Hi, I'm looking for SEO ideas for a CMS that I'm currently writing, so I thought I would ask here. What types of SEO methods would you want integrated into a CMS that can be actually be coded? I'm not looking for the specific code or automatic directory submission ideas, but more so the ideas or methods that will produce a well structured and SEO'd site. I have quite a few ideas myself, but I was curious if anyone else had something they could share. Thanks in advance.

Page titles, headings, no session IDs in the ULR, valid semantic code, et cetera.

When adding a content image force the user to add a title or alt attribute.

Automatic sitemap generation

Look for ways to avoide duplicate content and pagination issues. As far as things like titles, headings and even alt attributes you still can't get someone to write them well and forcing them to write something will keep a lot of people from wanting to use your CMS.

What you might want to do is provide some way those are automatically set up, but also provide options for people to over write the automatic.

What you might want to do is search for WordPress plugins and Drupal modules and (pick any popular CMS and look for it's extensions) that are related to SEO. They won't all be good, but it will give you an idea of what people are wanting and what others are offering as a solution.

Thanks for the suggestions. I didn't think about the alt tag before. Looking at a few of the other CMS extensions helped a little too. Right now I already have auto generated title, keywords, and description; with the option to edit all of them for every page. I'll be working on the SEF urls and automatic sitemap soon, too.

I guess what I'm really interested in is sculpting the internal linking structure in the most beneficial way. I'd like to do it automatically, with options to change everything. Anyone have any ideas along those lines? When you want to push a particular page up in the SERPs, how do you rearrange or plan your link structure?

The same way I'd plan it if I wanted a user to find it...as high a level as possible.

Internal navigation is key to a lot of SEO efforts, and most CMSes miss this completely (e.g. WordPress...it pages recordsets "next" and "previous" by default).

A sitemap won't really add that much, since most people still aren't aware of the opt-in potential that a sitemap has. I wouldn't stress over that much...worry about duplicate content first, as Steven suggested.

Other than that, minimize the code and make it clean (if for no other reason than for Google Accessible Search, and everything John said. You'll probably fail miserably; no offense, but every CMS to date has generated problematic to bulky code, and yours will likely be no exception (this is what past precedent teaches us, thanks to WordPress, D'oh-S-Commerce, Joomla, Typo3, every forum package out there, etc.)

Your bigger issue is that, if you build something that goes against the convention and does end up being useful, you'll have to make it "widget-or-extension-friendly"...and that's usually what ends up bloating your hard work and messing it up completely. Unless you keep it under your own hat, that is.

Originally Posted by VirtuosiMedia

Thanks for the suggestions. I didn't think about the alt tag before.

http://www.webmaster-talk.com/seo-ta...nd-values.html

Originally Posted by chrishirst

http://www.webmaster-talk.com/seo-ta...nd-values.html

Thanks for pointing that out. I knew it was an attribute and not a tag, but for some reason I've been calling it a tag. I need to start calling it by the right name.

Originally Posted by ADAM Web Design

Internal navigation is key to a lot of SEO efforts, and most CMSes miss this completely (e.g. WordPress...it pages recordsets "next" and "previous" by default).

What a great point, especially for article pagination, but also for an entire site. Having numbers, 'next', or 'previous' as anchor text doesn't do you any good from an SEO perspective. Can you think of any elegant way around this, especially for paginated numbers? How much weight does a link title carry vs. the actual anchor text?

Originally Posted by ADAM Web Design

A sitemap won't really add that much, since most people still aren't aware of the opt-in potential that a sitemap has. I wouldn't stress over that much...worry about duplicate content first, as Steven suggested.

I've noticed a lot of duplicate content issues with Joomla, especially if you use the clean URLS. It's definitely something I'll try to guard against. I'm not counting on the sitemap as the centerpiece; it'll be there by default, but it certainly isn't going to be my focus.

Originally Posted by ADAM Web Design

Other than that, minimize the code and make it clean (if for no other reason than for Google Accessible Search, and everything John said. You'll probably fail miserably; no offense, but every CMS to date has generated problematic to bulky code, and yours will likely be no exception (this is what past precedent teaches us, thanks to WordPress, D'oh-S-Commerce, Joomla, Typo3, every forum package out there, etc.)

Your bigger issue is that, if you build something that goes against the convention and does end up being useful, you'll have to make it "widget-or-extension-friendly"...and that's usually what ends up bloating your hard work and messing it up completely. Unless you keep it under your own hat, that is.

No offense taken at all. I'm sure the first couple versions will need a lot of work, but I'm going to try to have it as clean and accessible as possible out of the box. At least, it's definitely a focus from the beginning, but we'll see how well I do on that account. There won't be anything I can do about users going in and adding code because they'll be able to create their own modules for their site from the administration, but that'll be on them. As for the widgets and extensions, I'm going to allow third party modules, but there will be coding and security standards that they'll have to meet before they are included into the module directory.

Thank you very much for the advice. If you or anyone else has any more, I'm all ears.

Originally Posted by ADAM Web Design

A sitemap won't really add that much, since most people still aren't aware of the opt-in potential that a sitemap has. I wouldn't stress over that much...worry about duplicate content first, as Steven suggested.

I agree with the point about most people not knowing any benefits, but I'd say a CMS still has to be flexible enough to have one if it's needed.

The ability to configure custom meta tags, like descriptions, keywords, titles ect per article/post.

Originally Posted by LightBred

The ability to configure custom meta tags, like descriptions, keywords, titles ect per article/post.

Not a problem. I already have that part implemented...

I've been researching internal "link juice" sculpting by using the rel="no follow" attribute. There's debate about whether or not it actually works or is a factor in SEO, but I'm considering making it an option to control it from the admin for most links. Any thoughts?

I'd make it an option. There are other reasons to use nofollow regardless or how you feel about it as an SEO factor. Personally I do think it works where seo is concerned if done right, but even if you don't agree with the seo part it's still something a person might want to add to a link.

I think if you allow people the opportunity to hand-code their pages (e.g. WordPress' code option) then you'll solve that issue without even going down the admin route. Let people, if they want to, code their stuff how they want...that way, the issue is on them and not you.

If they want to go WYSIWYG in general, maybe make it an option via a dialog box.