Designing a site with wordpress or html off my good domains

[Livepar]

Hi!
I have been in domains about 15 years now.
I have been on a bit of a hiatus off and on over the past 7 years. Things have changed in the business. I am looking to redefine my websites this fall / winter. BUT I am stuck on what format to use. I have a general understanding of both HTML and wordpress to create sites with, If used properly is one better then the others? I understand the clear advantages of wordpress when it comes to building information sites, its much easier. If HTML still "could" get you ranked higher, I have no problem using that. In my little research I have found html sites I have built have been ranked higher then wordpress. I also find yahoo seems to like HTML sites. I would love some thoughts on this. I have installed the SEO / Keyword plug ins on wordpress, but are they as effective as meta tag keywords?

What do you use? Once again the ease of word press is nice, but I am just curious on some thoughts.

Rob

 

[DNVantage]

Check the page load times of your both, wordpress and html sites. SE's give higher ranking to pages/sites which load faster. ( assuming other factors are same. )

 

[enlytend]

I have been on a bit of a hiatus off and on over the past 7 years.

Welcome back!

I am looking to redefine my websites this fall / winter. BUT I am stuck on what format to use. I have a general understanding of both HTML and wordpress to create sites with, If used properly is one better then the others?

Wordpress is just a piece of software that creates HTML pages for you. If you are making a small site and can develop it directly in HTML, you can save a lot of code bloat by going that route. Neither has any bearing on search rankings - you can do a good job of optimizing your site or a poor one, regardless.*

I have installed the SEO / Keyword plug ins on wordpress, but are they as effective as meta tag keywords?

I don't know what that "SEO / Keyword" plugin does, but the keywords meta tag is dead. As in "was spammed so badly over the years that search engines virtually (Bing/Yahoo) or completely (Google) ignore them. Don't waste your time on them,..

*Though some platforms, notably Joomla, are inclined to make a hot mess, from a technical SEO standpoint.

 

[WPM]

Greetings,

Not knowing the nature of the websites, meaning informational or eCommerce...

WP is by far the simplest and also offers the ability to host multiple sites on one installation with plugins and a couple of install rules/procedures. The eCommerce solutions are abundant etc..

There is an alternative called Joomla which offers almost the same ease of use as WP but allows more customization. All the platforms to the best of my knowledge are incorporating HTML5 if they haven't already.

SEO... content is still king, but the seo plugins are helpful. Remember, no matter what framework you use, in most cases you can hard code meta descriptions and keywords into the index files as well.

Hope this helps,

Regards,

WPM

 

[Livepar]

Welcome back!

I don't know what that "SEO / Keyword" plugin does, but the keywords meta tag is dead. As in "was spammed so badly over the years that search engines virtually (Bing/Yahoo) or completely (Google) ignore them. Don't waste your time on them,..

Thank you for the information!

So basically this whole system at the top of the html is no long valid?
IE
<meta name="description" content="site content
health Insurance"><meta name="keywords" content="sample1,sample2,sample3">

The odd thing i found with wordpress is how does the index page get ranked if you don;t use a static home page? Maybe in the theme or template I pick? It seems to me the core html was king because you have a solid index page and not relying on the interior content pages. Or maybe I am wrong

 

[enlytend]

There is an alternative called Joomla which offers almost the same ease of use as WP but allows more customization. All the platforms to the best of my knowledge are incorporating HTML5 if they haven't already.

Just say "no" to Joomla! It's fine if you really know what you're doing or are dedicated to becoming an expert in the platform, if you're just using it as an easy way to build a site I guarantee you'll end up with a crapton of unintentional duplicate content. And if you don't understand and follow Joomla security best practices, you are likely to get hacked.

Remember, no matter what framework you use, in most cases you can hard code meta descriptions and keywords into the index files as well.

As long as you don't hard-code the same meta description for every page. And as I said earlier, keywords = pointless.

 

[WPM]

Just say "no" to Joomla! It's fine if you really know what you're doing or are dedicated to becoming an expert in the platform, if you're just using it as an easy way to build a site I guarantee you'll end up with a crapton of unintentional duplicate content. And if you don't understand and follow Joomla security best practices, you are very likely to get hacked.

Granted Joomla isn't for everybody, but it is more customizible platform without moving to an .ASP framework. With plugins and extensions like Fabrik, you can get a great more functionality out of your site.

Personally I have never had an issue with duplicate content or the like.

I would imagine it all rests on what your needs are on a per site basis. IMHO

As long as you don't hard-code the same meta description for every page. And as I said earlier, keywords = pointless.

WP and Joomla only have 1 main index page per site install. That would be the only one necessary to hard code.

And although I respect your opinion, keywords are not dead so much as not the biggest part of the current search algorithms. Now content, traffic, age and back links take a priority, but keywords still play a roll. If they didn't, then someone better sue Ggl for selling a worthless product, AdWords that are based on "Keywords" embedded in meta data and content.

I'm just sayin'...

Disclaimer: I am a self taught developer (10 years now) with an above novice skill set yet am knowledgeable enough to speak about development beyond my skills. I don't know everything... nor do I claim to.

Regards,

WPM

 

[enlytend]

Personally I have never had an issue with duplicate content or the like.

Every Joomla site I've audited has a mess of URL's that all resolve to the same content. You can configure it properly, many people don't.

I've also audited a lot which are hacked or have been hacked in the past - most via the K2 component. Which I believe is an old issue, but Wordpress' simplicity and automatic updates are a big help for people who don't keep up on those things.

WP and Joomla only have 1 main index page per site install. That would be the only one necessary to hard code.

My point here was that you don't want the same description to be on every page of your site, It should be unique to the page. While it is not used for search ranking either, Google Search Console flags duplicate description metas, which means they care.

And although I respect your opinion, keywords are not dead so much as not the biggest part of the current search algorithms. Now content, traffic, age and back links take a priority, but keywords still play a roll.

I never said KEYWORDS are dead. I said the keywords META TAG is dead for search.
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/09/google-does-not-use-keywords-meta-tag.html
https://blogs.bing.com/webmaster/2014/10/03/blame-the-meta-keyword-tag/

 

[Livepar]

So the metatags that sit on many of the old pages like this:

<meta name="description" content="site content
health Insurance"><meta name="keywords" content="sample1,sample2,sample3">

are no longer in play? Where would you insert the keywords in html then?

 

[enlytend]

If you've been away from SEO as long as you've been away from domaining, you may want to read up.

Just use keywords naturally in your page copy and title. Search engines can understand what a page is about, you don't have to hit them over the head with it. Don't worry about "keyword density" and don't write spammy strings of keywords unless you want to get slapped.

If a real person reading your page thinks it was written by a machine or a parrot, you've overdone it.

 

[WPM]

Every Joomla site I've audited has a mess of URL's that all resolve to the same content. You can configure it properly, many people don't.

I've also audited a lot which are hacked or have been hacked in the past - most via the K2 component. Which I believe is an old issue, but Wordpress' simplicity and automatic updates are a big help for people who don't keep up on those things.


My point here was that you don't want the same description to be on every page of your site, It should be unique to the page. While it is not used for search ranking either, Google Search Console flags duplicate description metas, which means they care.


I never said KEYWORDS are dead. I said the keywords META TAG is dead for search.
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/09/google-does-not-use-keywords-meta-tag.html
https://blogs.bing.com/webmaster/2014/10/03/blame-the-meta-keyword-tag/

I concur.

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

Personally , I like using Wordpress and I saw that google indexes Wordpress websites fast.

 

[silentg]

If you go the Wordpress route: Make sure to keep it updated or else it'll get hijacked by spammers.

 

[Smarttrader]

You can find all new trends here - http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/
Webmaster guidelines here - https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35769?hl=en#technical_guidelines

Just look at this information and think what is better.
Wordpress can give you many templates and plugins for free, your website can be more better then if you wright it on html and css by yourself.