SEO

In This Guide

SEO overview

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of characterizing an item so that search engines can easily find and list it in search results. While individual search engines have their own methods for finding and listing items on the Internet, they all generally look for specific tags within the <head> element.

<title> and <meta> tags
SEO text often appears in the <title> and <meta> tags.

<head>
    <title>Deadly Gamma Ray Burst Headed for Manny's Pizzeria</title> 
    <meta name="description" content="Deadly Gamma Ray Burst Headed for Manny's Pizzeria"/> 
    <meta name="keywords" content="Gamma Ray Burst Manny's Pizzeria" /> 
    <meta name="robots" content="nofollow" /> 
</head>

Shows SEO in the <title> tag.
Shows SEO text in the <meta description> tag.
Shows SEO text in the <meta keywords> tag.
Instructs search engines to avoid indexing pages linked from the current page.

Open Graph properties

SEO text often appears in Open Graph Tag properties used by social networks.

 <head>
     <meta property="og:title" content="Deadly Gamma Ray Burst Headed for Manny's Pizzeria" /> 
     <meta property="og:type" content="article:tag" /> 
     <meta property="article:tag" content="Deadly Gamma Ray Burst Headed for Manny's Pizzeria" /> 
     <meta property="og:image" content="http://path/to/image.jpg" /> 
     <meta property="og:url" content="http://permalink" /> 
 </head>

Shows Open Graph text in the og:title property.
Shows Open Graph text in the og:type property.
Shows the tag line associated with the aarticle:tag property.
Specifies the image to display in the og:imageog:imageog:imageproperty. Social networks often render this image in an associated preview.
Specifies the URL in og:url property. This is the URL to which visitors arrive after clicking on the link in a social network. For example, if Malcolm shared an item on his Facebook page, Facebook includes this URL in the share. When Amy clicks on the shared item, she arrives at this URL.

You may add fields for Open Graph properties to the SEO widget in the content edit form.

How Brightspot populates SEO text

Depending on the item you create, Brightspot automatically populates the SEO fields. For example, text you type in headline and body fields automatically appears in the Title and Description fields under the SEO widget, respectively.

You can add or modify an item’s SEO entries as described in Configuring SEO for a piece of content.

Field	Description
Title	Text appearing in the item’s`<title>` tag. Brightspot automatically populates this field, and you can change the text as required.
Description	Text appearing in the item’s `<meta name="description">` tag. Brightspot automatically populates this field, and you can change the text as required.
Keywords	Text appearing in the item’s `<meta name="keywords">` tag.
Robots	Text appearing in the item’s `<meta name="robots">`tag.

Site Map
Change Frequency	Frequency by which search engines should return to this site for re-indexing. For example, if you believe the item will change every day, select Daily and the search engine will re-index your site approximately every 24 hours. For more information, see <changefreq>.
Priority	Relative priority by which search engines index this item compared to other items in your site. Enter a value in the range 0.0 to 1.0, with 0.0 being the lowest priority and 1.0 being the highest. If this field is blank, search engines assume the value is 0.5. For more information, see <priority>.

Referring to the previous illustration, Brightspot publishes the item with the following SEO information.

<title>You Think It&#x27;s Hot on Earth? Try Living on Asteroid 1566 Icarus</title>
<meta name="description" content="Temperatures on the sunward facing side of Asteroid 1566 (Icarus) reached a whopping 77 degrees Celsius (171 Fahrenheit), easily beating the standing records at Earth&#x27;s favorite vacation playgrounds at Cabo San Lucas, the French Riviera, and French Polynesia.">
<meta name="keywords" content="cabo asteroid vacation riviera polynesia">
<meta name="robots" content="notranslate,nofollow">

How search engines use SEO text

Generally speaking, when a search engine lists your web page in search results, the text it displays comes from the <title> and <meta description> tags—which Brightspot populates from your entries in an item’s SEO widget. In addition, Google sets the search terms in boldface.

Rendered SEO text in search engine results

Referring to the previous illustration, the SEO fields for your article appear as in the first image above. If a visitor searches for the terms aliens times square, the search engine may display the SEO fields as in the second image above.

Configuring SEO for a piece of content

You can help search engines better index your site by providing SEO settings for each item you publish.

To configure an item’s SEO settings:

Search for and open the item on the content edit page.
Toward the right of the widget, select more_horiz > SEO. A widget appears.
Using the following table as a reference, enter values in the fields.
Click Publish.