How to choose the best CMS? An overview of popular Content Management Systems

Beginning efforts on a website involves a number of decisions that will be helpful in further work on the site. One of them is to choose a CMS that will allow easy management of content and, thanks to its features, will be a helpful tool in the process of positioning the site in search results. How to choose the best CMS?

What is a CMS and why should you use it?

CMS (Content Management System) is a system that allows you to manage content on your website. The main advantage of using a CMS is that you don’t need programming knowledge to run your site and keep its content updated. 

Most CMS are free solutions, so you can offset the costs associated with building a site. However, if you care about more advanced use or the use of certain plug-ins, you will probably have to use additional paid tools as well.

The CMS is a free solution, so you can offset the costs associated with building your site.

Despite the fact that a site built from scratch by experienced developers is more comprehensive and tailored to the needs of site owners, CMS systems are very popular and frequently used. According to data provided by W3Techs, currently about 60% of sites are built using a CMS (as of September 2022).

Why use Content Management Systems?

• CMS systems are relatively easy to use. The management panel is intuitive, so even without programming knowledge you can self-publish blog articles, place products and content on your site.
• With the available plugins, you can expand and customize your site and optimize it according to your guidelines. Almost every CMS also has a suitable plugin for SEO optimization. This allows you to edit meta tags, optimize URLs, add ALT attributes to graphics and apply internal linking throughout your site.
• The Content Management System can be used by multiple users so that the entire team can work together to expand and optimize the site. Each user can have different permissions and be responsible for a particular part of the site, making the team’s work easier and better organized.
• CMSs offer solutions related to the creation of RWD, i.e. responsive website, which is adapted to both mobile and desktop devices. Nowadays, whether a site is mobile-friendly is one of the ranking factors and definitely affects the search engine position of a site. We wrote more on this topic in an article on Mobile SEO 

Popular CMS

WordPress

There’s a reason we start with WordPress. It’s the most popular and most widely used CMS, with more than 60% of website owners using it. 

What makes it such a frequent choice? First of all, the ease of use and the plugins and tools offered. 

WordPress is chosen both by people running complex websites or online stores and by small e-commerce or bloggers. It is an open source CMS available under the General Public License. Its accessibility and ease of installation make it popular with people who are just starting out online.

WordPress is also an option recommended by SEO Specialists. With the Yoast SEO plugin, you can optimize the basic elements that affect your site’s search engine position. 

PrestaShop

Another CMS available for free in a basic version, eagerly chosen by medium-sized e-commerce owners. With tools and plug-ins, it allows adding products and their descriptions, meta data for each sub-page and generating SEO-friendly URLs.  

If you care about more advanced optimization, Presta Shop offers additional paid modules that allow you to create site maps and optimize graphic attributes. 

PrestaShop is a good solution for small or medium-sized online stores. Unfortunately, with a larger assortment and a large number of sub-pages, its performance decreases significantly. 

Magento

Magento is also a CMS used for e-commerce management. It comes in both paid (Magento Commerce) and open source versions. It is a great solution for larger online stores with lots of subpages and content. 

Magento is a more powerful CMS that allows you to customize your site without additional paid plugins, but it requires knowledge and editing of the code. Of course, it also offers basic modules for search engine optimization, allowing you to edit meta descriptions, create friendly URLs, create a site map or add content and implement internal linking. 

IdoSell

IdoSell is a CMS that differs from the others in terms of the freedom to make changes. The operation of IdoSell is based on the Saas model or software as a service, for which we pay a monthly subscription.  

When running an online store on IdoSell, we do not have full control over it, as all programming changes and customization attempts must be accepted and implemented by CMS developers.

Like the systems discussed above, IdoSell also has modules that allow you to edit basic elements yourself. With the options available in the panel, you can set or automatically generate meta descriptions for each subpage, automatically set canonical links, and generate structured data Rich Snippets

Joomla

Joomla is another free content management system that is compatible with all browsers. With no knowledge of programming languages, you can easily add and edit articles, change page layout and optimize basic SEO elements, including creating redirects.

An undeniable advantage of Joomla is the large selection of free plug-ins and templates, which increase the possibilities regarding the expansion and editing of subpages of the site. However, it is worth remembering that connecting more modules to the site is an additional load on the server. Unfortunately, in the case of Joomla, this can mean lower site performance. 

How to choose the best CMS for SEO?

All available content management systems have their advantages and disadvantages. Those discussed above are the top ones from the point of view of popularity. The market has definitely been dominated by WordPress, due to its versatility and ease of use, but when choosing a CMS, it is worth analyzing the features of each. 

Before making a choice, it is worth determining a few important points:

• how extensive the site will be
• what and how many products we plan to put on it
• do we have the knowledge or programming resources
• what budget we want to allocate (e.g., for additional modules or plug-ins)
• what kind of features and modules we care about

These are just the basic issues you should verify before starting to work with a CMS. Each of them is characterized by something that may determine our choice. A well-chosen and implemented CMS allows you to easily manage content, expand your site and more effectively optimize basic SEO elements.  

The support of an SEO agency with the proper selection and implementation of a CMS and the implementation of changes affecting the site’s position in search results, will result in a good start for the site and achieving better results.