SEO tools for Apostrophe 3

Add useful meta fields to all pages and pieces.

Roadmap

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, so in production search engines and web crawlers will register the correct link. The baseUrl can be set multiple ways:

With the APOS_BASE_URL environment variable

How you set the variable will depend on your hosting setup.

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

This method is if you are using stagecoach or a similar system for deployment.

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

Via the multisite module if using Apostrophe Assembly

See the multisite documentation for details.

2. Module configuration

SEO fields for pages

SEO fields are enabled automatically for any page-type module. The following modules disable SEO field enhancements by default by setting the seoFields option to false:

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

module.exports = {
  extend: '@apostrophecms/page-type'
  options: {
    label: 'Personnel',
    seoFields: false
  }
};

The @apostrophecms/seo module adds a new tab labeled SEO to the document editor. This tab contains fields for setting the title, description, robots tag, and canonical link meta data to the head section of the page.

SEO fields for pieces

SEO fields for pieces, including canonical links to other pieces or pages, are activated by adding an seoCanonicalTypes option. This option takes an array that includes comma-separated piece-type module names and/or the apostrophecms/page manager to include all page types. This option is added to the piece-type module but will output the relevant SEO information on the show.html page of the associated piece-page-type module. For example, the option seoCanonicalTypes: [ '@apostrophecms/page' ] would be added to the modules/article/index.js piece-type configuration for output on show pages generated by the modules/article-page module.

module.exports = {
  extend: '@apostrophecms/piece-type'
  options: {
    label: 'Article',
    // allow the editor to select a published page or a `topic` piece type show page
    seoCanonicalTypes: [ '@apostrophecms/page', 'topic' ]
  }
};

Note that you cannot link to specific page-types, only all pages through @apostrophecms/page, but you can link to specific piece-types.

After adding this option to a piece-type, a new SEO tab will be added. In addition to the fields for title, description, and robots tag meta fields, there will be a new field for selecting the type of page to use for the canonical link populated by the items entered into the seoCanonicalTypes array. Selecting a type will bring up a new input to enter the desired page by browsing or typing the name.

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.

For pages, this link can be to any published page. For pieces, this can be either a published page or another piece-page-type show page.

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.