Content Management Systems/SEO

[Kim]

Are CMS's search engine friendly? Can Search engines, get content from a database?

[Bernard]

You might do better asking about specific CMS systems as there could be a wide disparity in the implementations. You might also check to see if any of the example sites they link to are indexed.

I have seen content from sites using PHPNuke & PostNuke systems indexed.

[Kal]

Hi Kim :hi:

Having just converted two client sites over from clunky CMS systems to flat HTML, I am probably biased, but I am yet to find a CMS system that is search engine friendly - or more to the point - search engine optimizer friendly :rolleyes:

Most CMS systems restrict the ability to edit the HTML code directly and create template code for areas such as the header where vital Title and META data goes. This can mean duplicate Title and META tags appear in the code (which can confuse SE robots) or identical Title and META data appear on each page, which doesn't help search engine optimization at all.

It can also inhibit the site owner's ability to take control over their own site content if they are forever tied to a CMS developed by a design-house or hosting firm. Are you getting the idea that I hate CMS? :D

That said, I have heard of new CMS products coming on the market that are designed to be SE and SEO friendly. I haven't reviewed it yet, so I can't comment on it's effectiveness but here (http://seo-cms.com/) is one I heard of recently. Hope this helps!

[steven111]

Just going thru implementing a PHPNuke site (sites), I can tell you that you better get your PHP skills up to date if you want to make that CMS SE friendly. It is true that titles don't change from page to page, etc. Nothing that cannot be fixed by a good programmer, but if you are not one, I would not look at it.

There are also modifications to change dynamic links into static ones, and again some tech knowledge is required, along with the ability to run mod_rewrite and place an .htaccess file with your web provider.

steve

[cline]

I've got one client with one site in plain HTML and some others on a CMS. I cannot get the CMS sites to perform as well as the HTML one. From an SEO standpoint CMS is difficult to work with. I'd never recommend one if search engine positioning was a priority.