How good is Ghost CMS for SEO

Explore the power of Ghost CMS for SEO. Learn how it automatically optimizes your website, making it easier for people to find. Discover features like Google AMP support, structured data integration, and social media customization.

6 min read

In today's digital world, having a website that ranks high in search engine results is essential for reaching potential customers and growing your business. A robust content management system (CMS) with integrated SEO capabilities can help you achieve this goal.


Ghost CMS is a rising star in the CMS world, known for its seamless integration of SEO features. While other popular CMS platforms like WordPress require plugins to unlock basic SEO functionalities, Ghost CMS offers everything you need to optimize your website for search engines right out of the box.

Automatic and custom metadata

Ghost CMS comes with a nifty feature that's a lifesaver for busy writers. Sometimes, in the rush of creating content, we forget the little things like descriptions or social media cards. Ghost has our back with its clever fallback mechanism. Every post and page on a Ghost website has its own metadata section. So, if you accidentally leave it blank, Ghost takes charge and uses the available info as a backup plan. It's like having an automatic assistant, making sure your content looks great and is easily found, without any extra fuss.

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Settings of global site metadata and Social media cards.

Google AMP support

The open source AMP project is led by Google, and provides a way for publishers to generate lightweight versions of their content for a faster and smoother user experience. In Ghost, the AMP integration utilises the AMP framework inside a single Handlebars template: amp.hbs. This template transforms each post on your site into an AMP version which can be accessed by adding /amp to the end of any URL. Ghost has a beautiful default AMP template which displays all of your content, images, galleries, code and bookmark cards for mobile devices.

Structured Data aka JSON-LD


Ghost CMS takes a proactive approach to SEO by seamlessly integrating JSON-LD structured data into every post and page. This ensures that search engines can clearly understand the content and context of your web pages, which can help to improve your search engine rankings and visibility. JSON-LD is a lightweight, flexible, and efficient way to markup your content with structured data. It is easy to read and understand for both humans and machines, making it the preferred format for search engines. Ghost CMS's automatic integration of JSON-LD structured data is a major advantage, as it saves you the time and effort of having to manually add markup to your content. However, it is important to note that Ghost CMS does not currently provide extensive control over the structure of the JSON-LD data that is generated. This could be a drawback for users who need to customize their JSON-LD data for specific website requirements.

    <script type="application/ld+json">
{
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@type": "Article",
    "publisher": {
        "@type": "Organization",
        "name": "Noise Amplifier | Websites, systems, Ghost CMS Custom Development",
        "url": "https://noiseamplifier.com/",
        "logo": {
            "@type": "ImageObject",
            "url": "https://noiseamplifier.com/content/images/size/w256h256/2023/03/favi_3b.png",
            "width": 60,
            "height": 60
        }
    },
    "author": {
        "@type": "Person",
        "name": "Tom Ravn",
        "image": {
            "@type": "ImageObject",
            "url": "https://noiseamplifier.com/content/images/2023/03/Screenshot-2020-07-07-at-20.39.38.png",
            "width": 836,
            "height": 836
        },
        "url": "https://noiseamplifier.com/404/",
        "sameAs": [
            "https://tomravn.com",
            "https://twitter.com/tomr4vn"
        ]
    },
    "headline": "How good is Ghost CMS for SEO",
    "url": "https://noiseamplifier.com/blog/how-good-is-ghost-cms-for-seo/",
    "datePublished": "2023-10-01T09:19:06.000Z",
    "dateModified": "2023-10-01T09:49:00.000Z",
    "keywords": "Blog, Ghost CMS, SEO",
    "description": "Explore the power of Ghost CMS for SEO. Learn how it automatically optimizes your website, making it easier for people to find. Discover features like Google AMP support, structured data integration, and social media customization. ",
    "mainEntityOfPage": "https://noiseamplifier.com/blog/how-good-is-ghost-cms-for-seo/"
}
    </script>

Showcase of Ghost auto-generated structured data for this page.

Social media integration

Ghost CMS provide powerful settings options for configuring Open Graph(Facebook) and Twitter (X) cards globally for the whole website, each post, page, or even tag. This gives users the flexibility to customize their Social media cards to their specific needs. This is a valuable feature, as it allows users to ensure that their content is displayed in a visually appealing and informative way when shared on social media. It can also help to improve engagement and click-through rates.

Autogenerated XML sitemaps

Ghost automatically generates and maintains an XML sitemap for your website, which helps search engines understand its structure and discover all of its content. This is essential for SEO, as it ensures that your website's pages are crawled and indexed correctly. XML sitemaps are XML files that list all of the pages on your website, along with additional information such as the page's last modified date and its importance relative to other pages on your website. Search engines use this information to prioritize the crawling and indexing of your website's pages.

Image shows auto-generated sitemap page of Ghost website.
Ghost auto-generated sitemap page.

Canonical tags

Ghost CMS simplifies SEO by utilizing canonical tags strategically. These tags indicate the primary version of a page to search engines, reducing duplicate content issues. The flexibility to customize these tags for individual posts or pages empowers users with precise control over their content's indexing and ranking.

Image from Ghost Admin post edit, showing option to set up canonical url
Canonical URL can be set during Post/Page edit from right sidebar.

Image Optimization and Responsiveness

Ghost CMS provides an essential feature allowing users to set Alt tags for images used in Posts or Pages. Additionally, Ghost supports the generation of various image sizes upon upload. This ensures that when users access your content from different devices, they receive images in the appropriate size, optimizing data transfer. A noteworthy feature is Ghost's support for automatic image conversions, transforming uploaded images into modern, SEO-friendly formats like WEBP, enhancing website performance and search engine visibility.

URL Redirection Flexibility


Ghost CMS offers a valuable option to manage URL redirection, particularly crucial during a migration from a different platform to Ghost. Preserving old links and aligning them with your new website structure is essential. While Ghost supports this feature, the method currently in place may not be the most intuitive from a user experience standpoint. Redirects are configured by editing a YAML / JSON text file and uploading it in the 'Settings' > 'Labs' > 'Redirects' section. It's an effective solution, but we look forward to a more user-friendly approach in the future, aligning with Ghost's exceptional user experience standards.

301:
  /permanent-redirect-from: /permanent-redirect-to
  /permanent-redirect-from-2: /permanent-redirect-to-2

302:
  /temporary-redirect-from: /temporary-redirect-to

YAML file, we can manage 301 and 302 redirects by uploading in Labs area.

Fast content indexing

Whenever you publish a new Post on Ghost CMS, the platform swiftly notifies third-party services through an RPC ping. This mechanism alerts various services, including search engines, about the fresh content on your blog, facilitating faster discovery and indexing. Currently, Ghost sends the RPC ping to a designated service, specifically http://rpc.pingomatic.com, each time a new post is published. It's important to note that RPC pings are triggered only when Ghost is operating in the production environment.

Ghost is fast

Ghost CMS is known for its incredible speed, thanks to its modern technology stack and clean, well-structured themes. Independent tests have shown that Ghost is up to 1,900% faster than WordPress, making it one of the fastest CMS platforms available. This blazing-fast performance is essential for providing a great user experience. Visitors are more likely to stay on a website that loads quickly, and they are also more likely to return. Additionally, fast-loading websites rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), which can help you to reach a wider audience.



To Sum ti Up

Ghost CMS is known for its seamless integration of SEO features, user-friendly interface, and blazing-fast performance. By automatically handling essential SEO elements and providing a robust set of features for creating and managing content, Ghost CMS empowers content creators to build powerful online presences that rank high in search engine results pages (SERPs) and engage their target audience.
While there are areas for improvement, such as refining URL redirection options, Ghost CMS remains a promising choice for businesses and individuals who are looking for a CMS platform that can help them achieve their SEO and content marketing goals.

If you are looking for Ghost experts developers, we are here happy to help.

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