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WordPress VS Joomla VS Drupal in Terms of SEO

by Jason H
26 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I know that that WordPress is the most easy to use, but I'm not quite familiar how it compares to Joomla and Drupal?

I kind of want to move other to a new platform...

Drupal seems really interesting as it is robust and seem like a total powerhouse compared to WordPress and Joomla, but the thing is it seems way too complicated for the non-technie.

I just want to know which one is more powerful in terms of SEO, like for WordPress we can accomplish this using plugins like All-in-one, but like I said I'm not familiar with Joolma and Drupal, so even with all the plugins in WordPress, which one is most search optimized and generate higher rank?
#drupal #joomla #seo #terms #wordpress
  • Profile picture of the author JustinBrooke
    Wordpress is the most powerful for SEO especially
    out of the box with no plug-ins considered.

    Now when you start adding in plug-ins it becomes
    harder to decide. If SEO is your goal I would choose
    Wordpress though.

    If having a lot of extra functionality in your site like
    forums, members area, directories, etc etc then Joomla
    or Drupal would be the better option.

    Joomla is an extremely flexible highly supported powerhouse
    once you learn how to use it. It does have a learning curve
    though, but not nearly as technical as drupal.

    Drupal, you better be quite technical or have a tech guy
    to make it do what you want it to do.
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  • Profile picture of the author eramedia
    Having used all 3 at some point, in my experience, my Wordpress sites have gained the best rankings.

    Plus its the easiest to get your head round and there is a plugin for pretty much anything you want. Oh and development costs for custom plugins is low...
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  • Profile picture of the author Sarah Russell
    Definitely Wordpress from a usability and SEO standpoint. This is probably out of date, but the last version of Joomla I used didn't even have an option to add keyword-rich permalinks without installing a separate piece of code. Plus, Joomla and Drupal are a mess to try and learn if you haven't worked with them before or aren't technically-minded.
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  • Profile picture of the author johnny_h
    WordPress is by far the easiest, and though some of the more advanced functions like forums, etc. can be a bit clunky looking, there's really nothing you can't do with WordPress.

    You can do all the same things, however, with Joomla and Drupal, it just takes more work (much more in the case of Drupal...!). There are some advantages to those, however - if SEO is your only concern, stick with WordPress - but Joomla is considered a 'designers' CMS, as it's very easy to create templates for Joomla - you can find folks on here and DP that will create one-off templates in Joomla for pennies... Drupal is the mother of all CMS software just because you can control absolutely everything. There's a steep learning curve, but if you're a control freak, Drupal might just be the right choice for you...
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    • Profile picture of the author Sandra Martinez
      I use joomla for everything. It used to be messy from the SEO standpoint, it got much better lately... I mean since 3 years ago or so (hum, am I that old? I guess I am )

      have been using it since it was Mambo... 2004 or so, never found anything I couldn´t do with it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Guigo
    I say go for WordPress!

    You can even try it without installing and for free at wordpress.com

    The best argument is this: today more than 10% of all websites are created with WordPress. I know, impressive.

    It's simple to admin (make it even simpler with plugins), it's simple to upgrade (also plugins; works similar to Linux depositories), and Google loves this publishing platform
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  • Profile picture of the author Guigo
    Oh, and btw, check out Tumblr, it's the new buzzword for content publishing online!

    It might even become a strong competitor to WordPress sometime in future.
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  • Profile picture of the author akazo
    Joomla does has support for search engine friendly URLs so now, IMHO, they are about the same in terms of SEO.

    So, the choice is really which one is going to be easier to use... that would be Wordpress for most people. I think Joomla is more powerful, but Wordpress is fine for most needs.
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    • Profile picture of the author morganomega
      wordpress and joomla are both hugely popular open source projects, drupal is enterprise level and much more complicated and involved.

      Serious coders love drupal, Joomla has some amazing very active projects with some incredible talent working on select components,modules and plugins. Wordpress is super easy if you've used Drupal or Joomla and many claim its best for seo as a stock install.

      I use all 3, because I must. These are the 3 top dogs for sure. Small, Medium and Large. Wordpress, Joomla, and Drupal.

      Whether one is better than another for seo is a much more complicated answer because we use components (or "plugins" or "addons") to extend the capability of these CMS. It depends a lot on which plugins you are using. You have to include these because, they all now have SPEED increasing plugins among many others. As you may know, GoOgle cares a great deal about load speed, why wouldn't they? And none of these cms are really good to go out of the box, despite claims at every update that it will be. These 'components','modules','plugins' and other CMS extending software addons are really STILL required to compete in the SEO race-off here. I don't think any of these CMS are really good to straight out of the box, or really "turn-key" so a deep knowledge of these plugins and which ones work or don't work, is something you will need to acquire for all 3 fo these, or which ever one you choose to focus on. You'll need to climb a curve for each one. Wordpress is the slightest curve, Joomla is a little steeper curve and Drupal is the Cliffs of Dover curve (very steep).

      None of the Joomla, wordpress or Drupal sites I have worked on have been anywhere CLOSE to a stock install.
      Makes it difficult to compare. Much like the old dull mac vs pc debate, it just depends on all the things you have installed (or don't have installed).

      Probably best to pick one and stick to your guns in an ideal world, but all 3 are comin at ya in the real world.

      Here's my final answer. MY Joomla site OR MY wordpress site will out perform your Drupal site unless you're really really good with Drupal. Drupal is deep.
      You'll need to be REALLY good at Drupal to do a site with better seo than my Joomla OR my wordpress site.

      Between Joomla and Wordpress. Who cares. They're both huge exciting projects, with thousands of add-on projects all over the world.

      So this discussion should be all about plugins.
      what are the most kickass SEO plugins for Joomla, for wordpress, and for drupal. None of them are ready to hit the ground running as a stock install.

      This is a little off-topic but:
      Here's one Joomla plugin I love. Fabrik, the amazing form filling plugin for Joomla I don't think wordpress OR Drupal has such an elegant advanced customizable form designing plugin. For designing advanced forms, Fabrik is inspiring and worth learning Joomla just to use Fabrik. You can pretty much design your own application with Fabrik, without being a programmer. Super fun stuff once you get the hang of it. Great project, very active vibrant community. Excellent forum.

      regarding SEO plugins for each one:

      Drupal I tend to nod off when I hear the top guys explain it. I start seeing the wall paper moving around behind them and stuff. Its like going to the land of Oz, and with their own language and special lollipop guild dance step maybe even.
      Drupal is brutal unless you have a bachelors in computer programming, or a masters maybe. ah hell, these guys I know are all phd's, maybe you need a phd in Romulan.

      Joomla seo plugins should be another thread all its own its such a huge discussion.

      Wordpress, I'm still not sure which SEO plugin works best. They're all fun, but havn't found a PERFECT one yet. All-in-one-seo is super popular, but I have had some issues getting SEF urls with that one. I'm still testing those to decide which is my favorite, jury is still out for me.

      Making your SEF urls can break stuff. In all 3 of these CMS systems, so be careful with that.

      Whichever CMS you choose to use you probably will need to jump in and start testing SEO plugins out, and try to choose an active PLUGIN project that isn't going to be orphaned in a year. All 3 of these used to break much easier than they do now, but you can STILL break the site testing plugins so Backup your files AND your db. Do it often, unless you're on wordpress, you probably won't have any problem. (I still do it though)
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      • Profile picture of the author Jason H
        Originally Posted by morganomega View Post

        wordpress and joomla are both hugely popular open source projects, drupal is enterprise level and much more complicated and involved.

        Serious coders love drupal, Joomla has some amazing very active projects with some incredible talent working on select components,modules and plugins. Wordpress is super easy if you've used Drupal or Joomla and many claim its best for seo as a stock install.

        I use all 3, because I must. These are the 3 top dogs for sure. Small, Medium and Large. Wordpress, Joomla, and Drupal.

        Whether one is better than another for seo is a much more complicated answer because we use components (or "plugins" or "addons") to extend the capability of these CMS. It depends a lot on which plugins you are using. You have to include these because, they all now have SPEED increasing plugins among many others. As you may know, GoOgle cares a great deal about load speed, why wouldn't they? And none of these cms are really good to go out of the box, despite claims at every update that it will be. These 'components','modules','plugins' and other CMS extending software addons are really STILL required to compete in the SEO race-off here. I don't think any of these CMS are really good to straight out of the box, or really "turn-key" so a deep knowledge of these plugins and which ones work or don't work, is something you will need to acquire for all 3 fo these, or which ever one you choose to focus on. You'll need to climb a curve for each one. Wordpress is the slightest curve, Joomla is a little steeper curve and Drupal is the Cliffs of Dover curve (very steep).

        None of the Joomla, wordpress or Drupal sites I have worked on have been anywhere CLOSE to a stock install.
        Makes it difficult to compare. Much like the old dull mac vs pc debate, it just depends on all the things you have installed (or don't have installed).

        Probably best to pick one and stick to your guns in an ideal world, but all 3 are comin at ya in the real world.

        Here's my final answer. MY Joomla site OR MY wordpress site will out perform your Drupal site unless you're really really good with Drupal. Drupal is deep.
        You'll need to be REALLY good at Drupal to do a site with better seo than my Joomla OR my wordpress site.

        Between Joomla and Wordpress. Who cares. They're both huge exciting projects, with thousands of add-on projects all over the world.

        So this discussion should be all about plugins.
        what are the most kickass SEO plugins for Joomla, for wordpress, and for drupal. None of them are ready to hit the ground running as a stock install.

        This is a little off-topic but:
        Here's one Joomla plugin I love. Fabrik, the amazing form filling plugin for Joomla I don't think wordpress OR Drupal has such an elegant advanced customizable form designing plugin. For designing advanced forms, Fabrik is inspiring and worth learning Joomla just to use Fabrik. You can pretty much design your own application with Fabrik, without being a programmer. Super fun stuff once you get the hang of it. Great project, very active vibrant community. Excellent forum.

        regarding SEO plugins for each one:

        Drupal I tend to nod off when I hear the top guys explain it. I start seeing the wall paper moving around behind them and stuff. Its like going to the land of Oz, and with their own language and special lollipop guild dance step maybe even.
        Drupal is brutal unless you have a bachelors in computer programming, or a masters maybe. ah hell, these guys I know are all phd's, maybe you need a phd in Romulan.

        Joomla seo plugins should be another thread all its own its such a huge discussion.

        Wordpress, I'm still not sure which SEO plugin works best. They're all fun, but havn't found a PERFECT one yet. All-in-one-seo is super popular, but I have had some issues getting SEF urls with that one. I'm still testing those to decide which is my favorite, jury is still out for me.

        Making your SEF urls can break stuff. In all 3 of these CMS systems, so be careful with that.

        Whichever CMS you choose to use you probably will need to jump in and start testing SEO plugins out, and try to choose an active PLUGIN project that isn't going to be orphaned in a year. All 3 of these used to break much easier than they do now, but you can STILL break the site testing plugins so Backup your files AND your db. Do it often, unless you're on wordpress, you probably won't have any problem. (I still do it though)

        Wow, that was profoundly informative.

        I guess I should probably leave Drupal along then, and stick with either WordPress or Joomla.
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  • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
    Just because most people don't know how to use anything other than wordpress doesn't mean it is the best in anything, whether as a CMS or from an SEO standpoint.

    In terms of baseball, wordpress is rookie league.... joomla and drupal are major league.
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  • Profile picture of the author Myheavens
    I will Go with Wordpress as there are so many free SEO Plugins also Google likes WP blogs....
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  • Profile picture of the author bbgweb
    Let's be clear, the question here is "Which one is the most powerful in terms of SEO?" I imagine that most people who say "[my_favorite_cms] is the best for SEO!" haven't had a lot of experience with the others. Drupal, Wordpress, and Joomla are all good (for SEO). The real question is "How do you want to manage your SEO?"

    From a purely SEO standpoint:
    Hypothetically, lets say you're a SEO professional and have a broad understanding of all 3 packages:

    Drupal
    Drupal's contributed modules provide both fine grain manual control and broad sweeping automation over almost all aspects of your website's SEO without writing a single line of code. Install the SEO Checklist project (Drupal 6) for more info. It doesn't take that long to setup, but it helps to have a working knowledge of Drupal before you begin.

    Pro: Drupal can give you the greatest level of control over SEO (both automated and manual). Has lots of advanced tools/workflows available for managing content and modules.
    Con: If you're not familiar with tools like Drush and Drupal distributions, implementation will most likely take longer than in Wordpress.

    Wordpress
    Wordpress includes the most control over SEO out-of-box. Very little additional work needs to be done in order to be found in the search engines. There are also some great 3rd-party plugins (like the All-In-One-SEO-Pack) that provide finer grain control over your website's SEO. I haven't found anything for Wordpress yet that provides the same level of broad sweeping controls that you can get in Drupal and Joomla.

    Pro: It's typically less time consuming (cheaper) to develop for Wordpress than for Drupal or Joomla.
    Con: I've found that there's a glass ceiling when it comes to managing lots of content or implementing unique SEO requirements.

    Joomla
    Joomla has a huge selection of both free and commercial components/modules/plugins for SEO. In most of them, integration can be done directly through the admin console. Compatibility can become an issue when using multiple extensions. Some of them provide overlapping or conflicting features. I haven't yet found the perfect combination of extensions, but with a little template tweaking, you can gain both broad and fine grain control over SEO with Joomla.

    Pro: Some out-of-box SEO functionality. Many 3rd party solutions available.
    Con: Although you can get great search results with Joomla, I have found it to be lacking in ease-of-use, ease-of-deployment, and in general consistency in it's extension interfaces when compared to Drupal and Wordpress.

    Conclusion - In terms of SEO (my 2¢):
    For power/flexibility: tie between Drupal and Joomla
    For ease-of-deployment: Wordpress
    For ease-of-use: tie between Wordpress and Drupal

    Side note - Drupal is not intended to be an out-of-box solution like Wordpress and Joomla. It's core package includes only the most basic SEO features because you don't need them on every project (e.g. - intranet websites, private member directories, etc.). Besides, how many people actually have websites that don't include at least a couple of 3rd party add-ons? Even when building Wordpress sites, I still have to install extras for contact forms, google analytics, and anything else the client wants.

    Its like going to the land of Oz, and with their own language and special lollipop guild dance step maybe even.
    Lol - Have some of our delicious kool-aid... it's magical and sweet...
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  • Profile picture of the author bloq
    Everyone else here pretty much covered all of the same aspects I would've tackled, but this topic went a bit off the tracks when people started talking about ease of use.

    In regards to Drupal it shouldn't scare anyone off, even the WordPress users that are accustomed to having things work without having to open a text editor. Think of Drupal as a huge bag of data. It sounds like a disorganized mess but that would be a misconception. The beauty of this is that the data can be organized, repurposed and structured in any way the user sees fit. It just takes a committed developer to tame the beast and learn the ropes. There are no limitations or "glass ceilings".

    WordPress is the same in a way but the data tends to be cordoned off prior to manipulating it. If you want to turn it on its head you'll have to read the WordPress Codex and start utilizing the functions.php file that corresponds with your theme. The thing with WordPress is that it can be an out-of-box solution or it can quickly turn into a beast (the functions.php file will become your best friend). I use WordPress myself because my website doesn't require a multitude of functions and features, plus I personally enjoy developing for it. My website primarily serves as a blog and a portfolio for my web development work. Being the popular blog system that it is, the out-of-box SEO is fantastic and your latest blog entries will appear within search engine results quickly. Modules like All in One SEO Pack and SEO Friendly Images are your friend and will further improve SEO in WordPress. The beauty of this solution is that it can be deployed with little to no configuration and is perfect for blogs and small budget websites.

    When it comes to turning WordPress into a full-fledged CMS like it is slowly becoming, the benefits of its out-of-box SEO features bleed over into pages and other site elements.

    My conclusion is simple and requires no discussion of fantasy worlds:

    1. WordPress will do what you want it to and cost your client less.
    2. On the other end of the spectrum Drupal will trump the other aforementioned systems, but, like anything else, it requires work and perseverance. The reward is worthwhile and the flexibility is unmatched.
    3. I won't cover Joomla because I dislike it and feel that my opinion would be biased.
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  • Profile picture of the author reeljerc
    Informative.

    I've used all three, was interested mainly in SEO aspect, although you can't talk about any of 'em without delving into ease of use, etc...

    Wordpress wins

    thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author AuthorityRush
    I love Drupal, but it is a pain for SEO. Wordpress kills everything SEO wise IMHO.
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  • Profile picture of the author eguynth
    IMHO WP is the easiest, but Joomla can be friendlier SEO wise, you need to know how to tweak it around. Can change the whole site SEO friendly without installing any plugins.
    I love using Joomla for my websites. But some times Joomla can be pain in the ass.

    And this is CMS point of veiw.

    I haven't used Drupal so cant say any thing about it.
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    • Profile picture of the author ysb888
      Due to my experience!

      Drupal seems to be Number 1, a bit better than WP!
      Wordpress also very good with SEO too.
      Joomla never go with it, super sucking at SEO!
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      • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
        Originally Posted by ysb888 View Post

        Due to my experience!

        Drupal seems to be Number 1, a bit better than WP!
        Wordpress also very good with SEO too.
        Joomla never go with it, super sucking at SEO!
        Because you're too dense to figure out how to click a button? This is what irritates me, people that have no idea what they're talking about and have no experience think they are an authority on a subject.

        Drupal, overall, is a lot better than a little bit, over wordpress. Same with Joomla. When it comes to SEO... they are even... It is SEO... if you think one is better than the other, then you just don't know what SEO is, and how to do it in the first place.
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      • Profile picture of the author eguynth
        Originally Posted by ysb888 View Post

        Due to my experience!

        Drupal seems to be Number 1, a bit better than WP!
        Wordpress also very good with SEO too.
        Joomla never go with it, super sucking at SEO!
        Pretty clear that you know **** about Joomla or SEO.
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  • Profile picture of the author jack jastin
    For commercial blogging to making money online, What I ever had experienced word press blogger is the best platform to start in comparison to among all.
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  • Profile picture of the author digitaldestiny
    it seems everyone is always looking for the "magic seo button" - as in click this button, install this app, etc... improve site rankings.

    i think no matter what OS-CMS you go with - you are going to have to work the system with content content content, keywords, backlinking, research, and standard tactics.

    there is no magic CMS plug-in, extensions, or button that will make your site rank higher. THe authors and content managers have to do the work.
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    • Profile picture of the author Rollmodl
      I currently use Joomla. It does suck when using it as is. It's up to you to find SEO extensions to make it work. The best on I have found so far is iJoomla SEO. Its so powerful I use it on all my sites which are indexed very quickly and helped me rank most of my articles and menu items. It offers complete control over everything.
      • Title
      • Head
      • Descriptions
      • Character limit
      • Redirects
      • No follow
      • Keyword wrap
      • Alt tags
      • Replace heading tags
      • And more!
      It's done wonders for me. If you use Joomla, watch the video A Search Engine Optimization Joomla SEO Extension & Plugin via iJoomla
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  • Profile picture of the author Kael41
    I use joomla and wordpress for my installs and frankly they both work well out of the box for seo. I have a site i put up in 2005 on an older install of Joomla (I think sunflower?) and it's still in the top 10 without one page being updated in over 3 years lol.
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