Open source web design often does very well in search engines. A WordPress blog’s performance is built on the quality of its content although there are a number of qualities built into a blog’s underlying software that give it a leg up in search engine optimization (SEO).  In considering your website development or a redesign, use of open source software, such as WordPress as the underlying content management system (CMS), can save time and headaches in reaching top placement for search, — even if you don’t include a blog.  

1)      WordPress templates tend to meet current Web standards for coding and have plug-ins designed to improve search engine optimization.  A high quality of coding makes sites easier for search engines to digest Web pages, which in turn makes it easier for your content to make it into the search engine’s index.

2)      Drupal and Joomla templates offer great CMS or web builder platforms. They enforce and maintain consistentcy of links between Web pages, which otherwise might be lost if a site is developed entirely by more archaic methods.  The additional automatic indexing of content by date and category, gives search engines easy paths to follow through your site content. Freshness of content is a key component to SEO success.

3)      WordPress architectural tools can give your Web pages URL addresses that include keywords and can be easily crawled by search engine robots.  For example, a Web page with an address including “/a-keyword-rich-description” will perform better than “onewithout.asp?page=1”

4)      Most Open Source Content Management systems have built-in content syndication modules available.  A RSS (real simple syndication) feed encourages inbound links, both with automatic link generation from sites that carry your feed as well as from readers who use RSS to follow your site.

5)      Finally Worpress, Drupal and Joomla make it very easy to update and add content to your site. So easy that a company administrator can now replace many functions that a webmaster used to handle. Quality content on a site which is frequently updated will have the greatest impact in improving search engine performance. 

While one could conceivably build a highly functioning business websites that featured all of the capabilities offered by advanced blog software such as WordPress, the fact that all of these above steps are automatically carried out with each and every post makes the technical efforts of search engine optimization much easier.  The icing on the cake is that these open source web development applications are leveraging all the latest international standards is the primary reason web designers and local business owners regardless of company size should insist his next business website be built with WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Concrete5 or other open source web plumbing.,  Many of the available templates and designs are free or very low cost and most can be customized for your specific needs. So you can take advantage of one of the best content management and search engine optimization tools without a huge investment. 

Search engine marketing takes a lot of time and effort, but taking advantage of the many built-in capabilities of open source software, especially WordPress, can give you a head start in building and maintaining your site’s search engine performance.  However, its biggest benefit may be that it makes it easy to add and update site pages and posts on a regular basis, helping build the overall value of a Website over time. 

Dana C. Hutchins is President of Inforest Communications, a Princeton NJ Web design company which specializes in building Web sites on open source content management systems. We are best known for developing interactive interfaces and the back-end databases for e-commerce, educational institutions and businesses in Mercer County New Jersey. Primarily focused on developing Open Source CMS Websites for Mercer County businesses, the Inforest Communications team will help you build affordable websites that don’t require an experienced engineer to manage.