superior search engine optimisation for Lightning Communities

in this weblog post, you'll learn about how to design and strengthen Lightning Communities for search engine optimization (search engine marketing). We'll tell you a way to accomplish this with product aspects and surest practices in intellect.

A key component of any a success public-dealing with web site (or community) is the skill for clients to even understand that your content material exists. search engine optimisation has been around since the days of dial-up, but now more than ever Google, Bing, and different engines like google are the default beginning elements for consumers taking a visit in the course of the good ole' internet.

In community Cloud, we be mindful just how crucial it's that your group is optimized to convey probably the most search engine optimisation 'juice' to carry value to your consumers and your company. Our goal is to assist everybody from neighborhood Cloud freshmen to gurus understand exactly how the product works behind-the-scenes these days and how convenient it's for anybody to without delay configure additional metadata tags, and many others.

in case you're new to SEO and Lightning Communities, we recommend reviewing the search engine optimization for Communities FAQ documentation to be aware the basics.

Single-web page apps & search engine optimisation

It's critical to grasp that Lightning Communities are single-web page applications (SPA); the equal framework that websites like Gmail and facebook leverage. not like normal sites that are made of a network of individual pages, single-page apps load a single HTML "frame" and uses AJAX and HTML5 to dynamically update the content rendered out to the conclusion consumer.

while search engines have made big advancements on how they could index and crawl JavaScript-based sites they don't always 'like it.' To assist on this entrance, we generate a 'static' HTML view of every page for your group this is served up to search engines like google and yahoo in response to the user-agent string (ex: googlebot). this is the place conclusion-users will proceed to peer the JavaScript-primarily based journey.

understanding the auto-generated sitemap file

Do you've got a Lightning neighborhood? have you enabled public access within the neighborhood Builder, published your group and activated it in neighborhood administration Console (CMC) or Workspaces? Congratulations, you now have an auto-generated sitemap file in your neighborhood (sitemap.xml) that adheres to the common sitemap protocols. The easiest way to view the content material of your sitemap.xml file is effortlessly to add "sitemap.xml" after your neighborhood url (ex: https://yourdomain.com/community/s/sitemap.xml). if you are not finding the file then right away double-investigate the static of your group.

<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9" xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <sitemap> <loc>http://SITEMAP_URL/sitemap-topic-1.xml> <lastmod>2017-12-13T04:30:forty four.832Z</lastmod> </sitemap> <sitemap> <loc>http://SITEMAP_URL/sitemap-topicarticle-1.xml> <lastmod>2017-12-13T04:30:forty six.238Z</lastmod> </sitemap> <sitemap> <loc>http://SITEMAP_URL/sitemap-listview-1.xml> <lastmod>2017-12-13T04:30:48.600Z</lastmod> </sitemap> <sitemap&gt <loc>http://SITEMAP_URL/sitemap-view-1.xml> <lastmod>2017-12-13T04:30:49.325Z</lastmod> </sitemap> <sitemap> <loc>http://SITEMAP_URL/sitemap-question-1.xml> <lastmod>2017-12-13T04:30:fifty two.618Z</lastmod> </sitemap> <sitemap> <loc> http://SITEMAP_URL/sitemap-collaborationgroup-1.xml </loc> <lastmod>2017-12-13T04:30:53.273Z</lastmod> </sitemap> <sitemap> <loc>http://SITEMAP_URL/sitemap-items-1.xml> <lastmod>2017-12-13T04:30:54.192Z</lastmod> </sitemap> <sitemap> <loc> http://SITEMAP_URL/sitemap-workbadgedefinition-1.xml </loc> <lastmod>2017-12-13T04:31:04.302Z</lastmod> </sitemap> </sitemapindex>

Did I point out that we don't create the sitemap.xml file for Sandbox orgs? We've heard your feedback loud and clear so we are reevaluating the standards behind this decision. for the time being in case you are looking to permit the sitemap.xml file in a Developer edition Org that you can create a assist ticket with Salesforce requesting that the permission is enabled.

producing the sitemap.xml file

as soon as your neighborhood is published and activated, an internal process is triggered to "index" your Lightning group to generate the appropriate sitemap.xml files. As serps are very nearly visitor (unauthenticated) users coming to your community, this internal procedure leverages the guest user Profile it really is automatically generated when public entry is granted within the neighborhood Builder:

All standard group pages (ex: domestic, Contact guide, Search, and so forth) that have not been marked as "Requires Login" in web page properties might be blanketed and captured in sitemap-view-[ ].xml. through default all Chatter-connected pages (i.e. themes, Discussions, etc) and public corporations will even be protected in your sitemap below sitemap-theme-[ ].xml, sitemap-question-[ ].xml and sitemap-collaborationgroup-[ ].xml.

Object pages that are used to symbolize object information (record View, checklist View, linked record View) play by means of a little different set guidelines considering you can also best are looking to expose a subset of objects inside a group – and handiest a subset of these objects to a guest person. as an instance, if I even have given my visitor person Profile examine access to several ordinary objects (debts, instances, Contacts, and many others), then corresponding sitemap entries for every checklist page in those objects can be generated.

It's important to grasp that even though all of the statistics of our products object could be covered within the sitemap.xml file, the potential for a guest consumer access to the underlying facts (list) during the neighborhood remains decided with the aid of Salesforce security (sharing suggestions, box-stage protection, permission sets, and so on).

word: when you've got enabled numerous languages to your neighborhood we will immediately encompass the entire central lang_local combinations for the neighborhood web page URLs (ex: /s/home?language=en_US and /s/home?language=es_MX).

Why am I not seeing some pages in my sitemap?

here is a short checklist to run through if you're not discovering group page(s) in your sitemap.xml file:

you have posted any updates (ex: adding new pages) to your neighborhood.

For regular pages be certain that the web page access isn't set to "Requires Login."

For object pages be sure that the visitor consumer Profile of the community has at the least "study" access for the corresponding object.

if you are the usage of URL parameters in a typical web page to carry any dynamic data (ex: /s/product?productId=12345), this will not be crawled through the inner system that generates the sitemap.xml file. here's because we have no idea what values are valid for the parameter(s) and what the underlying Salesforce object is. in its place you'll want to leverage object pages to your community (ex: /s/product/12345) for all the record pages to be crawled.

setting yourself up for success

at all times overview what objects your visitor user Profile has entry to earlier than activating your neighborhood. now not best is this a superior apply for controlling the scope of your sitemap.xml file, but it surely's a optimum practice for retaining your community cozy.

Make use of the "alternate Base URL" characteristic purchasable in page houses for object pages to create extra search engine optimisation-pleasant names (as the name for your customized objects may now not have been designed with that in intellect).

overview the accuracy of your sitemap.xml file earlier than submitting it to Google, Bing, etc. every search engine has their personal suggestions around how generally they'll reindex sitemap submissions.

believe making use of non-compulsory URL parameters to generate greater SEO-pleasant URLs to your community.

web page-degree website positioning optimization (New in Spring '18)

With the Spring '18 free up we have elevated our aid for more meta tags and introduced support for greater granular and dynamic, page-degree search engine optimization customization. Let's take a glance.

Meta tags: On both typical and object pages a brand new "Edit Meta Tags" button is attainable which lets you configure meta tags for particular person neighborhood pages that can be rendered moreover any "international" meta tags that you've got configured within the Head Markup of your group.

Dynamic record element page titles and descriptions: You now have more control and adaptability over the technology of your record aspect web page <title> and <meta identify="description"> values. Use expressions to dynamically display record-degree values for any field on the item that the guest person Profile has entry to. Say goodbye to the times of being stuck with a single web page title, or hacking your manner via DOM injection with customized Lightning components.

including social media tags

you adore sharing issues, we like sharing things and so do your consumers. With increased guide for additional meta tags and tag values it's less demanding than ever to configure your social media tags from OpenGraph to Twitter during the Head Markup of your community.

And with web page-stage meta tag help that you would be able to choose to both increase, or override, any 'international' tags that you simply can also have configured within your Head Markup.

be aware that in the future we plan to help $useful resource.resourceName in our meta tag editors, but for now be sure you leverage right here URL sample for static elements inside group Builder: /sfsites/c/aid/aid name.

additional counsel & hints

aiding organic crawling: Submitting the sitemap.xml file for indexing is just a part of the story. all the time leverage the force:navigateToURL to generate correctly shaped <a href> links to your customized Lightning components to aid with biological web page crawling as smartly.

Robots.txt vs. <noindex>: remember that the two are not the identical and sooner or later you might also desire a combination of each to manage what pages are crawled and/or listed via search engines like google. We advocate that you just overview this article with the aid of Google to aid ebook you. you can gain knowledge of details on the way to enforce a customized robots.txt file in your neighborhood here and with page-degree meta tag aid which you could additionally put into effect 'noindex' on the preferred pages.

Third-party web optimization analysis tools: As we're a single-web page application (SPA) framework, if you plan to use any third-birthday celebration search engine marketing equipment to scan your group be sure that they are configured properly to crawl JavaScript-based mostly sites (ex: https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/crawl-javascript-website positioning/#crawl).

Validating page indexing: counting on Google's "web site: xxx" search sample is a great way to verify the accepted repute of your community pages being indexed, but isn't at all times one hundred% accurate.

efficiency: Don't forget the significance that site pace can play in search engine optimisation. Leverage our free Salesforce group web page Optimizer plug-in (Chrome) from day one among your construction.

resources

 

concerning the authors

David eco-friendly (@d_l_green) is a product manager within the neighborhood Cloud team this is obsessed with enabling our developers and companions to carry prosperous and immersive digital experiences.

Ken Hui is an engineering supervisor within the neighborhood Cloud group who looks out over the underlying expertise platform and features that energy each Lightning community.

Dmitry Vinnick (@DmitryVinnik) is an engineer within the group Cloud crew that has been engaged on building a first class product and SEO adventure.

Henry Chen (@HenryChen_sfdc) is an engineer in the group Cloud crew that has been engaged on constructing a firstclass product and search engine optimization adventure.