Concrete5 vs WordPress for ease of applying SEO?
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I have just started using Concrete5 and am still evaluating it with respect to using it as my development platform of choice (over WordPress).
To me, developing with WordPress has been a pain requiring me to hack it here and hack it there to get it to do what I have wanted to do on the various sites on which I have used it as a CMS and not so much a blogging platform.
Having said that, it does seem that WordPress is much easier for the end user with respect to applying SEO plugins that will help them get their site ranked higher and/or quicker.
One person (on a forum where I was discussing this) said this...
"Technically wise, Google doesn't give a WP blog any "SEO bonus". The difference however comes with WP's built-in features such as RSS and auto-pinging, sitemap structure, etc. It's just easier to manage with a WP blog. But if you applied the same features on a standard HTML site, your SEO score would be equal."
I guess I am wondering how Concrete5 stacks up against WordPress in applying SEO out of the box or otherwise? Especially for an end user who might be trying to decide which one to have me use to develop their site with.
Does Concrete5 have ready made RSS feed capabilities?
Does it allow one to set up a ping whenever a new page/post is created and published?
Etc.
Carlos
To me, developing with WordPress has been a pain requiring me to hack it here and hack it there to get it to do what I have wanted to do on the various sites on which I have used it as a CMS and not so much a blogging platform.
Having said that, it does seem that WordPress is much easier for the end user with respect to applying SEO plugins that will help them get their site ranked higher and/or quicker.
One person (on a forum where I was discussing this) said this...
"Technically wise, Google doesn't give a WP blog any "SEO bonus". The difference however comes with WP's built-in features such as RSS and auto-pinging, sitemap structure, etc. It's just easier to manage with a WP blog. But if you applied the same features on a standard HTML site, your SEO score would be equal."
I guess I am wondering how Concrete5 stacks up against WordPress in applying SEO out of the box or otherwise? Especially for an end user who might be trying to decide which one to have me use to develop their site with.
Does Concrete5 have ready made RSS feed capabilities?
Does it allow one to set up a ping whenever a new page/post is created and published?
Etc.
Carlos
Hi Jason,
To be sure I am not even all that familiar with WordPress's SEO benefit. I mean respecting specific features that it has.
But in discussions I have had with others about C5 vs WordPress that is one of the things that has often been brought up as to why WordPress is better even as just a CMS. Because there are so very many SEO type plugins that are plug and play so to speak.
I'll take your word about pinging sites as being the only real WordPress SEO advantage as a starting point to look into this some more.
I have to make a list of specific WordPress SEO capabilities and then compare to what C5 has.
Carlos
To be sure I am not even all that familiar with WordPress's SEO benefit. I mean respecting specific features that it has.
But in discussions I have had with others about C5 vs WordPress that is one of the things that has often been brought up as to why WordPress is better even as just a CMS. Because there are so very many SEO type plugins that are plug and play so to speak.
I'll take your word about pinging sites as being the only real WordPress SEO advantage as a starting point to look into this some more.
I have to make a list of specific WordPress SEO capabilities and then compare to what C5 has.
Carlos
In my opinion, yes Wordpress does have an SEO advantage over every other system (including concrete5). But Wordpress is much more narrowly focused on blogs, which means it is a lot easier to make it work properly in all situations that it's designed for (because it's designed for a much narrower set of situations than any other CMS).
With concrete5, you get enormous benefits over wordpress *if* you're developing a site that is not primarily a blog. So you have to weigh the SEO advantage over everything else, such as ease of development and ease of editing.
Also, it's important to note that while all the little tricks of wordpress (many, but not all, of which are also in Concrete5) may have a minor SEO benefit in small niches (because you're never going to compete against people pouring lots of money and resources into the more popular topics), really by far the most important thing you need to do to rank highly is something that can be done in any system (or no system at all):
create quality content that other people will link to (preferably other people who are also highly ranked).
This is a good link if you want to learn more about the details:
http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/everything-you-already-know-about-...
With concrete5, you get enormous benefits over wordpress *if* you're developing a site that is not primarily a blog. So you have to weigh the SEO advantage over everything else, such as ease of development and ease of editing.
Also, it's important to note that while all the little tricks of wordpress (many, but not all, of which are also in Concrete5) may have a minor SEO benefit in small niches (because you're never going to compete against people pouring lots of money and resources into the more popular topics), really by far the most important thing you need to do to rank highly is something that can be done in any system (or no system at all):
create quality content that other people will link to (preferably other people who are also highly ranked).
This is a good link if you want to learn more about the details:
http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/everything-you-already-know-about-...
Very nice page you linked to Jordanlev. Although I would disagree with something said on that page.
That a blog is the best way to achieve content that is updated frequently.
I would say it is one way.
But it seems to me that it is just as good to simply create static pages (or new pages in Concrete5) on a regular basis. That will for sure meet the update content criteria and draw Google's attention just as readily as a blog will.
Not to mention that an individual page will be laser targeted or can be in a way a blog usually isn't in that the blog page subject is usually diluted somewhat by having various blog posts talking about different things all on the same blog page.
Though of course one does not have to do that with a blog either.
I guess in the final analysis what really counts is great content with relevant and high quality incoming links (which are hard to get).
If one has those two things well then the rest (i.e. ping back capabilities, etc.) is really of little to no consequence in comparison.
I guess that is a selling point for using C5. It allows you to more easily create and manage great content for a site that is not just a blog while also allowing you to include a basic blog if you want to do so.
Even if it doesn't have all the bells and whistles that WordPress has.
Carlos
That a blog is the best way to achieve content that is updated frequently.
I would say it is one way.
But it seems to me that it is just as good to simply create static pages (or new pages in Concrete5) on a regular basis. That will for sure meet the update content criteria and draw Google's attention just as readily as a blog will.
Not to mention that an individual page will be laser targeted or can be in a way a blog usually isn't in that the blog page subject is usually diluted somewhat by having various blog posts talking about different things all on the same blog page.
Though of course one does not have to do that with a blog either.
I guess in the final analysis what really counts is great content with relevant and high quality incoming links (which are hard to get).
If one has those two things well then the rest (i.e. ping back capabilities, etc.) is really of little to no consequence in comparison.
I guess that is a selling point for using C5. It allows you to more easily create and manage great content for a site that is not just a blog while also allowing you to include a basic blog if you want to do so.
Even if it doesn't have all the bells and whistles that WordPress has.
Carlos
Hi
That was a great SEO article.
I agree - c5 has all the core SEO capabilities needed:
Easy metadata editing
Pretty urls
Very flexible tempting system (so u can create a seo'd template)
Image alt text editing
HTML editor allows heading, bold, etc coded correctly
Sitemap XML generator
Ability to create rss feeds (via page list)
As has been mentioned, the only thing WP seems to have over c5 is it's pingback function. The key benefit of that is promotion of your content and auto gen of links to your site. (though most blogs would nofollow pingbacks/trackback links I suspect).
Getting backlinks is an important part of SEO so I think this feature would be an excellent addition to the c5 core.
I also wonder if all the pages that WP creates is a SEO benefit too - eg. Post page, index of latest posts, monthly archives, category archives, tag archives, etc. Of course most sexy business sites wouldn't use all those, but some sites using wordpress basically do, and it is probably a benefit (even though it may seem redundant).
Anyway I just wanted to add my 2 cents to the discussion :-)
That was a great SEO article.
I agree - c5 has all the core SEO capabilities needed:
Easy metadata editing
Pretty urls
Very flexible tempting system (so u can create a seo'd template)
Image alt text editing
HTML editor allows heading, bold, etc coded correctly
Sitemap XML generator
Ability to create rss feeds (via page list)
As has been mentioned, the only thing WP seems to have over c5 is it's pingback function. The key benefit of that is promotion of your content and auto gen of links to your site. (though most blogs would nofollow pingbacks/trackback links I suspect).
Getting backlinks is an important part of SEO so I think this feature would be an excellent addition to the c5 core.
I also wonder if all the pages that WP creates is a SEO benefit too - eg. Post page, index of latest posts, monthly archives, category archives, tag archives, etc. Of course most sexy business sites wouldn't use all those, but some sites using wordpress basically do, and it is probably a benefit (even though it may seem redundant).
Anyway I just wanted to add my 2 cents to the discussion :-)
Regarding what you said malkau...
I do think having backlinks, quality backlines to one's site, is a very important part of SEO but...
Getting backlinks from a pingback capability is, in my opinion, near worthless with respect to them being quality backlinks.
Their main use is in having Google recognize that a site is there and coming over to index it but even with a completely non-pinged site, Google will come around soon enough so the benefit of pingbacks is temporary at best and downright useless at worst.
Such pingback links do nothing for the relative ranking position of a page though they do make the masses think they now have a trick by which to increase in ranking without too much in the way of producing quality content.
The truth is that Google is not that easily duped into believing that a page which has lots of pingbacks is worth more than a page that doesn't, ranking wise.
Adding a pingback capability to C5 isn't worth much in my opinion other than to give the legions of WordPress users who think pingbacks are the next best thing to ranking since Google was invented something to chew on.
SEO is very hard work and is mainly involved with creating quality content targeted around specific keyword phrases that a fair number of people are looking to get information about and then getting knowledge of that content out to them in non-spammy ways.
While I have wondered about C5's SEO capabilities I don't think having or not having a pingback at this point in my thinking, makes that big of a difference when competing with WordPress (other than in the minds of those who put great stock in pingbacks I suppose).
Carlos
I do think having backlinks, quality backlines to one's site, is a very important part of SEO but...
Getting backlinks from a pingback capability is, in my opinion, near worthless with respect to them being quality backlinks.
Their main use is in having Google recognize that a site is there and coming over to index it but even with a completely non-pinged site, Google will come around soon enough so the benefit of pingbacks is temporary at best and downright useless at worst.
Such pingback links do nothing for the relative ranking position of a page though they do make the masses think they now have a trick by which to increase in ranking without too much in the way of producing quality content.
The truth is that Google is not that easily duped into believing that a page which has lots of pingbacks is worth more than a page that doesn't, ranking wise.
Adding a pingback capability to C5 isn't worth much in my opinion other than to give the legions of WordPress users who think pingbacks are the next best thing to ranking since Google was invented something to chew on.
SEO is very hard work and is mainly involved with creating quality content targeted around specific keyword phrases that a fair number of people are looking to get information about and then getting knowledge of that content out to them in non-spammy ways.
While I have wondered about C5's SEO capabilities I don't think having or not having a pingback at this point in my thinking, makes that big of a difference when competing with WordPress (other than in the minds of those who put great stock in pingbacks I suppose).
Carlos
I think that the only real advantage that WordPress has over Concrete5 is the ability to ping sites. Pretty much everything else is available in Concrete5. Pretty URLS, easy to customize meta-tags, Google sitemaps, etc.
Jason