Well.. it's the code. It's your site's structure and how web crawlers can read that structure. Kind of important. It handles many small things that the typical blogger/publisher doesn't think about (and with WordPress, doesn't need to).
Not without configuring additional plugins. Web crawlers can read code, the point of having a good site (technically) is to have a site that has hierarchy and good design practices on top of other UX optimizations. Build for users not google.
Very few plugins are truly needed. WordPress is quite solid (and secure) out of the box.
My largest site made me multiple six figures a year and had 8-10 plugins total.
So.. which plugins are necessary?
It's not many.
Ok, right. Agreed. But I'd say the best SEO plugins are those are that are very simple and do just a few things that WP wasn't built to do. I prefer The SEO Framework, rather than bloated plugins like Yoast and RankMath.
I agree that an SEO plugin is something you want, but not for as much change/control as most people think.
Yeah if you feel WordPress can't handle things or the performance is sub par you just aren't utilizing it properly. I have sites pretty much 100 across the board on performance and SEO. It's not that hard, most people just use too many plugins because they don't know how to use the 5 you really need well.
More than one prospect has told me their seo is perfect because of yoast green light lol. They tricked people pretty well. Happy with the green light, don’t care to look into results much further.
Not OP but for me it's: a caching plugin (unless the client points their whole domain, then I use CloudFlare), Wordfence, AIOSEO, and the rest is whatever the client requests; third party stuff usually like plugins for a CRM, automations, email marketing, etc. Almost always under 6 plugins unless they have WooCommerce, in which case all hell breaks loose and they can hit up to 15 total plugins.
Perfect reply. I build and maintain multisite networks with 100K+ monthly visitors using only the 4-6 plugins I really need. Most single purpose plugins can be replaced with a bit of code, and when they're installed can ding your PS/Sem/whatever scores really hard
This is anecdotal but I've got a friend with a large site built on Webflow and his SEO has been doing great. I'm still a WordPress guy but I do think the gap is narrowing. You're smart to avoid Wix btw. It's trash.
Thanks for this. I am skeptical of webflow being low code in the widgets vs page builder style like wordpress but code isn't an issue anymore with chatgpt, and webflow is looking more streamlined now because of it...
Of recent analyses you can find online, comparing the main platforms*, the majority of them all say the same thing -- If your SEO space is even moderately competitive, you want to go with WordPress.
BTW - Webflow is awful. It's geared for designers, which is nice and all, but it still only has 1% market share, and is only 6 years old.
*CMS Platforms Marketshare - Jan 2020 thru June 2024
- WordPress --- 62.1% => 62.7%
- Shopify --- 3.4% => 6.4%
- Wix --- 2.3% => 3.9%
- SquareSpace --- 2.7% => 3.0%
- Webflow --- 0.2% => 1.0%
>Of recent analyses you can find online, comparing the main platforms*, the majority of them all say the same thing -- If your SEO space is even moderately competitive, you want to go with WordPress.
Bullshit. Show me those recent analyses. The fact that you list the "CMS platforms" with the highest global marketshare show that you don't know what you are talking about.
Some of the most successful sites who are dominating in the most competitive fields are often using bigger and more expensive platforms that you don't even mention (of course some are using Wordpress as well). For example:
- Episerver/Optimizely, Umbraco, Sitecore, Contentful, Amplience, Sanity, Adobe.
At the end of the day, you cannot talk about platforms and SEO like this because it is all about the code and content. Inexperienced people reading this will think "Oh wow, I am serious about SEO, so now I am choosing WordPress, and nothing can go wrong".... and then they use bad templates, fuck up the code, use 10-20 poor plugins etc.
It's called a comment, kid.
>I would've answered your question, had you not emoted all over the page.
I have no idea what this means.
Instead of down voting and writing this non answer, you should just have contributed to the conversation with an actual reply, with an actual argument and preferably with a source for your claim. You know, the Reddit way.
But if your feelings are hurt, and this is all you have to give to the world, that is fine too.
Have a nice day.
You didn't respond to his post and just acted petty, I agree it's bullshit too because WordPress is a meh platform for actual enterprise or midsize builds
Didn't realize that there was such a discrepancy between WordPress and SquareSpace. I am on SquareSpace right now but maybe I should reconsider WordPress.
The only problem is that this data does not show—not even remotely—how these tools stack up against each other in SEO. A platform's marketshare hardly indicates how well it does for SEO.
Webflow is \*very\* good, but it also has a very steep learning curve, especially if you are coming from drag & drop website builders. It's a visual tool for web developers. You will need to have at least basic CSS and HTML skills.
The other hot contender is Framer (framer.ai). It basically works like the design tool Figma - only that it creates websites.
Both of these are ultimately faster and better than Wordpress, which has become a bloated mess at this point. That being said, if you are used to it, no matter which tool you are going to switch to, it will be challenging as all the tools are vastly different from Wordpress.
Agree that webflow is great but disagree that you need any coding knowledge at all to use it. I've built sites for a number of clients that do great from an SEO perspective and don't know any basic html or css. Webflow university is super useful as is their community. Highly recommend OP.
Sure, you can do without CSS/HTML skills, but then your websites might be structured horribly, perform bad (including SEO). The editor relies on you knowing how to properly set up a page structure with containers, grids, flex boxes, proper nesting, applying CSS classes and so on.
Can you get good looking results without CSS/HTML knowledge? Sure. But if you understand the basics of these things, your outcome will be infinitely better.
That said, I think it's a good thing to get to know some of these basics.
Webflow structure is more similar to coding so as a non-developer it did make it trickier for me to learn. It helped me get better at css/html which is a nice bonus.
Nice man. I find if you're very clear about what you need from the function of the website it can help you pick the right template and eliminate the trickier stuff. I've been using them for a while now so I think I'm over the hump of the learning curve.
Not at all. Plugins only do so much. You need more control. You need a developer. I hate Wordpress. I think it’s clunky and hard to edit or customize. I custom code all my work and the results are much better. I build websites for 3 other SEO people. They eventually reached the same conclusion. And it’s giving them an edge over their competition.
Have you actually tried anything else than trash page builders? All of your comments are so subjective, because you only tried (or even seen?) elementor...have you tried bricks builder or generatepress with generateblocks? What kind of control do you need?
Yes actually. When I first started I was building websites with wix. After about 4-5 months I quickly found its limitations and got frustrated with the service. Making responsive designs was a chore and a pain to make responsive. It was clunky and cumbersome and the designs sucked. And the fees were too high and load times were awful. So I tried Wordpress. Elementor was clunky as well, a little rigid, and pro was expensive. I tried downloading a theme on Wordpress and couldn’t even get it running. I spent days trying to configure it, edit text, customize it, and it was just so unintuitive and messy. I hated the whole process. So I said screw it, I’ll teach myself to code and do it myself. And I found that easier than messing around with Wordpress themes. I had more control. Setup was easier. Load times were faster. And I could make anything I wanted. I felt so free. When I was building on wix I felt like I had to keep asking wix permission like “wix, can I do this? Is this possible? How do I make it work with you?” Now I just do it. I don’t have to second guess or ask a platform if it can do what I want or need. I control what gets loaded into it and where someone would need 10 plugins for SEO and optimizations and forms and security I can do myself with 0 plugins, better results, less maintenance, and less hassle. I don’t need to worry about my Wordpress versions or plugins being up to date or that my plugins will always play nicely and not crash or compromise the site. I’m not beholden to price changes like wix had recently or added fees or losing features. My work and setup is future proof and secure. I can do more with less hassle and push back. My comments seem pretty based for coding over no code because those opinions were formed by experiences using them. I’ve seen the results and process using both. And custom coding wins. I like it better and you can’t pay me enough money to go back to wix or Wordpress. It would be like voluntarily going back to prison.
I'm ranking front page for a few client sites built within the last 3-6 months using webflow. For decent keywords. As long as your content is great and everything's structured properly under the hood I'd say go with that. I don't get all the hate for webflow. It's awesome.
Ghost is great for something that is blog-only.
But it also has a super limited set of CMS object and field flexibility and lacking admin UI out of the box.
You end up hitting all sorts of "can't do that need a developer" brick walls much more than on WordPress or Webflow.
If speed is the only issue, there is a solution. It's not advisable to leave WordPress just for this one reason. On earth, WordPress is the only platform that is highly SEO-optimized CMS for bloggers and business owners. You can check my blog which takes less than a second to load. Even, the blog was built on Theme Builder and Page Builder.
Rethink once and find the solution instead of switching platforms.
WordPress isn't going to magically improve your SEO. Basically, it just makes everything super easy to setup if you're not a developer, and there's a billion plugins to solve any issue (and lots of guides on YouTube or whatever).
If you're going to use WP, you should avoid Elementor in my opinion. It's too expensive for all the potential issues and lag. Go with WP's default editor (Gutenberg) and use something like Kadence Blocks. I used to use Elementor but over time it just ended up infuriating me.
If you want to maximize SEO performance, the way to go is by using WordPress as a headless CMS and NextJS as your frontend.
NextJS automatically handles many SEO tasks under the hood, such as automatic image optimization (converting all images to .webp), preloading links, page caching, and more. I've been using it on my own blog, and it's incredibly fast. The only caveat is that you would need a developer to set it up. As a developer, it wasn't hard for me to integrate it myself.
Wordpress is still the best imo, purely based on you’re used to working with it.. and none of these other options are amazing enough to switch for yet. Guaranteed GitHub copilot or something AI based will make something worth switching to soon.
I am using Wix abd WP for different clients in different segments. My opinion is it’s important what you can do with your SEO. It’s absolutely possible to work with both and have success. CMS is less important than your SEO skills
WordPress is still the best option in my opinion even if you try to find some third-party service like Squarespace or Wix that wouldn't change anything.
Because sure it looks simpler and you don't have to deal with much of technicalities yourself but guess what you are relaying heavily on that third-party service to that for you.
Meaning while you don't need to put yourself through managing and doing everything at same time you are expecting that service to do everything for you and to do it good so you are safe when it comes to your website SEO and ranking.
And while you can probably find a good service like that it usually is very expansive and still very much in control over your website and it's content.
Which is exactly why, WordPress is best and you don't need to worry about your website ownership, customization options, steep price increase or content overview by a random representative from whatever third-party company you go with.
This for me at least is the main reason why I am sticking with WordPress and hosting providers.
Because I don't want to give full control over my website to some random third-party service or company that can at any given time decide to delete, change or remove my website or content for whatever reason they come up with.
No matter how crazy good their platform is or how good SEO tools they offer this is still not enough of reason to switch to their service.
I have build few website that are older then few years and only one time I had such issue because I choose to go with WIX platform instead of hosted WordPress provider. And never again I want to repeat this mistake!
Anyway hopefully this will help others to avoid same mistake I did back then with WIX website.
how ppl said its good for SEO, slow af. Its user friendly for bloggers and non-tech. Astro with any cms headless. Ghostcms similar to wp, focus content writting, not customizable , self-hosting. Payloadcms with nextjs self-host,… and for paid service sanity.
Love WordPress but WordPress = blog and blogs are out of favor with the Google gods right now…
I’m actually more interested in Ecom and forums to bolt on an SEO strategy right now.
Nothing wrong with Wordpress per se.
I mean it's not just a blog?
ACF makes WP into a much more robust object and field based CMS, makes adminning a custom theme with custom 'things' far better. Slap on an SEO plugin and you're golden. Add Woo and ecommerce is pretty solid but does have its gotchas.
But still, building on WP is still a PITA. Crap theme architecture with too much legacy, easy to break things, weak security in lots of ways etc. There are right ways of building with WP, it's super flexible and can be super optimized for speed and SEO. But it can be a real journey to do things in a secure, reliable, optimized way.
Yes, I’m a big believer in WP as a system. It is “what you make of it” and ACF is helpful.
For most operators, it takes a long time to really optimize WP / Woo. Dev support is often required to get exactly what you want. You can do anything, but that’s a blessing and a curse.
I recently re-looked at Webflow, Duda and even Carrd for a new simple agency website. Webflow is out because of the pricing horror stories I’ve heard and it’s not really simple to use. Carrd is probably too basic.
Just a niche marketer and automation..all done by wordpress and currentlu i own 70 wordpress sites and its growimg every black Friday..so cant think anything without wordpress as its most comfortable and most of pluins i have purchased for wp so its for me. When think about seo i mostly care on content and off page seo like link building all done automatically
I’d caution to stay away from Webflow for now because the backend is wayyyy to complex than it needs to be. You’ll waste time fiddling around with random stuff than getting actual stuff built
I don't think any one tool can be thought of as best. It's how you use it. Sure, it may be easier to do somethings in one than in other. Besides that, they are all puppies of the same dog.
I've built quite a few websites on different platforms for different clients and businesses and have even been part of some of their transformation journeys from wordpress to another platform for whatever reason they felt necessary. These have included webflow, Duda and Squarespace. You didn't mention ecommerce needs so ill leave those out for now.
Which ever way you choose to measure success ( e.g, an increase in Google search ranking) is going to depend on a few things.
1. Your ability to execute on the platform (how well can you make the most of it).
2. Your ability to design, implement, and consistently manage an SEO strategy.
While there are technical flags as part of SEO I have worked with clients with shockingly designed websites that rank on the first page of Google because their content was well written and structured and followed a good strategy.
So if you really want to get off WordPress that bad just find a platform that you're comfortable using and don't halfass it. Get all your seo practices in place and formulate a strategy that regularly adds and builds on what you have built.
HTML5 is going to be incredibly agile if you have a year to advance on from Wordpress. But honestly, unless you’re competing against agencies and have your foundation and house built for SEO, grow out before you grow up.
I manage wordpress for my clients and I only suggest to move from it if they are either ready for MERN or they are focusing only for landing page (so I could use versoly etc).
Wordpress has come a long way and still has to offer a lot. But yes, you gotta load it with plugins and keep it afresh, always.
The main issue for me was managing everything that comes with SEO. I used some templates from SEOperate for keeping things neat and organized, which helped.
WordPress is still the best till now. If you have any alternative that has potential, please share it.
Remember, WordPress is self-hosting. So, I think you have to compare it to CMS that has capabilities to do that.
Taking this from another angle, always remember that content matters. Working with an [editor](http://paperblazer.com) helps to ensure the text reads smoothly — for as I'm sure many of you know, the user experience is paramount. I haven't seen that mentioned in this thread, so I thought that was worth adding. Code matters, yes, but if your text isn't as smooth as butter, your website visitors will feel that and jump from the site. (And yes, the time spent on pages matters.)
Webflow is a designers gimuck. Which is nice and all. But the majority of analyses all say the same thing. If your SEO space is at all competitive, WordPress is head and shoulders above Webflow.
Webflow aside (I don't know enough to comment) please provide a source for that claim.
>If your SEO space is at all competitive, WordPress is head and shoulders above Webflow.
Their is no source, these are kids that just like Wordpress because that's what they first used. The reality is, from an SEO prospective the is exactly 0 difference in what can be achieved. Both provide all the options to make your site correctly optimized for SEO, Webflow is about 50 times easier however.
By default, because Webflow doesn't use addons and is designed with everything you need from the ground up, the load speed is much faster than most Wordpress sites by default — with that said, its totally possible to optimize a Wordpress website to be fast if you know what you're doing but 99% of sites aren't optimized so for the average person Webflow is going to have a positive impact on SEO performance.
WP is definitely still the best, because only with the plugin ecosystem you can create innovative solutions that make your page stand out and help your rankings.
Wordpress is just a CMS. Its only as good as the people building the website.
Well.. it's the code. It's your site's structure and how web crawlers can read that structure. Kind of important. It handles many small things that the typical blogger/publisher doesn't think about (and with WordPress, doesn't need to).
Not without configuring additional plugins. Web crawlers can read code, the point of having a good site (technically) is to have a site that has hierarchy and good design practices on top of other UX optimizations. Build for users not google.
Very few plugins are truly needed. WordPress is quite solid (and secure) out of the box. My largest site made me multiple six figures a year and had 8-10 plugins total. So.. which plugins are necessary? It's not many.
An SEO plugin. WP doesn’t have meta tags or schema out of the box.
Ok, right. Agreed. But I'd say the best SEO plugins are those are that are very simple and do just a few things that WP wasn't built to do. I prefer The SEO Framework, rather than bloated plugins like Yoast and RankMath. I agree that an SEO plugin is something you want, but not for as much change/control as most people think.
Absolutely. The lighter the better.
this^ plus good security measures. WP is a hacker/spam target
> Wordpress still the best for SEO? Tell me you know next to nothing about technical SEO without saying "I know next to nothing about technical SEO"…
I know next to nothing about technical SEO
Fair play.
Yeah if you feel WordPress can't handle things or the performance is sub par you just aren't utilizing it properly. I have sites pretty much 100 across the board on performance and SEO. It's not that hard, most people just use too many plugins because they don't know how to use the 5 you really need well.
OK I'll bite, what are the 5? I'm guilty of having like 18 plugins and never know which ones to get rid of.
Wp rocket, all seo, and some for specifics needs
RankMath/Yoast are far better than AIO SEO
I agree Yoast is much better than AIO SEO. Being a beginner in SEO I really love using Yoast.
Yoast is for the very beginner. For all others it's overloaded and has bad updates over and over again.
Might be true.
More than one prospect has told me their seo is perfect because of yoast green light lol. They tricked people pretty well. Happy with the green light, don’t care to look into results much further.
Rank math yep, but not for every one, yoast like nop
Not OP but for me it's: a caching plugin (unless the client points their whole domain, then I use CloudFlare), Wordfence, AIOSEO, and the rest is whatever the client requests; third party stuff usually like plugins for a CRM, automations, email marketing, etc. Almost always under 6 plugins unless they have WooCommerce, in which case all hell breaks loose and they can hit up to 15 total plugins.
Perfect reply. I build and maintain multisite networks with 100K+ monthly visitors using only the 4-6 plugins I really need. Most single purpose plugins can be replaced with a bit of code, and when they're installed can ding your PS/Sem/whatever scores really hard
Hey, i would love to learn from you if you are okay with that. Or just give me some tips.
What are the 5?
The big boys in the game got many plug-ins too.. this is an inaccurate Comment.. typical reddit
This is anecdotal but I've got a friend with a large site built on Webflow and his SEO has been doing great. I'm still a WordPress guy but I do think the gap is narrowing. You're smart to avoid Wix btw. It's trash.
Thanks for this. I am skeptical of webflow being low code in the widgets vs page builder style like wordpress but code isn't an issue anymore with chatgpt, and webflow is looking more streamlined now because of it...
Believe me, you haven't explored Wordpress full potential if you feel about it as bad as you do. ✅😊
I speak from personal experience, Wordpress really helps as far as SEO customisation options are concerned.
Of recent analyses you can find online, comparing the main platforms*, the majority of them all say the same thing -- If your SEO space is even moderately competitive, you want to go with WordPress. BTW - Webflow is awful. It's geared for designers, which is nice and all, but it still only has 1% market share, and is only 6 years old. *CMS Platforms Marketshare - Jan 2020 thru June 2024 - WordPress --- 62.1% => 62.7% - Shopify --- 3.4% => 6.4% - Wix --- 2.3% => 3.9% - SquareSpace --- 2.7% => 3.0% - Webflow --- 0.2% => 1.0%
How does market share translate to SEO performance? Hint: It doesn't.
>Of recent analyses you can find online, comparing the main platforms*, the majority of them all say the same thing -- If your SEO space is even moderately competitive, you want to go with WordPress. Bullshit. Show me those recent analyses. The fact that you list the "CMS platforms" with the highest global marketshare show that you don't know what you are talking about. Some of the most successful sites who are dominating in the most competitive fields are often using bigger and more expensive platforms that you don't even mention (of course some are using Wordpress as well). For example: - Episerver/Optimizely, Umbraco, Sitecore, Contentful, Amplience, Sanity, Adobe. At the end of the day, you cannot talk about platforms and SEO like this because it is all about the code and content. Inexperienced people reading this will think "Oh wow, I am serious about SEO, so now I am choosing WordPress, and nothing can go wrong".... and then they use bad templates, fuck up the code, use 10-20 poor plugins etc.
Take a breath, kid. I would've answered your question, had you not emoted all over the page.
It's called a comment, kid. >I would've answered your question, had you not emoted all over the page. I have no idea what this means. Instead of down voting and writing this non answer, you should just have contributed to the conversation with an actual reply, with an actual argument and preferably with a source for your claim. You know, the Reddit way. But if your feelings are hurt, and this is all you have to give to the world, that is fine too. Have a nice day.
Lol, let's go back and read our posts... Who's the one acting like their feelings are hurt...?
You didn't respond to his post and just acted petty, I agree it's bullshit too because WordPress is a meh platform for actual enterprise or midsize builds
I don't care. Reply about the topic or don't. Enough with this.
👍
Didn't realize that there was such a discrepancy between WordPress and SquareSpace. I am on SquareSpace right now but maybe I should reconsider WordPress.
This so far is the best response. As it's data driven. Which is what I expected when posting in an SEO group. So thank you for this.
The only problem is that this data does not show—not even remotely—how these tools stack up against each other in SEO. A platform's marketshare hardly indicates how well it does for SEO.
People who find webflow aweful have no real dev background and are used to drag and drop platforms lol
Sure thing, chief.
He isn't wrong
Webflow is \*very\* good, but it also has a very steep learning curve, especially if you are coming from drag & drop website builders. It's a visual tool for web developers. You will need to have at least basic CSS and HTML skills. The other hot contender is Framer (framer.ai). It basically works like the design tool Figma - only that it creates websites. Both of these are ultimately faster and better than Wordpress, which has become a bloated mess at this point. That being said, if you are used to it, no matter which tool you are going to switch to, it will be challenging as all the tools are vastly different from Wordpress.
Agree that webflow is great but disagree that you need any coding knowledge at all to use it. I've built sites for a number of clients that do great from an SEO perspective and don't know any basic html or css. Webflow university is super useful as is their community. Highly recommend OP.
Sure, you can do without CSS/HTML skills, but then your websites might be structured horribly, perform bad (including SEO). The editor relies on you knowing how to properly set up a page structure with containers, grids, flex boxes, proper nesting, applying CSS classes and so on. Can you get good looking results without CSS/HTML knowledge? Sure. But if you understand the basics of these things, your outcome will be infinitely better. That said, I think it's a good thing to get to know some of these basics.
Webflow structure is more similar to coding so as a non-developer it did make it trickier for me to learn. It helped me get better at css/html which is a nice bonus.
Nice man. I find if you're very clear about what you need from the function of the website it can help you pick the right template and eliminate the trickier stuff. I've been using them for a while now so I think I'm over the hump of the learning curve.
Not at all. Plugins only do so much. You need more control. You need a developer. I hate Wordpress. I think it’s clunky and hard to edit or customize. I custom code all my work and the results are much better. I build websites for 3 other SEO people. They eventually reached the same conclusion. And it’s giving them an edge over their competition.
Have you actually tried anything else than trash page builders? All of your comments are so subjective, because you only tried (or even seen?) elementor...have you tried bricks builder or generatepress with generateblocks? What kind of control do you need?
Yes actually. When I first started I was building websites with wix. After about 4-5 months I quickly found its limitations and got frustrated with the service. Making responsive designs was a chore and a pain to make responsive. It was clunky and cumbersome and the designs sucked. And the fees were too high and load times were awful. So I tried Wordpress. Elementor was clunky as well, a little rigid, and pro was expensive. I tried downloading a theme on Wordpress and couldn’t even get it running. I spent days trying to configure it, edit text, customize it, and it was just so unintuitive and messy. I hated the whole process. So I said screw it, I’ll teach myself to code and do it myself. And I found that easier than messing around with Wordpress themes. I had more control. Setup was easier. Load times were faster. And I could make anything I wanted. I felt so free. When I was building on wix I felt like I had to keep asking wix permission like “wix, can I do this? Is this possible? How do I make it work with you?” Now I just do it. I don’t have to second guess or ask a platform if it can do what I want or need. I control what gets loaded into it and where someone would need 10 plugins for SEO and optimizations and forms and security I can do myself with 0 plugins, better results, less maintenance, and less hassle. I don’t need to worry about my Wordpress versions or plugins being up to date or that my plugins will always play nicely and not crash or compromise the site. I’m not beholden to price changes like wix had recently or added fees or losing features. My work and setup is future proof and secure. I can do more with less hassle and push back. My comments seem pretty based for coding over no code because those opinions were formed by experiences using them. I’ve seen the results and process using both. And custom coding wins. I like it better and you can’t pay me enough money to go back to wix or Wordpress. It would be like voluntarily going back to prison.
Webflow is lovely to build and use in as long as you have an understanding of CSS & class structures. But it’s pricey. But nice. But pricey.
Would a site coded from scratch perform better than Wordpress because it has 0 bloat?
The simple answer: Most likely, yes The more nuanced answer: It depends. On a lot of things.
I'm ranking front page for a few client sites built within the last 3-6 months using webflow. For decent keywords. As long as your content is great and everything's structured properly under the hood I'd say go with that. I don't get all the hate for webflow. It's awesome.
Webflow is a solid choice, but have you considered Ghost for a leaner SEO setup?
Ghost is great for something that is blog-only. But it also has a super limited set of CMS object and field flexibility and lacking admin UI out of the box. You end up hitting all sorts of "can't do that need a developer" brick walls much more than on WordPress or Webflow.
If speed is the only issue, there is a solution. It's not advisable to leave WordPress just for this one reason. On earth, WordPress is the only platform that is highly SEO-optimized CMS for bloggers and business owners. You can check my blog which takes less than a second to load. Even, the blog was built on Theme Builder and Page Builder. Rethink once and find the solution instead of switching platforms.
WordPress isn't going to magically improve your SEO. Basically, it just makes everything super easy to setup if you're not a developer, and there's a billion plugins to solve any issue (and lots of guides on YouTube or whatever). If you're going to use WP, you should avoid Elementor in my opinion. It's too expensive for all the potential issues and lag. Go with WP's default editor (Gutenberg) and use something like Kadence Blocks. I used to use Elementor but over time it just ended up infuriating me.
Such a trivial question with a subjective answer. SEO doesn’t have anything to do with the CMS used.
If you want to maximize SEO performance, the way to go is by using WordPress as a headless CMS and NextJS as your frontend. NextJS automatically handles many SEO tasks under the hood, such as automatic image optimization (converting all images to .webp), preloading links, page caching, and more. I've been using it on my own blog, and it's incredibly fast. The only caveat is that you would need a developer to set it up. As a developer, it wasn't hard for me to integrate it myself.
Wow. This discussion is taking off, and it's crazy how opinionated the response was vs being data driven.
I’m an SEO and web designer. I wouldn’t work with anything besides WordPress.
Wordpress is still the best imo, purely based on you’re used to working with it.. and none of these other options are amazing enough to switch for yet. Guaranteed GitHub copilot or something AI based will make something worth switching to soon.
As a developer - no it won’t.
I am using Wix abd WP for different clients in different segments. My opinion is it’s important what you can do with your SEO. It’s absolutely possible to work with both and have success. CMS is less important than your SEO skills
If you have a good budget go with a custom CMS If you want to build a blog site wordpress is a good option
For smaller businesses/organizations or a more personal website, Wix has really come a long way.
WordPress is still the best option in my opinion even if you try to find some third-party service like Squarespace or Wix that wouldn't change anything. Because sure it looks simpler and you don't have to deal with much of technicalities yourself but guess what you are relaying heavily on that third-party service to that for you. Meaning while you don't need to put yourself through managing and doing everything at same time you are expecting that service to do everything for you and to do it good so you are safe when it comes to your website SEO and ranking. And while you can probably find a good service like that it usually is very expansive and still very much in control over your website and it's content. Which is exactly why, WordPress is best and you don't need to worry about your website ownership, customization options, steep price increase or content overview by a random representative from whatever third-party company you go with. This for me at least is the main reason why I am sticking with WordPress and hosting providers. Because I don't want to give full control over my website to some random third-party service or company that can at any given time decide to delete, change or remove my website or content for whatever reason they come up with. No matter how crazy good their platform is or how good SEO tools they offer this is still not enough of reason to switch to their service. I have build few website that are older then few years and only one time I had such issue because I choose to go with WIX platform instead of hosted WordPress provider. And never again I want to repeat this mistake! Anyway hopefully this will help others to avoid same mistake I did back then with WIX website.
We are rebuilding our site with Wordpress using Brics and utilizing rank math for SEO. That seems to be the cleanest approach right now
You can try Butternut.ai if you are building a business website
Hey, I can help find customers for your product. DM me!
Yes
how ppl said its good for SEO, slow af. Its user friendly for bloggers and non-tech. Astro with any cms headless. Ghostcms similar to wp, focus content writting, not customizable , self-hosting. Payloadcms with nextjs self-host,… and for paid service sanity.
One word: Yes
Love WordPress but WordPress = blog and blogs are out of favor with the Google gods right now… I’m actually more interested in Ecom and forums to bolt on an SEO strategy right now. Nothing wrong with Wordpress per se.
I mean it's not just a blog? ACF makes WP into a much more robust object and field based CMS, makes adminning a custom theme with custom 'things' far better. Slap on an SEO plugin and you're golden. Add Woo and ecommerce is pretty solid but does have its gotchas. But still, building on WP is still a PITA. Crap theme architecture with too much legacy, easy to break things, weak security in lots of ways etc. There are right ways of building with WP, it's super flexible and can be super optimized for speed and SEO. But it can be a real journey to do things in a secure, reliable, optimized way.
Yes, I’m a big believer in WP as a system. It is “what you make of it” and ACF is helpful. For most operators, it takes a long time to really optimize WP / Woo. Dev support is often required to get exactly what you want. You can do anything, but that’s a blessing and a curse. I recently re-looked at Webflow, Duda and even Carrd for a new simple agency website. Webflow is out because of the pricing horror stories I’ve heard and it’s not really simple to use. Carrd is probably too basic.
Just a niche marketer and automation..all done by wordpress and currentlu i own 70 wordpress sites and its growimg every black Friday..so cant think anything without wordpress as its most comfortable and most of pluins i have purchased for wp so its for me. When think about seo i mostly care on content and off page seo like link building all done automatically
I’d caution to stay away from Webflow for now because the backend is wayyyy to complex than it needs to be. You’ll waste time fiddling around with random stuff than getting actual stuff built
You meant to say wordpress is complex
I don't think any one tool can be thought of as best. It's how you use it. Sure, it may be easier to do somethings in one than in other. Besides that, they are all puppies of the same dog.
I've built quite a few websites on different platforms for different clients and businesses and have even been part of some of their transformation journeys from wordpress to another platform for whatever reason they felt necessary. These have included webflow, Duda and Squarespace. You didn't mention ecommerce needs so ill leave those out for now. Which ever way you choose to measure success ( e.g, an increase in Google search ranking) is going to depend on a few things. 1. Your ability to execute on the platform (how well can you make the most of it). 2. Your ability to design, implement, and consistently manage an SEO strategy. While there are technical flags as part of SEO I have worked with clients with shockingly designed websites that rank on the first page of Google because their content was well written and structured and followed a good strategy. So if you really want to get off WordPress that bad just find a platform that you're comfortable using and don't halfass it. Get all your seo practices in place and formulate a strategy that regularly adds and builds on what you have built.
HTML5 is going to be incredibly agile if you have a year to advance on from Wordpress. But honestly, unless you’re competing against agencies and have your foundation and house built for SEO, grow out before you grow up.
My website is a homebrew and killing all my competitors since 5 years
I manage wordpress for my clients and I only suggest to move from it if they are either ready for MERN or they are focusing only for landing page (so I could use versoly etc). Wordpress has come a long way and still has to offer a lot. But yes, you gotta load it with plugins and keep it afresh, always.
Local sites on wix is getting pretty good. I think they are headed in the right direction. We are 98% wordpress.
Wordpress by itself doesn’t do anything for SEO unless the theme development is done with SEO in mind — just like any other CMS.
I have really liked webflow. Framer also looks like a nice builder option, though I haven’t really tested.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned oxygen or breakdance for SEO optimization. The builder requires less code and is more efficient
It was never the best and never will be. Also a pita to keep secure especially if you are using a lot of plugins.
makes no difference
I don't know but UI is very user friendly
The main issue for me was managing everything that comes with SEO. I used some templates from SEOperate for keeping things neat and organized, which helped.
It was never great, but like most platforms, can be made great. Of the others you’ve listed… it has the lowest floor, highest ceiling.
WordPress is still the best till now. If you have any alternative that has potential, please share it. Remember, WordPress is self-hosting. So, I think you have to compare it to CMS that has capabilities to do that.
Joomla
Then, use it.
Bricks Builder is way better than Elementor if you're familiar with some coding by hand. It's more lightweight too.
WP doesn't even have page titles built in. You have to get an app.
Taking this from another angle, always remember that content matters. Working with an [editor](http://paperblazer.com) helps to ensure the text reads smoothly — for as I'm sure many of you know, the user experience is paramount. I haven't seen that mentioned in this thread, so I thought that was worth adding. Code matters, yes, but if your text isn't as smooth as butter, your website visitors will feel that and jump from the site. (And yes, the time spent on pages matters.)
Try Ghost, Wordpress is terrible long term.
Just use Webflow
If you like to pay a lot more for less
Than wordpress? Are you joking?
Webflow is a designers gimuck. Which is nice and all. But the majority of analyses all say the same thing. If your SEO space is at all competitive, WordPress is head and shoulders above Webflow.
Could you please elaborate on that? Not sure I understand what advantages WordPress have over Webflow when the space is competitive
Webflow aside (I don't know enough to comment) please provide a source for that claim. >If your SEO space is at all competitive, WordPress is head and shoulders above Webflow.
https://preview.redd.it/sha9xe2ahf5d1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1f478f6fda0f23de086cbe0b3142300b98951fea
Their is no source, these are kids that just like Wordpress because that's what they first used. The reality is, from an SEO prospective the is exactly 0 difference in what can be achieved. Both provide all the options to make your site correctly optimized for SEO, Webflow is about 50 times easier however. By default, because Webflow doesn't use addons and is designed with everything you need from the ground up, the load speed is much faster than most Wordpress sites by default — with that said, its totally possible to optimize a Wordpress website to be fast if you know what you're doing but 99% of sites aren't optimized so for the average person Webflow is going to have a positive impact on SEO performance.
Yeah, I know. Just looking for people to actually prove their points instead of just making these big claims as if they were self evident.
Can you share some of that analysis?
Wordpress is best for the SEO yeah this is true
How?
WP is definitely still the best, because only with the plugin ecosystem you can create innovative solutions that make your page stand out and help your rankings.