‘80-90% of SEO already done for you in Wordpress’ Am I missing something?
-
Hi there, I’m looking for some feedback on a statement made on my Facebook Page re Wordpress and SEO. Please understand I wouldn’t class myself as an expert but I am competent and achieve satisfactory results for clients, more so since becoming a SEOmoz Pro user, I’ve just had some great results for a client using SEOmoz guidelines in ‘On Page SEO Reports’ thank you very much!
A comment however made on my FB page has got my interest….
“as you (kn)no(w) google loves WP and will get listed quicker as 80 to 90% of your SEO is already done”
Does Wordpress (or Joomla for that matter mentioned in the same conversation) have some SEO advantages that Google loves as the poster would have me believe, can I save time and effort working in word press from an SEO point of view?
I use the age old techniques of targeting key phrases and words and distributing them accordingly. Creating internal link structures with ‘key worded anchor text’ etc before embarking on any off page SEO.
Do any of you vastly experienced (in comparison to me) SEO folk have any insight into what this statement refers to?
I did not gather any references to SEO advantages in Wordpress or Joomla in the Enge and Fishkin et al book The Art of SEO, or any of the other books I’ve read, to develop my knowledge on SEO for the benefit of my clients and of course my pocket. J
-
I think that WordPress does just as nicely in the SERPs as a page posted on some other platform. I don't suppose that it has any magic bullets that can't be performed on even a hand-built format which includes Dreamweaver. For more details see it on bikes passion and take some detailed guidance.
-
Do you know, I'm blown away by the answers here, this is great info, many thanks.
-
Wordpress can get very fast once you properly configure a cache plugin. You could even use CloudFlare.com to enjoy some great CDN enhancements for very cheap.
This assumes you have reliable and speedy hosting - a constant of all websites. It also assumes you are careful about optimizing the images and don't load the page with megabytes of JS libraries/plugins.
(edit note: In my experience cloudflare makes a significant impact if you are on a slower, shared hosting plan. On a pro level host, it isn't as beneficial)
-
Thank you, you have all answered my question. I note your comment on light weight and fast load times but hear complaints of very slow loading content managed sites including WP, Joomla and others, is this not the case? Or is like any chosen platform where the inexperienced or those with little care can though error create burdens that may slow the site down?
-
Thank you, the reply above and yours are putting me in the picture, I didn't think there was a magic bullet, 'seo friendly' is a different concept entirely from 80-90% of the work being done for you. Best regards.
-
Thank you, that was my understanding and I am in complete agreement with your second paragraph. Steven Spaldings reply below clarifies for me further, thank you gentlemen.
-
I thought this would be the case, but does Wordpress have built in functions to automatically optimise a page?
-
no .. that statement is lazy. On-page stuff like heading structure, title, semantic tagging, inner links, etc can be made all easier by wordpress + plugins .. the rest will require work depending on what you're trying to rank for and what your goals are.
If you're the only person in the world selling "evil unicorns" then you will rank on search engines for selling evil unicorns with only putting up a page that says "I sell evil unicorns"
If your market is more competitive, you will need a strategy of content, social, links, etc. to be on top.
Wordpress is only "seo-friendly" not instant SEO.
-
Out of the box WP handles on-page optimization fairly well especially for the "SEO unaware". Titles and descriptions are customized from article content and the entire site can be easily index. The pages tend to be light weight thus load very fast. From there, it depends on the theme and plugins.
But that is far from 80-90% of SEO. It isn't even 80-90% of on-page optimization which highly dependent on the content and content category.
As a blanket statement, it is false. If all they are saying is the sites will be easily indexed, sure.
-
I think that wordpress does just as well in the SERPs as a page published on any other platform. I don't think that it has any magic bullets that can't be done on even a hand-built format such as DreamWeaver.
I think that the more important part of SEO is the selection of topics and categories, the composition of title tags, and the linkage structure of the website. The most important part is getting quality content and pitching in a way that will make your visitors respond. Although some might not think that is SEO, it can have a greater impact than a lot of off-page work.
-
Could you explain a little please? I know a little about SEO but Iess about Wordpress. Are you saying that 80-90% of SEO work regardless of site subject and target audience is done by Wordpress already?
-
“as you (kn)no(w) google loves WP and will get listed quicker as 80 to 90% of your SEO is already done”
This is probably true if you don't know much about SEO.
-
that statement should be "....of your **on-page **SEO...." and even that percentage is high for on-page.
no matter what platform you use, you'll still have to do the leg-work of getting quality content, and sufficient natural links ..etc..
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Mega Menus and SEO
Hi Everyone, I know this has been brought up before, but wanted your opinion for 2020. I have a new client that is hesitant to do a mega menu for their huge site due to the amount of links and "dilution". I have quite a few clients with mega menus with no problems at all from an SEO standpoint. But I can understand his perspective. I am suggesting that we have the main links (looking at GA) as the the navigation, then clicking them takes you to subcategory page listing all the subcats within. Problem is that the developer/designer has made this mega menu already and it is pretty slick. Now they already are killing it search-wise on Google, but don't have a mega menu or a secondary category page. Just a a category with too many products, so we are trying to go one way or the other. Any opinions on which route to best take from a user and SEO perspective?
Web Design | | vetofunk0 -
SEO with Webflow CMS (webflow.com)?
Some friends of mine are having their site redesigned. The designer is using Webflow, which appears to be a visual drag-and-drop designer. Has anyone come across Webflow before? How is it for SEO? I'm not typically pleased with visual designers for SEO, but maybe somebody's had experience and thinks it's fine.
Web Design | | justin-brock0 -
Does stock art photo attribution negatively impact SEO by leaking Google Page Rank?
Greetings: Companies such as Shutterstock often require that buyers place credit attribution on their web pages when photos you buy from them appear on these pages.. Shutterstock requests that credit attribution links such as these be added: Songquan Deng / Shutterstock.com Do these links negatively impact SEO? Or do search engines view them as a positive? Thanks,
Web Design | | Kingalan1
Alan0 -
How do I gain full SEO value from individual property pages?
A client of ours has a vacation rental business with rental locations all over the country. Their old sites were a messy assembly of black hat, broken links and htaccess files that were used over and over on each site. We are redoing everything for them, in one site, with multiple subdirectories for individual locations, like Aspen, Fort Meyers, etc. Anyhow, I'm putting together the SEO plan for the site and I have a problem. The individual rental properties have great SEO value (lots of text, indexable pictures, can create google/bing location pages), and are great for linking in social media (Look at this wonderful property, rental price just reduced!). However, I don't want individual properties, which will have very similar keywords, links, descriptions, etc, competing with each other when indexed. Truth be told, I don't really want search engines linking directly to the individual property pages at all. The intended browsing experience should allow a user to "narrow down" exactly what they're seeking using the site until the perfect rental appears. What I want is for searchers to be directed to the property listing index that most closely matches what they're seeking (Ft. Meyers Rental Condos or Breckenridge Rental Homes), and then allow them to narrow it down from there. This is ideal for the users, because it allows them to see all available properties that match what they want, and ideal for the customer, because it applies dozens of pages of SEO mojo to a single index, rather than dozens of pages. So I can't "noindex" or "nofollow", because I want all that good SEO mojo. I can't REL=CANONICAL, because the property pages aren't similar enough to the index. I can't 301 Redirect because I want the users to be able to see the property pages at some point. I'm stymied.
Web Design | | SpokeHQ0 -
Ecommerce SEO - product sort order
Hi, I've been trying to find the answer to this in google but having no luck. In the current era, is it damaging to have products ordered randomly in an ecommerce website? Also, how long would you suggest is a good length of time to establish your natural rank? Ive launched and still work on several succesful ecommerce sites, but have recently launched a completely new venture - brand new url, brand new site and it has been live for around 5 weeks now, and although it is being found in search, it isnt doing as well as i'd like using the moz pro tools ive picked up some issues and have in the last few days tweaked page titles, added 'nofollow' to all my filters, added content etc, so I feel as though ive reset the clock. the site (it's an adult site by the way) is www.lovesauce.co.uk - would appreciate some feedback from the pro's
Web Design | | tom.dollar0 -
Alternatives to Wordpress for updating content of a static html site
I have a static html site which I cannot update myself. What solutions/ programs would you recommend for gaining the ability to update it myself? I'm reluctant to switch to WordPress because the sites that use any CMS that are hosted by my web hosting company get routinely hacked. Thank you!
Web Design | | translate0 -
What do web designers consider to be SEO
I'm putting together an article about Web Designers and SEO. The basic crux is that most designers will at most (if you are lucky) add in title tags, maybe pretty URL's and HTML links and call it SEO friendly. (lot's who don't probably but also lot's who are even worse) Of course I want it to be a bit controversial so please feel free to let rip. My argument is clients who have previously had site's that have had "SEO on them", know think that all SEO is a waste of time as their previous experience didn't produce the traffic and sales they were expecting. I don't know many designers who independently consider a site marketing strategy and how a site is going to generate links in the long term. I'm sure most of us have read this post on SEO responsiblities but becasue the first port of call for most business owners are the web designers, our offering is undermined by their misunderstandings and in some cases mis-sellings. So under the working title, "Why Web Designers Are Bad For SEO", any care to share some imput.
Web Design | | FDC1