What is SEO and Why is it Important?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is important to consider when creating websites as it allows your website to rank higher in search engine results. This leads to reaching more customers and increasing your organic search traffic which means you don’t have to budget as much money for paid advertising. Organic search results tend to hold more credibility with users since people are often more skeptical of paid advertisements, it can also bump your website to the top of the search results meaning users will see your site before the competitors.
Now that we’ve gone over why SEO is so important, let’s discuss ways in which you can optimize your website, specifically when using Sitecore and Next.js.
5 Ways to Utilize Sitecore and Next.js to Increase Your SEO
1. Sitemap Generation
Sitemap generation is the process of creating a file that lists all of the pages of a website in a structured format(typically named sitemap.xml). You can implement automatic sitemap generation by using Next.js plugins that integrate with Sitecore's GraphQL API. These plugins dynamically fetch paths for all Sitecore-managed pages and create a sitemap during the build process. This ensures that all content, including multilingual and multisite pages, is included in the sitemap. By automating sitemap updates through Static Site Generation (SSG) (ideal for sites with content that doesn’t change frequently) or Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR) (better for dynamic sites with regularly updated content), your sitemap stays current, helping search engines index your content more efficiently.
2. Meta Tags and SEO Fields
Meta Tags and SEO fields give you control over important metadata fields like MetaKeywords and MetaDescriptioins which are crucial for page rankings. In Sitecore, you can add SEO metadata fields to your templates, either by leveraging out-of-the-box fields from templates like /sitecore/templates/Feature/Experience Accelerator/SiteMetadata/_Seo Metadata, or by creating your own base templates. These SEO fields are then integrated into the head of your page via the Next.js layout component, where fields like Title, MetaDescription, and MetaKeywords are used in the page’s head tag for better SEO.
3. Internationalization
Internationalization is the process of making something international. When relating this back to your website it allows your site to be utilized around the world and therefore reach a much greater audience than if it was only available to people within your country. Of course the type of website/business you have is important to consider, some businesses are only intended for local audiences, however if yours is one that could be utilized worldwide this is an important factor to consider. You can use Sitecore's language versions and Next.js’ internationalized routing features to ensure the correct language and regional versions of your pages are indexed by search engines.
4. Image Optimization
Sitecore Media Library helps with metadata management which makes adding alt text, titles and descriptions easy. It also automatically resizes and compresses images which improves the page load speed and makes them responsive. When handling images outside of the Sitecore Media Library you can use packages such as Next-Image-Export-Optimizer during the build process to optimize your images.
Making sure your images are appropriately sized and have metadata attached will make a big difference for the search engine rankings.
5. Handling Page Status Codes
To ensure that Next.js handles status codes like 404 correctly for SEO purposes, it's important to avoid the default behavior where the status code may still be 200 even for "Not Found" pages. This can negatively affect SEO, as search engines might index incorrect pages. To correct this, you can modify the 404.tsx file in Next.js to return the appropriate 404 status code when needed. This involves using getStaticProps to fetch data and ensure that the notFound property is set to true, triggering the 404 response. For more information about the Sitecore side of handling error pages check out our previous blog.
Enhance Your SEO Success With Sitecore and Next.js
Using effective SEO strategies is crucial for maximizing your website’s visibility as well as attracting organic traffic, by incorporating these techniques you’ll improve your search rankings, reach a wider audience and drive more organic web traffic. Utilizing Sitecore and Next.js can significantly enhance your websites search engine performance, and both are continuously evolving. As new features and improvements are released, they may offer new ways to enhance your SEO strategies, we’ll be sure to keep an eye out for improvements and update you as new features become available, so make sure to follow our blog for updates!
