Just in case you missed it... a CMS is a Content Management System, and SEO is Search Engine Optimisation.
At a high level, the actual CMS platform you use has very little to do with your SEO efforts, and one is not better than the other.
We’ve heard stories over the years of SEO ’experts’ saying "your site needs to be in WordPress as it is better for SEO". Yep, that’s a direct quote sent to us by a client.
And it’s also complete twaddle.
Straight out of the box, platforms like Joomla, Shopify and Statamic all give you the necessary content editing and page metadata controls needed to help with the content-side of optimising your site. WordPress can do this too, but does require a third-party plugin to make it happen.
Given those listed above can all edit the necessary content, why is WordPress (allegedly) better than the other CMSes for SEO?
No reason. At all.
The platforms listed above (and there are many others not included here too) are all as good as each other for content-based SEO - editing page content, changing page metadata, including structured metadata - yep, all of these platforms can help.
The platform itself doesn’t actually matter.
The words you use on your site do matter.
Your page headings, URLs and metadata all need to be optimised for your search queries. There is also the actual page content - that not only needs to be optimised for search queries but also create a connection with your customers - grab them, entice them, and get them to hit your call to action.
Let’s not forget that SEO also looks at user-based metrics too, such as performance and user experience. This has less to do with the content, but more about how the site "feels" to the user - how fast it loads, how quickly they can start reading and interacting with your content. This is a huge story in itself - we’ll leave that for another day - but one point to remember, get an expert involved who understands the platform they are using so they can make it high performing both for content and under-the-hood.
Picking the best CMS is less about SEO but more about your business - speak to a web design and development expert (hi, that’s us - let’s have a chat!) who can help you pick the best CMS for SEO and your business, and get it performing well. It's that last bit that is so much more important - after all, your website needs to perform for your business.
Marty Friedel
Marty has a background in Computer and Information Science, software development, web development, multimedia and web accessibility, and is Mity Digital’s resident nerd.
Outside of his programming work, Marty is a keen landscape photographer, and also teaches Les Mills group fitness classes.
