Web Content Management Systems used by Search Engine Optimization Experts for Top Rankings in Search Engine Results Pages CHRISTOS ZIAKIS 1, *, MARO VLACHOPOULOU 2 1,2 Department of Applied Informatics, Information Systems & e-Business (ISeB) Laboratory University of Macedonia 156 Egnatia str., 54006, Thessaloniki GREECE * Correspondence: ziakis@uom.edu.gr; Tel.: +30 6937 462 999 Abstract: There are several Web Content Management Systems (WCMS) available that are used by web developers in order to develop and manage a website. In addition, over the last years, companies have invested in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques by applying the factors used by search engines, such as Google, in order to rank amongst the first results in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). On-page factors such as the implementation of keywords in the title tags and the website loading time are amongst the criteria that are taken into consideration and are directly affected by the website’s technology and WCMS. Following a relevant literature review, the authors conducted research amongst 6682 websites in order to identify whether and which WCMS is used by SEO experts’ websites that appear in the top search results. Findings indicated that custom made websites that do not rely on widely used WCMSs appear more frequently at the top of search results, while the Drupal CMS appears quite high, despite it being used by a small number of websites across the web. Keywords: Search Engine Optimization, SEO, WCMS, Google, Search Engine, Ranking factor, Digital Marketing Received: March 1, 2021. Revised: September 7, 2021. Accepted: September 16, 2021. Published: September 23, 2021. 1 Introduction SEO is a highly critical process which impacts the rankings of a website in search engines, such as Google [1]. Given that buyers use the internet and search engines in their everyday life in order to search for products and services, showing up at the top organic results ensures a plethora of potential clients for a company and contributes to the development and improvement of its profitability [2,3]. It has been proven that the successful implementation of a SEO strategy contributes towards improving product marketing and allows companies to enhance their visibility, to increase user engagement and sales revenue [4,5]. On the other hand, if a company does not manage to efficiently apply SEO techniques and to appear at the top rankings in organic search results, it then has to spend large amounts on paid campaigns for specific keywords; however, a SEO strategy is more cost effective than a paid campaign [6]. Furthermore, research shows that the Google search engine is used by 92,26% of internet users and many of these have it set as the default option while using Google Chrome [7]. It has been suggested that the factors which affect website rankings in terms of search results are classed as either on-page or off-page factors [8]. SSL certificate use, keywords use in landing pages, responsive design for mobile devices and website loading speed are all considered on-page factors, as a website with a fast-loading speed creates a positive user experience [9]. As discussed further on in the research, the aforementioned indicative factors are affected by the technology of the website. Website development can be accomplished through the use of closed-source or open-source WCMS, which are quite popular [10]. In the present article the authors aimed to study which WCMs are used by SEO experts as well as to examine whether the use of a specific CMS positively affects ranking in SERPs. The current research was conducted based upon reviewing relevant research and literature. To be more specific, at the first stage the researchers selected 6882 SEO experts’ websites which appeared in Google search results for specific keywords, based on their ranking. Initially WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on COMPUTERS DOI: 10.37394/23205.2021.20.22 Christos Ziakis, Maro Vlachopoulou E-ISSN: 2224-2872 207 Volume 20, 2021