+19 votes
by (380 points)
Curious if any SEOs here require their client's website to be redesigned and migrated to the SEOs preferred CMS/platform before they continue with an SEO campaign in order to provide a higher success rate? If you do, how often do you get pushback? To us, it's a no brainer that better SEO success can come from WordPress, Duda, GatsbyJS, etc. compared to Wix or SquareSpace, but clients won't always understand.  
Curious if any SEOs here require their client's website to be redesigned and migrated to the SEOs pr

15 Answers

+29 votes
by (2.1k points)
 
Best answer
“Right Fit Clients” short client explanation- putting bandaids on your current (train wreck of a site) will only help for so long. Or, we can fix and rebuild SEO friendly now and you’ll be in a much better place in 3 months. - so, I offer to redesign and create a 3 - 6 month recurring plan that includes the redesign and ongoing SEO.  
by (2.1k points)
Ps - I am _so_ over trying to convince potential clients to invest in their own businesses. If they can’t work with me in a way I know how to get them results, then I’m ultimately screwing myself. Every time I try to work for less, I end up in a bad spot. I’ve also seen this happen at multi million $ agencies with ongoing difficulties retaining clients.  
by (2.1k points)
Best analogy I’ve heard (can’t remember who to credit) is that SEO compounds in value. It’s literally an investment.  
+20 votes
by (11.6k points)
Never a requirement - but usually a strong suggestion. I don't think we're doing our job honestly if we don't give strategic advice in the best interest of the client.  
by (11.6k points)
@austreng by the way, trying to change a Wix/SS/Weebly user to WordPress is like needing to hypnotise them into a new reality. Most aren't ready and are stuck thinking their kitten will grow into a tiger if they love it enough. Obviously we know there's a point when logic and reality step in. But in my experience, you can rarely change these clients - just warn them.  
by (11.6k points)
@austreng don't then  you have the choice what you take on. I turned down an asp. net 10 year old bespoke CMS recently. Just wasn't feeling it. It looked and felt ugly
+13 votes
by (3k points)
Agreed with corina. Sometimes they may be on a clunky custom or older legacy CMS that doesn’t integrate well that’s when the hard push comes when it impacts their business
0 votes
by (2k points)
I’ve never had someone say no to upgrading their CMS. Maybe it’s how you’re wording it?  
by (11.6k points)
@vibrio3 depends on their previous experience and how many times other 'developers' have told them they should change again. It's all about trust and pain points
by (11.6k points)
@austreng makes sense but that's not allowing the client to grow with you and gain trust. Interesting post though
by (2k points)
@austreng I never force anything, not my style. I explain how it would benefit them and leave out benefits to me for the very end after they are 90% convinced.  
by (2k points)
@austreng good luck
by (890 points)
@vibrio3 Maybe you’ve never worked with a large brand that’s married to their platform and team of devs either.  
by (2k points)
@crissie64068 you’re right. I’ve only dealt with small or medium sized companies.  
+13 votes
by (3.5k points)
I regret pushing so hard sometimes to get potential clients to switch from squarespace to Wordpress - the platform did in fact kill the deals, and in the end it probably would have been worth the frustration to get the retainer, earn their trust and sell ‘Em on changing platforms down the road
+10 votes
by (1.6k points)
Depends on how bad the site is. not a requirement but a large suggestion.  
+17 votes
by (1.7k points)
Working with a big client that is on React and Gatsby atm and it’s horrific. I’m putting together a document explaining the pros and cons of using each technology and what they’re different options are. React can be fine but they really need to render the HTML. I know Google’s algo has progressed and can read JavaScript but this client is across the Middle East and pushing into Western market so Baidu is huge for them and the site isn’t indexed at all as Baidu cannot read JS. Similar principles can be applied to Wix as they’ll most likely index unfriendly URLs in the SERPs and not have the optimum setup geared towards SEO.  
by (220 points)
@dropout184 i don't remember sass name, but check out reactioncommerce. They have a section in their dev docs about a sass service that does the render for you
+13 votes
by (21.6k points)
I think that's a crazy requirement.  
+19 votes
by (970 points)
Sometimes is absolutely necessary. I'm working to migrate a client out of a CMS called SPIP. what a nightmare, thousands of useless URLs being indexed and a lot more problems. When I finish migrating it to Wordpress it will surely recover all, or most of, the traffic lost in the last 2 years (almost 90% of it)
by (11.6k points)
@japanese6 I had similar with a Drupal site. Hideous mess of 4000 dodgy URLs. We moved to WP and now I've got around 2000 pure and clean pages.  
+22 votes
by (4.3k points)
It's been my experience that in most cases new clients become new clients because things aren't working for them and that usually includes their website
by (6.4k points)
Exactly! A crappy page ranking on top still does NOT help the client.  
+20 votes
by (4.2k points)
We do it like @bonn45, the new site is built in to the cost. We're picky, we don't take every client that comes through the door with a check. We are not the right agency for every client so we take the ones we know we can produce results our way.  
+16 votes
by (480 points)
I've never worked on a CMS I couldn't perform effective SEO on or rank. I've taken crappy GoDaddy sites from nowhere to #1 for search terms. Of course it has some limitations, but in the end it's not THAT limiting. The fundamental elements I need access to are all available. Most SEO's prefer a certain CMS like WordPress just because it's familiar to them. That's the lazy route. Don't be afraid to learn new platforms. I actually enjoy learning new platforms. You should also be considering the reason they are on that platform in the first place. If it's ecommerce, there's tons of functionality to consider that may be entirely reliant on a platform. Imagine having to migrate a Magento site with 5000 products and crazy customizations to a WordPress + woocommerce combo for the sake of SEO. That could literally destroy a business. So be careful on your recommendations I think if you're taking on a client, and a new website is in the cards, sure you can recommend a platform you'd like to work on. But otherwise, if you're good at what you do, you should be able to make it work on whatever CMS they currently use. GMB doesn't care about CMS. Quality content doesn't care about CMS. Authoritative and relevant backlinks don't care about CMS. Hell, there's a lot of SEO you can do without ever touching a site.  
+28 votes
by (6.4k points)
BOTTOMLINE: most websites suck, so it’s better to be rebuilt with all the correct internal HTML and on-page seo factors. More Importantly- your customer wants results so great UI design focusing on CRO will make them happy and you happy. I invest in to my clients business, if they don’t want to invest in a working solution, then I DONT retain them.  
+20 votes
by (5.6k points)
Most Websites suck because someone else built them and it takes time to figure out what does what on an unfamiliar Website. Some SEOs have other reasons (Wix) to migrate a Website but agencies that approach me often seem to want things consistent for their own economies of scale. I wish them better luck on the next call.  
+11 votes
by (3.3k points)
I encourage but don't require it. I explain why and how it'll help. But we have to do a significant technical & onpage overhaul to start anyway, so it's not like it saves us much time & it really just makes it harder for the customer who's used to their old platform.  
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