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Joomla Vs. WordPress Vs. Drupal; Which CMS Is More Search Engine Friendly?

2016-09-07by Selina Jenkins

There has been a lot of confusion among many people about what Search Engine Optimization and search engine friendliness actually entail. To make you get it straight, search engine friendliness is mainly concerned with the components of Content Management Systems while search engine optimization deals with more detailed aspects such as the layouts and contents of the website in question.

In this article, we will only consider search engine friendliness. This means that we will be dealing with the Content management Systems (CMS), and actually narrowing down to the three commonly used ones – Joomla, WordPress and Drupal. In the review of the three, the main aspects that will be focused on when trying to compare their levels of search friendliness will include the creation of search engine friendly URLs using the different CMSs, the use of Meta tags and description content keywords on particular content objects, and influencing HTML titles independent of content titles.

The comparisons that will be done in this article will be in tandem with the particular hosting specifications like PHP4 or PHP5, Linux, and Apache webserver with Mod Rewrite active, with help of advice from SEO Chicago. In the discussion of these aspects, we will consider each CMS individually.

Drupal

To begin with, we will consider Drupal Content management System. Rewriting URLs in this CMS to ensure that they are more search engine friendly, you will be required to use the option called ‘Clean the URLs’. This option will has the capability of changing the writable .htaccess files. In addition, this option will give you the ability to change the URL to /node/1/ at the expense of the more desirable q=1 format. In order to be able to change the URL to q=1 format, you will need an additional feature called the pathauto.

Upon a successful installation that will require you to activate both the Pathauto and path modules, you will be able to rewrite the URLs to make them friendlier for the search engines optimization. Furthermore, dealing with title bears great resemblance to rewriting of URLs. However, the page control modules will enable you to take charge of the title though with notable limitations.

Drupal Standard Installation does not provide the feature of changing Keywords and Descriptions, but with the help of Meta TGAS Nodeword Modules, the exploration of this option to change keywords and descriptions is made possible. As a bonus, the Pathauto module can be easily set using the general settings. Under update action, click on Do Nothing. This will enable you to alter the title without prompting you to make any changes on the URL.

WordPress

The task of rewriting URLs with the aim of making them friendlier to the search engines is quite easy. The ease is even improved further by using the permalink option. The easiest way of attaining the best results is to use the custom option /%postname%/ where the post title is also used as the URL. Setting the .htaccess option requires the file to be writable. Therefore, in order to make the changes on your URL to make it more search engine friendly, simply alter the text lying with the post Slug option.

Under WordPress, making minor changes to templates using title plugin enables users to have better control of their titles with regards to the search engines.

When it comes to the use of Meta tags, WordPress has a limitation; it doesn’t provide the option of changing the descriptions or keywords for every post or page. However, using the all in one SEO plugin tool, you will not only be able to make these changes but also make many more such as changing the title. However, I would recommend using the SEO title plugin to make changes in the title. It is more effective that way.Or rather, use both plugins at the same time.

To be able to use both plugins at the same time, you will need to deactivate the title rewrite option that is available in all-in-one SEO pack. You can in addition generate Meta description by taking advantage of the excerpt icon which is optional. This option will also present you with enhanced archived pages since templates use most of this data in creation of archived pages.

Joomla

The Joomla Content Management System has two versions; Joomla 1.0 and the Joomla 1.5. We will consider each version individually.

Joomla 1.0

Under this version of Joomla, you will be required to use the SEO option featured in the main configuration screen when carrying out the task of rewriting the URL. To get started, rename the .htaccess.txt provided in the standard package to .htaccess. In addition, you will need to install the SEF feature like the sh404SEF. This feature will enable you to rewrite URLs in a much simpler way and it will also give you a more enhanced 404-error page and order.

Joomla 1.0 makes the influencing of the title possible by using the feature sh404SEF. You will be able to use the normal article title for your results. For better optimization, you can use SEF patch of Joomlatwork where the access of more features such as the abilities to view separate HTML title options, you can go for the paid version of the same.

On matters description and keyword, Joomla 1.0 comes with a fully optimized option for the same that you will not be required to make any alterations.  However, if you are considering any alterations in the menu items, you will require SEF patch of Joomlatwork.

Joomla 1.5

For this version of Joomla, you have three options when you want to rewrite URLs to make them more search engine friendly. These options are using the SEF and htaccess, which gives you URL and title with additional index PHP within the URL, and using suffix which sets .HTML towards the end of the provided URL.

While the Joomla 1.0 uses the standard article title, Joomla 1.5 SEF Patch provides advanced options of altering the title with the aim of making them more search engine friendly. For the case of Meta tags, the alterations are the same as those of Joomla 1.0 that require the use of SEF Patch of Joomlatwork to influence Menu items.

Conclusion

Ideally, not one of these CMS’s meets clear-cut search engine friendly needs. When choosing the best CMS to use that is more search engine friendly, you will need to pick any of the three and optimize it to the fullest in accordance with the specific use. For example, WordPress works best for small websites and larger blogs, Joomla for SMB websites and Drupal is applicable for nearly all the uses. Choose the CMS that best serves the interest of your customers.


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Author

Selina Jenkins

Selina Jenkins is a renowned and experienced IT expert in the field of using different social media platforms for marketing. She has been involved with SEO Chicago and is therefore better placed to advice on matters marketing on any online platform.

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