Since one of the companies I work with manages several web sites, the number of which is growing monthly, they finally decided to make the move to using a content management system (CMS) to make everyone’s job a little easier. Since they’re building the CMS in-house, I made sure to address the issue of SEO before the developers began designing.
If implemented incorrectly, a CMS could potentially cripple your web site’s ability to rank highly in search engines. If done correctly, however, your CMS can be SEO-friendly as well as make content management much simpler.
Here are five important characteristics of an SEO-friendly content management system:
- If an image is inserted, it should force the user to include the alt text
- Customizable meta tags for every page (title, description, keywords)
- Customizable h1, h2 and h3 tags
- Use of CSS to separate style from framework
- Ability to name URLs, support static pages and organize the folder structure
Whether building a custom CMS or choosing an existing CMS package (I favor WordPress for most of my website development), make sure it can accommodate a good foundation of SEO. It will make a difference in the long run.
Photo credit: teddY-riseD
