Sitecore CMS is a powerful tool that goes beyond just managing content on a website. It offers features that can help improve your website's SEO ranking and user experience. But with the competition for organic search ranking being so fierce, it's important to take advantage of every opportunity to stand out. QEdge is going to unveil "Why is Sitecore Good for SEO. " keep reading!
What are Core Web Vitals and how do they impact website performance?
Core Web Vitals is a set of metrics that measure the performance of a website in terms of loading speed, interactivity, and stability. These metrics are important because they directly impact the user experience, and in turn, how Google ranks your website in search results.
The first metric is the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), which measures how quickly the largest element on a page loads. This is important because users tend to leave websites that take too long to load. A slow-loading website can also negatively impact your search engine ranking.
The second metric is First Input Delay (FID), which measures how quickly the browser responds to user requests, such as clicks or taps. A slow FID can make a website feel unresponsive, which can frustrate users and cause them to leave.
The third metric is Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), which measures the stability of a page when it loads. This is important because if elements on the page move around while it's loading, it can be confusing for users and make it difficult to interact with the website.
By optimizing for Core Web Vitals, you can ensure that your website is mobile-friendly, secure, and convenient for users to browse. This can help improve user engagement and reduce bounce rates, leading to higher search engine rankings and more traffic to your website.
What is Google’s Helpful Content Update and how does it impact website rankings?
Google has long emphasized the importance of creating content that satisfies user intent, rather than just trying to rank higher in search engine results. The new Helpful Content Update takes this concept even further, by penalizing websites that rely on certain tactics to create content that is not unique, relevant, or valuable to users.
One such tactic is using AI auto-generated content tools to create content, rather than putting in the work to create unique and original content. While these tools may be convenient, they often fail to capture the nuances and insights that only a human writer can provide.
Another tactic that may lead to penalties is focusing too much on word count. Some websites may believe that hitting a certain word count is necessary to rank higher in search results, but this can lead to bloated and irrelevant content that fails to satisfy user intent.
Finally, creating lots of different content without regard for quality or relevance can also lead to penalties. Instead, content creators should focus on creating content that is unique, valuable, and relevant to their audience.
Why is Sitecore Good for SEO?
Sitecore is a powerful Content Management System (CMS) that offers a range of features to help businesses improve their website's SEO ranking. Here are some of the ways Sitecore can help:
Sitecore SXA: The SEO Features
Some of the features of SXA that help brands to improve their SEO include:
Page Titles and Meta Descriptions
Page titles and meta descriptions are crucial for on-page SEO, as they provide important information to search engines and users about the content of a web page. Here are some of the reasons why they are important:
- Search engine visibility: Page titles and meta descriptions are often used by search engines to generate the snippets that appear in search results. A well-crafted title and description can make your website stand out in search results and attract more clicks.
- User experience: Page titles and meta descriptions provide a brief summary of what users can expect to find on a web page. This helps users determine whether a website is relevant to their search query and whether they should click through to the page.
- On-page SEO: Page titles and meta descriptions are important on-page SEO elements that can help improve your website's search engine ranking.
Sitecore offers built-in dialog boxes that allow you to easily fill in important SEO metadata like page titles and meta descriptions. This makes it easy to ensure that your website's pages are optimized for search engines and user experience. With Sitecore, you can easily create and manage page titles and meta descriptions for each page of your website, ensuring that your content is optimized for search engine visibility and user engagement.
URL Redirects
Redirects are important for both SEO and user experience, as they ensure that users and search engines can easily find the content they are looking for, even when it has been moved or deleted. Here are some of the reasons why redirects are important:
- Preserve link equity: When a page is moved or deleted, any links pointing to it will be broken. By setting up a redirect, you can ensure that the link equity from those links is preserved and passed on to the new page.
- Improve user experience: Redirects ensure that users are taken to the correct page, even if they have bookmarked an old URL or clicked on a link to a page that no longer exists. This can help improve user experience and reduce bounce rates.
- SEO impact: Redirects can also have a positive impact on your website's SEO by ensuring that search engines can find and index your content correctly.
Sitecore SXA is equipped with a URL redirect mapping tool that allows you to set up 301/302 or server transfer redirects from an old URL to the current URL. It is important to use 301 redirects for the most positive SEO impact, as they signal to search engines that the old URL has permanently moved to a new location. Sitecore makes it easy to set up redirects, ensuring that your website's content is easily accessible to users and search engines.
Sitemap Priority
XML sitemaps are important for SEO because they provide search engines with a clear and organized view of a website's structure and pages. Here are some of the reasons why XML sitemaps are important:
- Indexation: XML sitemaps help search engines discover all of the pages on a website, ensuring that they are properly indexed.
- Priority: XML sitemaps allow website owners to set priorities for different pages, indicating which pages are more important than others.
- Updates: XML sitemaps can be updated to reflect changes to a website's structure or content, ensuring that search engines always have the most up-to-date information.
Sitecore allows you to set the priority of a page in an XML sitemap with a numerical value between 0.1 and 1.0, indicating how important the page is relative to other pages on the website. This can help search engines understand which pages are most important and ensure that they are properly indexed.
Semantic HTML
Semantic HTML can have a significant impact on SEO because it helps search engines better understand the content and structure of a web page. By using semantic HTML, website owners can provide clear and meaningful information about the different sections and layouts of a web page, making it easier for search engines to index and rank the page.
For example, using proper header tags like H1, H2, and H3 can help search engines understand the hierarchy of the content on a web page. Similarly, using semantic tags can provide additional context about the content on a web page.
Sitecore SXA can help create semantic HTML by separating the HTML from the CSS, making it easier for content authors to change the design of the website without modifying the underlying code. This means that content authors can apply various styling to the website, such as the appearance of H1 or H2 tags, without impacting the semantic structure of the HTML. This is important for SEO, as it ensures that the website's content remains clear and meaningful to search engines.
Breadcrumbs/Navigation
Breadcrumbs are a form of website navigation that improves both UX and SEO. Here are some of the ways that breadcrumbs can benefit your website:
- Improved UX: Breadcrumbs help users navigate a website by providing a trail of links that show the user's location within the website's hierarchy. This can help reduce bounce rates and improve user engagement.
- Improved SEO: Breadcrumbs provide links to pages on a website, which can help search engines crawl and index the website more effectively. This can help improve the website's search engine visibility and ranking.
Sitecore SXA can help with website navigation by allowing you to update and maintain navigation faster and more easily. SXA provides a range of navigation renderings, allowing you to choose the best type of navigation for your website's needs. This can include dropdown menus, tabbed navigation, and more. Additionally, SXA allows you to customize the look and feel of your website's navigation, ensuring that it is both functional and visually appealing.
Schema Markup / Structured Data
Schema markup is a form of structured data that allows website owners to provide additional information to search engines about the content on their website. This information can include details about products, events, recipes, and more. By using schema markup, website owners can help search engines understand the context and meaning of the content on their website, which can improve their website's search engine ranking and visibility.
Although Sitecore does not come with schema markup out of the box, a team of developers can create it for you and even fill it with content from your web pages. This can be done by adding markup to the HTML of your website's pages, providing additional information about the content on the page.
By using schema markup with Sitecore, website owners can improve their website's search engine ranking and visibility by providing search engines with more context about their content. This can result in rich search results, including rich snippets, knowledge graphs, and more, which can help improve click-through rates and user engagement.
What are some recommended Sitecore configurations for boosting SEO?
There are several Sitecore configurations that can help boost SEO. Here are some recommended configurations:
What are some Sitecore SEO benefits?
There are several SEO benefits of using Sitecore, including:
- Improved Site or Page Speed: Sitecore supports clean, light code that can help improve the website and page loading speed, which is an important factor in SEO.
- Better Navigation: Sitecore SXA allows website owners to update and maintain website navigation faster and easier, improving the user experience and making it easier for search engines to crawl and index the website.
- On-page SEO: Sitecore includes built-in features that make on-page SEO easier, such as the ability to add meta tags, optimize URLs, and manage page titles and descriptions.
- Personalization: Sitecore's personalization features can help provide a more personalized user experience, which can improve user engagement and click-through rates, ultimately benefiting SEO.
- Analytics: Sitecore includes built-in analytics features that can help website owners track and analyze website traffic and user behavior, providing valuable insights for improving SEO.
A Sitecore-certified partner like QEdge can play an important role in helping you leverage Sitecore to improve your search engine rankings. We provide expertise and support in implementing Sitecore's features and optimizing your website for search engines.
We also help with website design, content creation, and analytics, providing valuable insights for improving SEO. Additionally, a certified Sitecore partner can help ensure that you are getting the most out of Sitecore's features and capabilities, helping you to achieve your SEO goals more effectively.
