SEO for content pages

What's inside this article:

• Basic information
• Title
• URL Slug
• Authors
• Alt text
• Links to other pages
• Tags
• Social media settings
• Meta description

Basic information

This article lists the settings that are important for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) when you create a content page.

The information applies for the following content page types:

• Text-based content:
  • Article | Blog | FactCheck | Feature | Feature story | Live blog | News | Transcript
• Multimedia content:
  • Audio clip | Document | Photo gallery | Slider gallery | Video
• Interactive content:
  • Static infographics

Title

Via General > Title, enter the main title for the page. The main title is also applied as the meta title.

The main title is visible:

• On the content page itself
• As the clickable headline when the content page is listed on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)
• On the browser tab when the content page is open
• When the page is shared via social media (if no Social media or Website teaser title is provided)

URL slug

A URL slug is included in the URL for the content page.

Apply a URL slug for a content page via General > URL Slug.

We recommend applying a URL slug for every content page. An effective URL Slug offers the following benefits:

• Improved user experience, as it is clear where the user will go after clicking the link.
• URLs that include keywords might be ranked more highly by search engines.
• Consistent use of effective URLs boosts the authority of your domain for search engines.

For detailed information about URL slugs, see the following article:

• Applying a URL Slug

Authors

Consistently assigning authors to content pages is recommended to demonstrate authority and build trust with your audience. The author names are visible at the top of a published content page.

You can assign one or multiple authors to a content page via Authors, contributors in the left panel. For detailed instructions, see the following article:

• Assigning authors to content pages

You can only choose from authors who are already created and included on the authors list for your service. For information about creating a new author, see the following article:

• Creating an author

Alt text

When you embed an image on a content page, you can define custom alt text under Alt text.

The alt text (or 'alternative text') for an image is not directly visible on the site. Alt text is applied in the page's source code in the alt tag for the individual image.

Alt text serves the following purposes:

• Read aloud by screen readers for visually impaired visitors to your site and visitors who are otherwise unable to see the screen
• Displayed on the site if the image fails to load
• Helps search engines index the image so it ranks more highly in image searches

Providing custom alt text is optional, but strongly recommended for better SEO and site accessibility. For information about best practice, see the following article:

• Creating alt text

Links to other pages

We recommend paying attention to the following settings when you create links to other pages:

• Link text
• Link target

Link text

Link text (or anchor text) is a string of words / characters on the public site that opens another page when clicked or tapped. Search engines use link text to understand how the linked page is viewed by other sources. Effective link text can positively influence how the linked page ranks on SERPs.

You cannot influence links to your pages from third-party sites. However, we recommend paying close attention to the link text whenever you create a link to another page from your own site. Google recommends link text that is "descriptive, reasonably concise, and relevant to the page that it's on and to the page it links to".

Link target

When you create a link to another page, you can choose from following options under Target:

• Open link in the same window: Opens the link in the same tab. This option is recommended for links to pages from the same site.
• Open link in new window: Opens the link in a new tab. This option is recommended for links to pages from other sites.

Tags

Assign tags to a content page via Tags in the left panel. The tags are added as meta keywords for the page.

Tags in Pangea CMS also have the following uses:

• Optimize search on the public site.
• Filter results according to tags when you use search in Pangea CMS.
• Configure a widget to only promote content that is assigned a certain tag.

More information about tags is available here:

• Assigning and managing Tags

Social media settings

Via Social media in the left panel, you can control how the content page will look when it is shared via social media.

For detailed information, see the following article:

• Customizing the social media preview for a content page

The data for the social media preview is taken as follows (if 1 is not filled, the text is taken from 2, then 3):

1. The page's Social media settings
2. The page's Website teaser settings
3. The page's General settings

Meta description

The meta description is provided to search engines as the recommended text for the description (or snippet) on SERPs.

Search engines always look for the most informative and relevant snippet to match the specific user query. They often prefer to pull relevant text from the page content, rather than using the meta description. However, Google states that the meta description is sometimes used if it gives users a more accurate description than would be possible purely from the on-page content.

The meta description is generated differently for different content page types. In general, you can ensure that a content page has an assigned meta description by completing at least one of the settings listed below:

• General > Introduction
• Website teaser > Introduction

If you're curious to learn exactly how the meta description is defined on different content page types, review the tables below:

• Text-based content pages
• Multimedia content pages
• Interactive content pages

Text-based content pages

The table below shows how the meta description is generated for text-based content pages (if 1 is not filled, the text is taken from 2, then 3):

Multimedia content pages

The table below shows how the meta description is generated for multimedia content pages (if 1 is not filled, the text is taken from 2, then 3):

Interactive content pages

The table below shows how the meta description is generated for interactive content pages (if 1 is not filled, the text is taken from 2, then 3):