I’m re-doing my agency’s website and SEO is one of the big strategies I’ll be using to drive traffic. I’d love your advice on which CMS is the best for this.
I’ve been thinking about Hubspot since it’s tied to their CRM, which seems convenient. But, I’m not sure if it’s great for SEO.
Do you think tools like WordPress or Squarespace are better for SEO? Does the CMS really affect your SEO?
I’d recommend WordPress for sure. There are a ton of plugins that can really help with SEO, like Schema Pro or Yoast. These plugins make it easy to add structured data to your site, which helps search engines understand your content better.
I use Link Whisper to automate internal linking—it’s a huge help in connecting pages and improving SEO overall. Plus, WordPress does a great job keeping your XML sitemaps updated so Google can crawl your site properly.
Honestly, I don’t think there’s a truly “SEO-friendly” CMS out there. Even on platforms like Wix or Squarespace, Google’s Lighthouse can be really strict. It almost feels like they want plain HTML for a perfect score.
The more features your site has, the heavier it becomes. You can optimize your pages as much as possible, but don’t stress if some SEO tool is complaining about a few extra CSS files.
To answer your question, go for a CMS that gives you full control—WordPress is good for that. You might also consider template CMS options like Statamic or Drupal, where you can code your theme and customize everything exactly the way you want.
@PixelPenPalPat
If you don’t want to dive too deep into development with Statamic or Drupal, try to find a CMS with enough integrations for your needs and the ability to edit code directly.
Squarespace can be restrictive, unlike WordPress or Shopify.
@PixelPenPalPat
I feel like people overhype PageSpeed. Google won’t rank a fast site higher just because it’s fast—it’s all about the quality of the content. I tested it myself; some slow sites still ranked highly when I searched for vacation deals last week.
You need to focus on keywords that match what your ideal customers are searching for. If your CMS doesn’t support that strategy, it’s not a good fit.
>Does your CMS affect SEO?
Not really, and the reason you’ll get mixed answers is because the question is flawed. SEO isn’t only driven by the CMS. People often think Google just shows the best page, but what defines ‘best’? The CMS won’t magically make your content better.
Take PageSpeed, for example. It doesn’t make content more valuable, and Google won’t rank a faster site over a slower one if the content isn’t relevant. SEO is about strategy, not just tech.
@trixiebecky
WordPress by itself isn’t great out of the box, but plugins can really transform it. With plugins, there’s almost nothing WordPress can’t do, though it can get slow if you add too many.
If you want a solid CMS that integrates well with sales and marketing, HubSpot might be a good choice. It’s connected to the CRM, has a decent page editor, and manages basic SEO tasks like slugs, sitemaps, and 301 redirects.
That said, it’s not great for really large sites, and it doesn’t have automatic features like a table of contents or schema markup.
It’s not about the CMS itself being SEO-friendly; it’s more about how you set it up. If you’re using a platform that allows for easy customization and control over SEO elements, that’s what matters most.