{"id":17828,"date":"2023-05-12T19:17:10","date_gmt":"2023-05-12T19:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginejournal.com\/migrating-to-hubspot-cms-an-seo-walkthrough-for-new-users-2\/483234\/"},"modified":"2023-05-12T19:17:10","modified_gmt":"2023-05-12T19:17:10","slug":"migrating-to-hubspot-cms-an-seo-walkthrough-for-new-users-via-sejournal-drumming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/?p=17828","title":{"rendered":"Migrating To HubSpot CMS: An SEO Walkthrough For New Users via @sejournal, @drumming"},"content":{"rendered":"

Embarking on a journey to switch to a new content management system<\/a> (CMS) can be a daunting task.<\/p>\n

From creating fresh content to revamping outdated information and optimizing your pages to perfection, it can be quite challenging.<\/p>\n

But worry not, because we\u2019ve got you covered with our SEO tool roadmap specifically designed for HubSpot CMS newcomers.<\/p>\n

In this article, we\u2019ll delve into the most essential native SEO features and integrations available in HubSpot, ensuring your website is well-optimized for search engines.<\/p>\n

And to wrap things up, we\u2019ll discuss any missing gaps in SEO features that you might encounter while building a brand-new site or migrating an existing one.<\/p>\n

(Full disclosure: I work with HubSpot\u2019s highest-rated partner agency, SmartBug Media.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

What Native SEO Functionality Exists In HubSpot<\/h2>\n

CMS Tools<\/h3>\n

Hosting<\/h4>\n

HubSpot hosts your site when you sign up for the CMS subscription.<\/p>\n

This is one less system you need to worry about when deciding where your actual website will live.<\/p>\n

When building your site on WordPress or other open-source CMSes, you\u2019ll have to sign up with a hosting provider to serve up your site.<\/p>\n

Content Delivery Network (CDN)<\/h4>\n

This is a must-have for global businesses that need their website to load quickly in any country and need to reduce the risk of DDOS attacks.<\/p>\n

HubSpot\u2019s CDN (which uses Cloudflare\u2019s technology) is built into the CMS with no added costs or setup needed.<\/p>\n

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate<\/h4>\n

This is much more common nowadays across hosting providers but is a need for SEO.<\/p>\n

Having your site on HTTPS is a must for ranking well across most verticals.<\/p>\n

HubSpot provides an SSL certificate<\/a> as part of your subscription, and it renews automatically as long as your site stays on HubSpot.<\/p>\n

Redirects<\/h4>\n

HubSpot\u2019s redirect tool allows you to bulk import your redirects via CSV or build them out one by one.<\/p>\n

This WYSIWYG tool is user-friendly for marketers that don\u2019t have experience updating .htaccess files or setting up redirects on the backend.<\/p>\n

Sitemaps<\/h4>\n

HubSpot automatically generates a sitemap that you can submit to Google Search Console (GSC), so you don\u2019t need to build these manually or with any other plugins.<\/p>\n

Monitoring & Security<\/h4>\n

HubSpot CMS has a monitoring and firewall system in place to identify threats and stop DDOS attacks from occurring.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll need a third-party tool, like Sucuri<\/a> or something similar, if you are running on WordPress or another CMS.<\/p>\n

Ongoing Updates<\/h4>\n

HubSpot manages all of the updates on the CMS, so you don\u2019t need to update your CMS version or plugin versions manually like you do if you\u2019re on WordPress or another CMS.<\/p>\n

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)<\/h4>\n

HubSpot provides the ability to enable AMP on your blog, which allows your users to find AMP versions of your blogs on mobile devices.<\/p>\n

On-Page SEO Tools<\/h3>\n

Topic Planning<\/h4>\n

HubSpot content planning tools provide a visual schematic if you\u2019re pursuing a topic cluster approach<\/a> for your SEO.<\/p>\n

This tool provides lightweight keyword research, internal linking, and analytics to understand how certain topics are helping you generate organic traffic, leads, and customers.<\/p>\n

Here is an example of a paid media topic cluster with all of the sub-topic pages (and associated keywords) that are linked (or not linked) to the pillar page:<\/p>\n

\"SEOScreenshot from HubSpot, April 2023<\/span>\"SEO<\/div>\n

On-Page Recommendations<\/h4>\n

This functionality allows you to see specific recommendations at the URL level and the relative impact of fixing such issues.<\/p>\n

Here is an example report that shows the on-page SEO issues, a description of each issue, a suggested label on who should fix the issues (i.e., marketer vs. developer), and an easy way to click to see which pages are affected by those issues:<\/p>\n

\"On-PageScreenshot from HubSpot, April 2023<\/span>\"On-Page<\/div>\n
\"optimizationScreenshot from HubSpot, April 2023<\/span>\"optimization<\/div>\n

There are also optimization recommendations built into the CMS page editor that ensure all of your on-page SEO bases are covered.<\/p>\n

Generative AI Content Functionality<\/h3>\n

HubSpot is exploring generative AI functionality within the CMS that allows you to rewrite, expand, summarize, or change the tone of existing content.<\/p>\n

As AI-written content<\/a> continues to gain steam, I expect to see new features for content ideation (i.e., blog topic generation) within the application.<\/p>\n

Here is an example of the few built-in generative AI tools within the CMS:<\/p>\n

\"GenerativeScreenshot from author, April 2023<\/span>\"Generative<\/div>\n

SEO Tool & Analytics Integrations<\/h3>\n

Google Search Console<\/h4>\n

Because Google encrypts most organic keyword referral data, Google Search Console<\/a> is one of the only sources where you can find what keywords are driving SEO traffic to your site.<\/p>\n

The GSC integration is tied into two areas:<\/p>\n

1. Page Publishing Tools<\/strong><\/p>\n

For each page, the integration allows you to see:<\/p>\n