Maximizing SEO Potential with SEOBOOST for Optimizely 12

SEOBOOST for Optimizely 12 has recently undergone a significant upgrade tailored for SEO enthusiasts. This enhanced tool comes with a comprehensive set of features and an updated codebase supporting .NET Core 6. Now, developers and editors have the power to shape and control their website's SEO journey.

What's New?

Improved robots.txt Management

SEOBOOST allows editors to seamlessly manage the robots.txt file through the SBRobotsTxt pagetype. This feature provides flexibility and control, enabling editors to tailor the directives for web crawlers without the need for technical intervention.

By default, support for robots.txt is turned off, meaning SBRobotsTxt and the /robots.txt route are unavailable for editors. To enable this feature, just activate EnableRobotsTxtSupport in the Startup.cs file during configuration.

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{    
    services.AddSeoBoost(x =>
    {        
        x.EnableRobotsTxtSupport = true;     
    });
}

Canonical Links Evolution

The Canonical Link feature has evolved to offer enhanced support for various scenarios, such as 

Support for custom canonical tags property in the CMS:

• Partial routing
• Simple address
• Page shortcuts (Fetchdata, Internal shortcut)
• Multi-site & multi-domain support
• Automatic handling of trailing slashes.

Developers now have unprecedented control over generating SEO-friendly canonical URLs.

SEOBOOST allows the utilization of custom canonical links by specifying the property name in the Startup.cs file during the configuration process.

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{    
    services.AddSeoBoost(x =>
    {        
        x.CustomCanonicalTagFieldName = "CanonicalTag"; // Default ""    
    });
}

Alternate Links (hreflang attributes)

Like Canonical Links, SEOBOOST extends its support for Alternate Links with hreflang attributes. With features like Custom canonical tags in the CMS, partial routing, Simple address, Page shortcuts (Fetchdata, Internal shortcut), multi-site & multi-domain support, and automatic trailing slash handling, editors can ensure a seamless experience for users across different languages or regions.

Trailing Slash Support

SEOBOOST provides support for trailing slashes in Canonical and Alternate links by listening to the routing option. Configure this in the Configure method in Startup.cs.

services.Configure>RoutingOptions>(options =>
{
    options.UseTrailingSlash = false;
});

Installation

To harness the power of SEOBOOST, start by adding the NuGet package using the Optimizely NuGet:

dotnet add package SeoBoost

After installation, configure SEOBOOST in the Startup.cs within the ConfigureServices method. Customize the settings based on your requirements.

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
    services.AddSeoBoost(x =>
    {
        x.CustomCanonicalTagFieldName = "CanonicalTag"; // Default ""
        x.UseSimpleAddressAsPath = true; // Default false
        x.EnableRobotsTxtSupport = true; // Default false
        x.UseMirrorPageReference = true; // Default true
        x.UseSiteUrlAsHost = true; // Default false
    });

    // Additional configurations or default setup
    // ...
}

SEOBOOST Options Details

CustomCanonicalTagFieldName

The custom canonical field within a Content Management System (CMS) simplifies the responsibilities of editors in overseeing SEO-related elements. The CustomCanonicalTagFieldName field empowers developers to specify the property name for SEOBOOST. This enables the code to retrieve the property value and, if provided, use it to generate a URL for canonical or alternative links.

UseSimpleAddressAsPath

If a Simple Address or Short URL is supplied for the page in CMS, and the UseSimpleAddressAsPath option is configured as true, the URL generated for canonical or alternative links will incorporate that address.

UseMirrorPageReference

Suppose Page shortcuts on the shortcut property (Fetchdata, Internal shortcut) are configured. In that case, this option ensures that the URL generated for canonical or alternative links will include the value of the page whose shortcut has been used. This helps in preventing duplicate content issues.

UseSiteUrlAsHost

The default behaviour is for the host part of the URL to be generated based on the primary hostname set in site settings. However, this option ensures the site URL property is used instead of the primary hostname.

EnableRobotsTxtSupport

Enabling this option will activate support for the robots.txt file in the CMS, making a robots.txt page type available to editors and establishing the /robots.txt route.

You can access comprehensive documentation for SEOBOOST for Optimizely 12 on its GitHub repository at https://github.com/adnanzameer/optimizely-seoboost.