SEO tools for Apostrophe 3

Add useful meta fields to all pages and pieces.

Roadmap

Feature	Status
SEO Meta fields for pages and pieces	✅ Implemented
SEO Page Scanner	🚧 Under development

Installation

npm install @apostrophecms/seo

Use

1. Initialization

Configure @apostrophecms/seo in app.js.

require('apostrophe')({
  shortName: 'MYPROJECT',
  modules: {
    '@apostrophecms/seo': {}
  }
});

Setting the baseUrl

It is important to set the baseUrl option on your ApostropheCMS application for various reasons. In the SEO module it contributes to building the correct canonical link tag URL. The baseUrl can be set two ways:

In app.js as part of your main Apostrophe app

require('apostrophe')({
  shortName: 'mysite',
  baseUrl: 'https://mysite.com',
  modules: {
    // ...
  }
});

As part of an environment configuration in data/local.js

  module.exports = {
    baseUrl: 'https://mysite.com',
    modules: {
      // other module env configuration
    }
  };

2. Module configuration

If you choose to disable SEO fields for a piece type or page type you can do so by setting seoFields: false on the appropriate module. The following modules disable SEO field enhancements by default:

• @apostrophecms/global
• @apostrophecms/user
• @apostrophecms/image
• @apostrophecms/image-tag
• @apostrophecms/file
• @apostrophecms/file-tag

module.exports = {
  options: {
    label: 'Person',
    pluralLabel: 'People',
    seoFields: false
  }
};

Add Google Analytics (GA)

Setting seoGoogleAnalytics: true in @apostrophecms/global will add a Google Analytics tracking ID field to your Global configuration:

require('apostrophe')({
  shortName: 'MYPROJECT',
  modules: {
    '@apostrophecms/seo': {},
    '@apostrophecms/global': {
      options: {
        seoGoogleAnalytics: true
      }
    }
  }
});

Add Google Tag Manager (GTM)

Setting seoGoogleTagManager: true in @apostrophecms/global will add a Google Tag Manager ID field to your Global configuration:

require('apostrophe')({
  shortName: 'MYPROJECT',
  modules: {
    '@apostrophecms/seo': {},
    '@apostrophecms/global': {
      options: {
        seoGoogleTagManager: true
      }
    }
  }
});

Add Google Site Verification

Setting seoGoogleVerification: true in @apostrophecms/global will add a Google Site Verification ID field to your Global configuration:

require('apostrophe')({
  shortName: 'MYPROJECT',
  modules: {
    '@apostrophecms/seo': {},
    '@apostrophecms/global': {
      options: {
        seoGoogleVerification: true
      }
    }
  }
});

Notes

Canonical URls

The canonical link field on a page or piece allows an editor to select another page that search engines should understand to be the primary version of that page or piece. As described on Moz.com:

A canonical tag (aka "rel canonical") is a way of telling search engines that a specific URL represents the primary copy of a page. Using the canonical tag prevents problems caused by identical or "duplicate" content appearing on multiple URLs. Practically speaking, the canonical tag tells search engines which version of a URL you want to appear in search results.

Custom Google Analytics Event on 404

Optionally add the following include to your notFound.html view. If the app has a Google Tracking ID value entered, this will send an event to Google Analytics tracking the 404 response, the URL on which it happened, and, if applicable, the page on which the bad URL was triggered (helping you identify where bad links are located).

{% block extraBody %}
  {{ super() }}
  {% include "@apostrophecms/seo:404.html" %}
{% endblock %}

If you already have an extraBody block in the notFound.html view file, you'll only need to add the {% include "@apostrophecms/seo:404.html" %} statement somewhere in that.

{% block extraBody %}
  {# ...Other templating... #}
  {% include "@apostrophecms/seo:404.html" %}
{% endblock %}

Field Reference

The following are the fields that can be added to pieces, pages, and the global doc, as well as what module option enables them.

Name	Description	Module Effected	Module Option
seoTitle	Title attribute, populates <meta name="title" /> tag	@apostrophecms/doc-type	Enabled by default
seoDescription	Description attribute, populates <meta name="description" /> tag	@apostrophecms/doc-type	Enabled by default
seoRobots	Robots attribute, populates <meta name="robots" /> tag	@apostrophecms/doc-type	Enabled by default
_seoCanonical	Canonical URL, populates <link rel="canonical" /> tag	@apostrophecms/page-type	Enabled by default
seoGoogleTagManager	Google Tag Manager Container ID	@apostrophecms/global	seoGoogleTagManager: true
seoGoogleTrackingId	Google Analytics ID	@apostrophecms/global	seoGoogleAnalytics: true
seoGoogleVerificationId	Google Verification ID, populates <meta name="google-site-verification" />	@apostrophecms/global	seoGoogleVerification: true