Best practices: Content management system must-haves for SEO

Traditionally, out-of-the-box web content management systems (also known as a CMS) have a history of not playing nice with organic search engine optimization. Even custom built systems can fall short in SEO-friendliness.

By this we mean that, oftentimes, a web site content management system will be easy enough to use but lacks the control needed over certain important elements for SEO. Let’s take a look at some of the CMS “big rocks” that can impede successful organic search engine optimization for your business.

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Consult this handy SEO checklist before embarking on a website redesign to maximize your site’s effectiveness in the search engines.

Too often, when businesses decide to tackle a website redesign, they don’t consider organic search engine optimization as an essential part of the redesign process. Sure, your new site may look appealing – and looks are an important “quality signal” in the post-Panda era – but it’s also got to have SEO mojo to perform and outrank your competitors.

Apply these organic search engine optimization tips to bake SEO into your website redesign.

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Ever wondered what the click-through rate is for the coveted top spot on Google’s search engine results page?

As SEOs, we can think of no better place we want our clients to be than in that number one spot at the top of the Google search engine results page (SERP) for keywords relevant to their businesses. Since it’s not exactly easy to nab that first place, people will usually be happy with any spot on the first page of results.

But have you ever wondered what the difference is in the click-through rate (CTR) from the number one result to the second? In other words, what percentage of clicks does the first result get compared to the second, or third, or fourth, and so on?

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Google’s free webmaster tools: a primer

Step 1: Register your site with Google’s free webmaster tools

A Google webmaster tools account is essential in order to rank highly on the search engine results page and achieve maximum click-through rate. These tools allow you to monitor your site’s performance in Google’s index and optimize visibility. If you are a webmaster and haven’t registered your site with Google webmaster tools, that is the first step; if you already have a free webmaster tools account, proceed to Step 2!

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Google algorithm change 2011: low quality content takes a significant hit, with Google rewarding “original content.” What will happen to your site?

On February 24, Google blogged about what they called “a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking,” one that affected a whopping 11.8% of search queries. According to the blog post by Google, the goal of this update was to “reduce rankings for low-quality sites – sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful.”

On the upside, Google promises that this will result in “better rankings for high-quality sites – sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis.” Note that, so far, this update has only been put into play in the United States.

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