The Strategy
Implementing Clear & Consistent Indexing Signals
One of the key technical SEO requirements is to make sure that your content is easily accessible for search engine crawlers.
The client’s Robots.txt directives needed to be revised to reflect the client’s indexing preferences accurately. For example, a subdomain on the site containing hundreds of API-related URLs were excluded from crawling, freeing up the crawl budget for more important sections of the website.
A robots.txt file is a text document on a website’s server that instructs search engine bots on which pages they can crawl and index. It helps control what content appears in search results by specifying which areas of the site they do not want to be crawled.
Here’s an example of a robots.txt file for an eCommerce website:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /account/
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /wishlist/
Disallow: /search/
In this example:
- “User-agent: *” specifies that the rules apply to all web crawlers.
- “Disallow: /checkout/” prevents crawlers from accessing the checkout pages.
- “Disallow: /account/” blocks crawlers from accessing user account pages.
- “Disallow: /cart/” prevents crawlers from accessing the shopping cart pages.
- “Disallow: /wishlist/” blocks crawlers from accessing the wishlist pages.
- “Disallow: /search/” instructs crawlers not to crawl the search pages.
Use our free Robots.txt generator tool which will automatically create one for you and learn more about the best practices here.
Implementing Canonical Tags
Canonical tags are HTML elements used to indicate the preferred version of a web page when duplicate or similar content exists across multiple URLs. Such tags were missing from the client’s website, which had numerous pages with similar, templated content.
Implementing canonical tags is important for SEO as they:
- Prevent Duplicate Content: Canonical tags consolidate duplicate or similar content under a single preferred URL, preventing search engines from indexing multiple versions of the same content.
- Consolidate Link Equity: They concentrate inbound links to a single URL, enhancing its authority and improving search rankings.
- Improve Crawl Efficiency: Canonicalisation streamlines the crawling process by guiding search engine bots to the primary version of a page, enhancing crawl efficiency.
- Enhance User Experience: By consolidating similar content, canonical tags improve user experience by ensuring visitors are directed to the most relevant and authoritative version of a page.
Here are some best practices to follow when implementing canonicals:
- Use Self-Referencing Canonicals: Each page should include a canonical tag pointing to its own URL.
- Choose the Preferred URL: Select the most authoritative and representative URL as the canonical version to consolidate link equity and avoid indexing variations.
- Use Absolute URLs: Specify canonical URLs using absolute paths rather than relative paths to ensure accuracy and prevent potential canonicalization errors.
For example, use <link rel=”canonical” href=”https://www.example.com/page” /> instead of <link rel=”canonical” href=”/page” />
- Avoid Canonical Chains: Prevent creating a chain of canonicals by ensuring each canonical tag points directly to the preferred URL rather than through intermediary pages.
- Canonicalise Pagination: Implement canonical tags on paginated content to consolidate link equity and prevent duplicate content issues across pagination pages.
Improving User Navigation With Breadcrumbs
As a platform with hundreds of location-based pages for states and cities within the U.S.A., it was important to ensure that users were able to quickly and easily navigate around the website. We implemented breadcrumb navigation to help address this.
Breadcrumb navigation (aka breadcrumbs) displays a hierarchical trail of links, typically near the top of a webpage; helping users track their path from the homepage to the current page. For example:
By implementing breadcrumbs, you:
- Enhance Navigation: Provide users with a clear path back to previous pages or sections, making it easier to navigate through the website.
- Improve User Experience: By offering a visual representation of the site’s structure, breadcrumbs help users understand their location within the website, reducing confusion and enhancing overall user experience.
- Reduce Bounce Rate: Clear navigation aids like breadcrumbs can reduce bounce rates by helping users explore more pages and stay engaged with the website.
Breadcrumbs can also contribute to SEO by providing additional internal linking opportunities, which can improve the discoverability and indexing of pages by Google.
User & Search Engine-Friendly Content Optimisation
With Google’s emphasis on providing helpful content, it was vital that the individual listing pages on the site provided value and addressed what users were searching for based on their location. At the same time, key on-page elements such as the page titles and headings lacked optimisation for target keywords.
When optimising content, we focused on:
- User Intent: we identified questions and concerns that users may have for each location listing page and provided clear, easy-to-understand answers. By aligning the content with the user in mind, we were able to provide a more valuable and smoother experience.
- Heading Structure: we broke up key pieces of information with a logical heading structure (i.e. using H2s and H3s for subheadings) to make it easier for users to find what they’re looking for and help search engines understand the structure of the content.
- Internal Links: we added internal links to other relevant pages on the website, specifically, to nearby cities and states that may be useful for users. Doing so helps keep visitors on the site for longer and encourages search engines to crawl pages by following these internal links.
