formats, it could dissuade spiders from crawling over any of your pages. Don’t risk being missed by spiders and be considered a spam site with no relevant content.

Good content management systems consider both in-page content and your page title—the bar that appears on top of the window. This area gives a description of your page. You should give this area as much attention as your content because spiders also crawl over page titles. Accessibility to search engine spiders is of high importance.

2.    It will be easier to update content

Search engine-friendly CMSs usually understand how important updated content is for a website’s ranking. This understanding is translated to making their interface easy to navigate, so that everyone in your team will find it easy to update your content.

As a website owner or SEO consultant, it is your job to keep your writers motivated for new content and to help them find the initiative to post updates.

3.    It’s easier to understand code

A simple interface and a simple content-input system no longer require your team to understand complex publication codes. This doesn’t mean that foolproof interfaces won’t give you the option to make your content look good. Like most word processors, they still can.

It’s just a matter of choosing the content management system that merges ease of use with the most relevant functions of your purposes. If you look hard enough, there are some CMSs that also help you with internal links.