SEO Ultimate¶

To help you automatically optimize and greatly improve the performance of your Magento-based store in Search Engines, Mageplaza SEO extension will bring your store a great chance to own an amazing speed as well as to gain the higher and higher ranks in the popular and famous search engines such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo.

In order to install SEO extension on your store, you can learn and do it by yourself via Installation Guide or use Installation Service Package to request the specialist helps from Mageplaza Team.

I. Configuration¶

Login to your Magento 2 backend Stores > Settings > Configurations > Mageplaza Extension: SEO, follow our given guide below to complete those SEO configurations

General
Duplicate Content
Structure Data
Business Information
Social Profiles
Verifications
HTML Sitemap
XML Sitemap
Canonical URLs
Redirects
SEO Rules
Page Analysis
Cross Links
Dashboard Reports
Hreflang Tags

1.1. General Configuration¶

Choose Enable = “Yes” to turn Mageplaza SEO on generally.

1.2. Duplicate Content¶

Filtering results (from layered navigation pages, etc) is the main cause of generating many similar URLs, and search crawlers assess them are all the same, in other words, it’s called duplicate content. Therefore, you must have the assist from Canonical tags to reduce the duplication of content on the page, this is an onpage SEO tip to note obviously.

In the Use Canonical Link Meta Tag For Categories field: Choose “Yes” to display Canonical tags of Category pages which are from Source Category on the frontend.

In the Use Canonical Link Meta Tag For Products field: Choose “Yes” to display Canonical tags of Source Product on the frontend.

1.3. Structure Data¶

In the Enable Product Structured Data field:
- Select “Yes” to display the basic information of products when they are searched by search engines.
- By this intuitive design, Product Structured Data will increase click through rate (CTR) drastically. Thus, products from your store will be ranked higher on search results.
- You can check Product Structure Data at the Page Source of Product Detail Page. Structure Data will mirror exactly as the basic information of that product.
In the Enable Sitelinks Searchbox field:
- Select “Yes” to display your store’s Searchbox on the Sitelinks. As soon as your store displays on the search results, your store searchbox will also display with the store’s link.
- You can test the code in Page Source of Homepage.

1.4. Business Information¶

In the Enable Bussiness Information field: Select “Yes to display information about your business in the search result.
When you leave any field blank, the information for that field will not display.
You can test the code in Page Source of Homepage.

1.6. Verifications¶

In the Verification field, you need to enter the verification code to confirm the ownership of your site. Hence, you can use the Web services such as Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, Pinterest and Yandex Webmaster Tools.

In the Google Search Console field: Enter the verification code for Google Search Console.
In the Bing Webmaster Tools field: Enter the verification code for Bing Webmaster Tools.
In the Pinterest field: Enter the verification code for Pinterest.
In the Yandex Webmaster Tools field: Enter the verification code for Yandex Webmaster Tools.

1.7. Canonical URLs¶

If the content of your site has the same article with others, search engines will underestimate the quality of your content and thus reduce the ranking of your website. Therefore, you must have a Canonical tags to reduce the duplication of content on the page, this is an onpage SEO tips which should be noted.

Expand Canonical URLs configuration to see basic modules:

In the Add Canonical URL Meta Header field: Choose “Yes” if you want to add canonical URL for Meta Header Tags
In the Disable Canonical URL for Pages with NOINDEX robots field: Choose “No” if you want to disable all canonical URL for pages with NOINDEX robots since it’s not good for your SEO procedure (eg Search Pages, 404 Pages, etc)
In the Don’t use Canonical URL for these pages field: Default option is “No”. Entered pages won’t display Canonical URL.

1.8. Redirects¶

Scroll until Redirect’s general configuration reaches your eyes.

In the Enable Redirects field: choose “Yes” to allow this function to work.
In the Better 404 Page field: choose “Yes” if you want all 404 Pages to be redirected to your Homepage.

An additional user guide for Redirects can be found here

1.9. SEO Rules¶

Head forward to Mageplaza > SEO: Configuration > SEO Rules in order to take the basic control for Rules generally.

In the Enable SEO Rules field: Choose “Yes” to enable all set SEO rules
In the Use H1 Heading for Product Pages field: Select “Yes” if you want to apply H1 Heading for Product Pages.
In the Use H1 Heading for Category Pages field: Choose “Yes” if you want to apply H1 Heading for Category Pages.
In the Enable Automatic Alt Image field: The required alt attribute specifies an alternate text for an image, if the image cannot be displayed. Choose “Yes” to enable this function”

1.10. Page Analysis¶

Page Analysis will assist you on marking which and how to perform the structured data is the best for SEO progress. Choose “Yes” to turn the page analysis function on.

Take a look at how it works by this example. Go to Products > Catalog > choose a product.

Then, expand Search Engine Optimization tab.

This field allows the users can edit and see visually how the structured data will be displayed in the Search Engine Result Pages.

Add the Meta Title.
Add the URL Key.
Insert the Meta Description.

Below the Meta Title and Meta Description field, there is a bar which notices the status of the text length.

Red: The text lengh is not good for SEO.
Orange: The text length is short and not good for SEO.
Green: The text length is good for SEO.

After inserting the content on the other Main Keyword field, the system will automatically check and show the analysis. The analysis is based on:

The Focus keyword.
The Meta title, URL Key, Meta Description content.
The Description and Short Description content on the Content tab.
The Product Image’s description.

1.11. Cross Links¶

In the Enable/Disable field, select “Yes” to enable cross links work, or “No” if you wish for the vice versa result. For more configuration how to set up crosslinks, please refer to this Part V

1.12. Dashboard Reports¶

Dashboard Reports will gather and notice you all negative factors are harmful to your sites, which is also decreasing your SEO ranking badly.

In the Enable SEO Reports field: If you want to enable this function, choose “Yes”.
In the Show Report on Dashboard field: Choose “Yes” if you want to display the report on the dashboard.
In the Apply name duplicate report content field: If you enable Dashboard Reports, this module will be added and you can be allowed to configure it now. Select a page you want to apply name duplicate report content (such as Meta, Content, Frontend Identify, Description of products, Category pages or Product View pages)
Click on Reindex Data button to apply the module for data or configuration changes.

A new report system will be displayed at the dashboard of your admin backend which is obviously useful for daily checkings. This helpful friend will help you keep track of these pages:

Duplicate Content
Missing Meta Data
Low Count Word
404 Pages

If Dashboard report is disable, you can check it at Report > Mageplaza: SEO Report.

1.13. Hreflang Tags¶

In the Enable Hreflang Url field: Choose “Yes” to enable Hreflang tags for your sites.
In the Enable For Product field: Choose “Yes” to enable Hreflang for Product pages
In the Enable For Category field: Choose “Yes” to enable Hreflang for Category pages
In the Enable For CMS Page field: Choose “Yes” to enable Hreflang for CMS pages
In the Use Language Code from Default Locale field: Choose “Yes” if you want to use Language Code from Default Locale section.
In the Language Code field: Choose your preferred Language Code
In the X-Default field: Choose “Choose “Default Store View” if you want to set the above Language Code” as the default language.

II. Manage Rules¶

To add a new rule, please follow the path Marketing > SEO: Manage Rules, click on Add Rule button, choose one type of page you want to create a new rule apply for:

Product Pages
Category Pages
CMS Pages
Layered Navigation

Note: There existed Default: Layered Navigation in the Rule Management. This rule’s function is for fixing filtered result’s title like this below screenshot. It can’t be eliminated. However, you can Enable/Disable or modify the rule as your favor.

In this below guide, let’s take a try with the Product Pages

A new rule information page appears. Fill all required information which are divided into 4 parts at the sidebar, please follow those explanation for each field

2.1 Rule Information¶

In the Name field: Enter a Rule Name
In the Status field: Set Status to “Enable” for the active rule
In the Store view field: Choose Store View where the rule is applied
In the Priority field: Set Priority number, 0 is the highest level.

2.2 Conditions¶

It’s pretty easy to add/remove its content

2.3 Actions¶

In the Meta Title Template box: Enter the Meta Tile Template
In the Meta Description Template box: Enter the Meta Tile Template. Use following syntax to add dynamic meta title: {{name}}, {{price}}, {{special_price}}.
In the Meta Keywords Template field: Enter the Meta Keywords Template. It should be between 3-5 keywords. Use following syntax to add dynamic meta title: {{name}}, {{price}}, {{special_price}}.
In the Robot Template field: Select Robots Template from one of the options to set the index permission for search engine’s robots: * Index, Follow * NoIndex, Follow * Index, NoFollow * NoIndex, NoFollow
In the Apply Template field there are two modes: * “Skip if already defined” means if admin manually added meta tag: title, description, so it will not apply this template. * “Force Update” means auto-applying the template for all meta tags

2.4 Preview¶

This is the final step where you can check the result after setting up a bunch of required information. For example, it will appear like this

The rule form and its action of the rest Category Pages, CMS Pages or Layered Navigation is pretty similar to the Product Page’s form

Editing template rule form is the same with creating a new one. At Marketing > SEO: Manage Rules choose Edit the rule you want to alter. Remember to clicl on ``Apply Rules``every time you edit a rule to apply it properly.

III. SEO Tools¶

This add-on tool will assist SEO extension in assessing and marking which and how to perform the structured data at the best for SEO progress. You can have a general review for the SEO analysis at the Product Page, Category Page and CMS Page.

For example with a product:

Go to Product > Catalog, choose Edit a random one.
Choose PageSpeed Insight button at the header

The page will be directed to PageSpeed Insight page for the check execution.

PageSpeed Insights will focus on 2 key issues: page loading speed and user friendliness. These factors comply with Google web optimization methods as well as automate adjustment process.

Apply the same action with Category Page and CMS Page.

IV. Checklist¶

Follow Mageplaza > SEO: Checklist

SEO Checklist includes a list of the notifications: Success, Error, and Warning. Based on this status of the notification, you will know whether your store is optimized and ready for SEO or not.

V. Manage Crosslinks¶

Our crosslinks feature will work under customizable terms. In the other words, It will retrieve keywords and automatically place a pre-installed internal link that makes it’s possible to associate with other sales pages

E.g Crosslinks will replace all appeared “Luma” words by an internal link. You won’t have to do all the syntax works manually which also can cut down the decorate content time.

Please make sure that the Crosslink’ genenal configuration in Part 1.13 has been enabled.

5.1 How to create a new term¶

To make a new term for your store, go to Marketing > SEO > Manage Crosslinks. Click red button Add new Term.

Fill up all the required information fields you wish to set up for your new term. Creating a new term’s form will be performed like this.

In the Keyword field (require information): Enter a new keyword you want to create.
In the Enable field: Set up the status for the term. Choose “Yes” if you want to apply for this term
In the Link Alt/Title field: This is for the short description for this keyword. This will be inserted into a title attribute. We suggest that you should add keywords that you want to boost your ranking in SERPs. E.g: Buy iPhone in New York
In the Link Target field: Target’s attribute of the Internal link.
- If you want to open a new tab, you should choose: _blank (New tab)
- If you want to open it in a popup box, choose _self (Current tab)
- If you want to open it in the current page, choose _top (Full body of the window)
In the Link to field: Define the form of address that Internal links refer to. There will be 3 kinds of form.
- Custom Link: URL’s path will be put together with domain of this website. E.g: /iphone.html . This value does not include the domain name.
- Product stock keeping unit (SKU): Base on SKU link to the product URL. E.g: iphone
- Category ID: Base on ID link to the category URL. E.g: 23
In the Store View field: Choose store view(s) you want to apply the term.
In the Apply for field: Choose section you want to place crosslinks.
- Product Description
- Category Description
- Page Content
In the Limit Number Of Links Per Page field: Enter a value which limits the number of links per page. Default: 3.
In the Direction field: Specify direction which Crosslinks function will find and replace the keyword. Random or Top down will be good recommendation.
In the Rel field: The rel’s attribute of Internal link. There are 2 options: Default or Nofollow.
In Priority field: Set up value for the priority of this keyword. Higher priority term will be applied first. 0 is the highest.

5.2 How to edit/delete existed terms¶

Follow Marketing > SEO > Manage Crosslinks. A list of existed terms will appear. Select in the Action button to customize the term you want to edit/delete.

Click Save term after editing.

VI. SEO Checklist¶

SEO Checklist includes a list of the notifications: Success, Error, and Warning. Based on this status of the notification, you will know whether your store is optimized and ready for SEO or not. Follow Marketing > SEO: Checklist

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