The website health dashboard panel identifies areas of your site that are important for SEO and have missing content. These are items that Google uses to determine your pages' search result ranking. Well considered SEO help to entice users to visit and interact with your website.
This page outlines how to resolve the items in your website health panel.
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Meta Title is missing
The meta title is a short title that describes the highlight or focus of the page. It should be unique and include the target keyword for page ranking. It appears in search engine results and on browser tabs. Align the meta title closely with the page’s H1 title to boost Google’s confidence in the topic and avoid confusing users.
Place the most important or unique words at the beginning of the meta title to help users quickly identify the page in their browser tabs.
Why is this important? If you don't set a meta title, search engines will automatically generate one based on the page content.
Meta Description is missing
The meta description is a concise summary of the page content. It should be unique, descriptive, and relevant to the page, incorporating the target keywords and encouraging users to click through to your site. Google may use it to create the snippet shown in search engine results, and it may also appear in social media previews.
Why is this necessary? Meta descriptions play a key role in SEO. They are used to generate snippets that inform users about your page and help distinguish it from competitors. Google may highlight keywords matching a user’s query, making your page more likely to be selected by users increasing click through rates.
URL needs updating
SilverStripe automatically generates a page URL (slug) when you edit the page title, but you also have the option to modify it manually.
When editing the slug, keep in mind that this is the address users will use to access the page. It should be user friendly and provide some indication of the page content.
Here are some best practices:
- Keep the slug short and concise
- Use hyphens to separate words instead of underscores
- Stick to lowercase letters, and avoid special characters
- Avoid using numbers or dates to future-proof the content
- The slug should be the permanent address of your page
eg:
- Bad URL: /blog/the-best-ways-to-update-your-page-content-to-improve-site-seo
- Good URL: /blog/seo-optimisation-techniques
It's important to note that changing the URL will break any existing links to the page, potentially leading to a "page not found" error. To avoid this, ensure the URL is correct from the beginning. If changes are necessary, set up redirects to prevent broken links and loss of traffic. For help with redirects, contact PS/digital.
Why is this important? Google gives some importance to keywords in a URL, however it's minimal, so the focus should be on creating user-friendly URLs.
