SEO: Top 4 technical requirements for your CMS

Here are -in a simplified way- 4 SEO requirements for a content management system (CMS) (in order of priority).


Are you working on redesigning your site? Make sure it can meet these 4 requirements… otherwise, you will regret it, we promise!

1. Customizable <Title> and <Description> meta tags

It is essential to be able to manually change the titles and meta description of the pages. This is useful for quickly correcting the positioning of certain pages or for improving the performance of the home page.

Dynamic rules must also be able to be implemented quickly so that a new page has a unique title and meta description automatically. These rules become practical for quickly making changes to the meta description in order to announce a new promotion on the product pages for example.

2. Customizable URLs

URL management is often what CMS platforms lack. These URLs should be manually and dynamically customizable in the same way as the title and meta description tags.

3. Customizable <Alt> tags (for images)

At least one image per page should have an <alt> and <title> tag including the page's main keyword. Make sure your CMS is flexible enough to make this happen.

4. Managing 301 redirects

301 redirects are essential when a redesign involves changing a lot of URLs. They can also be useful for managing the voluntary removal of certain pages. Make sure you have an effective solution to manage your redirects.

For more information, SeoMoz has published a more detailed article on how to choose a good CMS platform for your site.