In 2023, 93% of online experiences began on a search engine, predominantly Google. This may not be news to you – the majority of marketers are familiar with such stats and already have an understanding of the importance of SEO and good website design. However, in our experience, few business owners, or marketers for that matter, have a firm grasp on how to actually choose the CMS from which to conduct their online business. This is where our guide to the best CMS for SEO comes in.
While your selection of CMS isn’t the largest ranking factor (any CMS can rank with the right dedication and customisation), getting this right can help you simplify the optimisation process and prioritise your needs.
In this article, we take a closer look at 6 of the best CMS for SEO, weighing up their pros, cons and effects on SEO. It’s important that you choose the right CMS that matches your business’s needs and objectives. After all, your CMS is a business tool that you’ll be using on a daily basis.
Featured in our review:
- WordPress
- Shopify
- Adobe Commerce (powered by Magento)
- Squarespace
- Wix
- GoDaddy
Methodology
Our assessment includes:
- The SEO-related pros and cons for each CMS
- The key elements of CMS functionality to look for;
- On-page optimisation and technical SEO features
- Ease of use and freedom to customise design elements
- Blogging & analytics tools
Our top 6 SEO Content Management Systems for small business
1. WordPress
Since its founding back in 2003, WordPress has gone on to dominate the CMS market. Although its market share has fallen, in 2023 WordPress has a 64.2% share of the CMS market. Furthermore, approximately 43% of all live websites use WordPress.
Our WordPress pros and cons are listed below in full, but here are several key advantages of using WordPress for SEO:
- An intuitive user experience, having pioneered the drag and drop web design process
- The largest developer community, choice of page builders, free integrations and plugins designed with SEO in mind
- Flexible pricing depending on the needs of your business
| WordPress Pros | WordPress Cons |
| Most widely used platform with a large developer community, choice of integrations, and plugins. | As the largest and most well-known CMS, WordPress is regularly targeted by hackers and bots. We strongly recommend only using legitimate/proven integrations and plugins. |
| Designed for creating SEO-friendly websites, with SEO plugins ensuring SEO best practices. | Use of plugins and themes requires management, such as frequent updates to maintain website functionality. |
| Excellent user experience (UX) with dashboard layouts and tools that make it easy to customise technical elements such as; permalinks, metadata, and alt descriptions. | Out of the box, WordPress is relatively basic. You’ll need to add plugins (some free and some paid for) for a greater level of functionality, including SEO and conducting website audits. |
| Website theme customisation tools make it easier to make inclusive, site-wide modifications. | Although WordPress maintains excellent online resources within their knowledge base, there’s no access to a dedicated customer account/support manager. |
| Mobile optimisation – most themes have mobile optimisation built into them making your job easier. | While there are plenty of experienced developers available, you may need assistance from an experienced web designer to get the most out of it. |
| The majority of WordPress themes now integrate / support HTML5. | |
| Extensive resources for customer/technical support. | |
| Start for free! – download from WordPress.org and build for free. Then all you need is a domain and host. | |
| Self-hosting options allow you to own and control your data making server integration a simple process. |
WordPress is an ideal choice for any online business but especially businesses looking to grow their online presence through SEO as your site can be built to do pretty much anything. Truly, the options are endless!
2. Shopify
Shopify is known as the CMS for building reasonably priced e-commerce websites, but it can be used to support SEO efforts too. As well as a whole host of ecommerce tools, Shopify is recognised as one of the best CMS for SEO.
Our Shopify pros and cons are listed below in full, there are several key advantages of using Shopify for SEO:
- Excellent ecommerce features, of interest for businesses planning on selling online
- Advanced SEO features
- Fast page load speeds
| Shopify Pros | Shopify Cons |
| Good UX – Shopify has an intuitive interface and ‘options’ screen making it easy to use on a daily basis. | Beyond initial free trial, Shopify throttles certain functions, such as indexing |
| Advanced SEO features, Shopify automatically generates canonical URLs, robots.txt, and sitemaps. | Limited customization of URLs, once they have been set. |
| All Shopify themes are responsive and on-page elements load quickly. | In comparison to WordPress, Shopify offers limited customization in terms of design elements and site functionality. |
| Shopify’s integrated CDN (a network of servers that cache data & content) greatly improves page load speeds. | Some users have reported issues with the use of auto-generated canonical tags feature. |
| Shopify is able to generate a robots.txt file and XML sitemap (note: unable to edit within Shopify). | Pricing – Shopify Free Trial limited to 90 days, paid monthly thereafter. |
3. Adobe Commerce / prev. Magento
Recently rebranded as Adobe Commerce, Magento is similar to Shopify in that it’s a CMS with excellent e-commerce features designed to increase website engagement. More importantly, with its range of SEO tools and SEO extensions, Adobe Commerce (powered by Magento) is extremely SEO-friendly.
Our Adobe Commerce pros and cons are listed below, but in our eyes, the key advantages of using Adobe Commerce for SEO are:
- Top-rated ecommerce features
- Allows for more technical tasks to be carried out manually, without the need for SEO extensions
- Good UX, with some manual features more suitable for technical / experienced ‘SEOs’
| Adobe Commerce Pros | Adobe Commerce Cons |
| Powerful SEO features. Users can optimise meta data and URLs (including automatic redirects & canonical tags), and check for duplicate content across all web pages. | Adobe Commerce does not offer necessary SEO tools as standard, requiring users to add integrations and SEO extensions. For example, no blogging features are included as standard. |
| Ability to create XML sitemap is included as a standard feature. | Many of the advanced features are technical in nature and more suited to experienced SEOs or developers. |
| Robots.txt files can be generated using the Google Content API extension | Lengthy onboarding process with multiple features not related to SEO. |
| Excellent ecommerce features, some of which relate to SEO ranking factors, e.g. product page features designed to increase ‘dwell time’. | |
| Access to substantial & growing integration marketplace – marketplace.magento. |
Adobe Commerce (powered by Magento) offers all of Adobe’s design brilliance alongside powerful SEO features, but does come with a steeper learning curve than other CMS.
4. Squarespace
Squarespace initially gained popularity as a website building application. Over the years, however, Squarespace has added additional functionality and now serves as a fully-fledged CMS with a growing number of SEO options.
Our Squarespace pros and cons are set out below in full. First, here are the key advantages of using Squarespace for SEO:
- Excellent website builder
- Offers a number of essential SEO features
- Outstanding blog and content creation features
| Squarespace Pros | Squarespace Cons |
| Essential SEO features included, including the ability to optimise page titles, meta data, and URLs, create 301 redirects, enable SSL encryption. | Free plans unavailable. |
| Squarespace can automatically generate an XML sitemap. | When compared to other CMS, Squarespace’s themes and templates have slower load speeds. |
| Squarespace is an excellent website builder, with a minimal UI and design menu that’s comparable to WordPress’s dashboard. | Squarespace only allows 1 level below the main menu/navigation making it less suitable for expansive websites with deep menu hierarchies. |
| Large choice of mobile-optimised themes and templates. | |
| Outstanding blog & writing features including the ability to schedule blog posts. Additional content creation tools include apps such as Unfold, for creating social media content. | |
| It’s simple to add ecommerce functionality, by integrating a shopping cart extension into your website or blog. |
Squarespace is an excellent website builder with a minimal UI and essential SEO tools included; however, it is less suitable for expansive websites with deep menu hierarchies. This being said, it’s a great option for those interested in getting the ball rolling with a DIY build.
5. Wix
Thanks to its intuitive user interface, Wix is one of the most popular drag and drop website builders amongst users with limited coding and/or technical expertise. Wix also offers many SEO tools.
Our Wix pros and cons are listed below in full. For those in a rush, the key advantages of using Squarespace for SEO include:
- Popular CMS for solopreneurs and small businesses thanks to the intuitive user interface
- Extensive SEO knowledge base known as ‘Wix SEO Wiz’ helps ensure SEO best practices
| Wix Pros | Wix Cons |
| Essential SEO features such as a robots.txt editor, canonical tags, bulk 301 redirects, and image optimization are available through the Wix dashboard. | Although there is a large choice of templates, Wix’s no-code philosophy means it is less customisable than other open-source Content Management Systems. |
| Access to WixSEO Wiz, a large knowledge base for ensuring SEO best practices. | Not all of the site templates offered on Wix are mobile responsive. |
| Wix can generate an XML sitemap that can be submitted to Google Search Console with 1 click. | Site templates cannot be changed once applied. |
| Mobile optimisation capabilities and Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) via the Wix Blog, which also integrates with Google My Business – bringing local SEO benefits. | Slower page load speeds, on average. |
| All Wix websites are SSL encrypted, as standard. |
Wix is a straightforward website builder with essential SEO features included as standard, however, website templates and design elements are less customisable than other open-source CMS.
6. GoDaddy
Thanks to its infamous advertising campaigns, GoDaddy is well known for its domain and web hosting services. GoDaddy now also serves as a CMS, offering a website builder with built-in marketing and SEO tools.
Our GoDaddy pros and cons are listed below in full, here are the key advantages of using GoDaddy for SEO:
- Easy-to-use website builder with add-on marketing and SEO tools
- Good page load speeds
- Ability to upgrade plans to unlock additional features, depending on business needs
| GoDaddy Pros | GoDaddy Cons |
| GoDaddy’s website builder is easy to use with the ability to add a range of marketing and SEO tools. | Plenty of sections (content holders) to choose from but limited customisation of sections / design elements within the website builder. |
| Within GoDaddy Search Engine Visibility, the guided SEO wizard makes suggestions for improving your website’s SEO. This tool suggests and allows you to track your website’s ranking within the SERPs. | No app marketplace, both add-on SEO tools (Search Engine Visibility & Insight) are paid subscriptions. |
| GoDaddy Insight can compare your website to in-direct competitors on key SEO metrics, and generate action-plans based on your selected objectives. | GoDaddy’s link building system has been criticised for content spamming. |
| Good page load speeds. | SEO tools offered cover fundamentals and not advanced or specific SEO needs, such as local SEO. |
| Various plans available to suit business needs, e.g. ‘Ecommerce plan’. |
GoDaddy offers an easy-to-use website builder, but necessary SEO tools are add-on subscriptions and not as comprehensive as competitors.
Do I Need to Work with an SEO Agency or CMS Professional?
The best CMS for SEO can be used to optimise much more than on-page elements. They also offer features related to page load speed, indexability, crawlability, and canonical URLs, ideal if you are looking to boost your technical know-how and SEO repertoire.
Equally though, your choice of CMS doesn’t have to be founded on a deep level of SEO understanding. While all the CMS listed above have their individual quirks and merits, with the right expertise, a website built on any CMS can rank. It’s more a matter of prioritising features that will best support your business, whether that’s reducing additional SEO costs or finding a CMS that is easy to get to grips with.
It’s important to note that, even with a powerful CMS, Search Engine Optimisation is a complex process that requires ongoing effort and expertise over the long term. To avoid headaches down the line, it’s crucial that you choose a CMS that meets the needs of your business.
An SEO agency can assist you by helping you get the most out of your CMS and helping you rank your website.. Even if you’re confident you can handle the web design, at WebHummel we offer a range of SEO consultancy services that we tailor to the needs of our clients.
If you’re ready to ‘bee’ found online, why not give us a ‘buzz.’
