SEO Overview
Echo Boilerplate includes comprehensive SEO features out of the box. This guide covers all SEO functionality, best practices, and how to configure everything.
What's Included
All SEO features available in Echo
robots.txt
Search engine crawling instructions
sitemap.xml
Automated sitemap generation
Structured Data (JSON-LD)
Rich snippets for search engines
OpenGraph & Twitter Cards
Social media previews
Meta Tags
Title, description, canonical URLs
Analytics
Vercel Analytics + optional Google Analytics
robots.txt
Search engine crawling instructions
Located at /robots.txt, this file tells search engines which pages to crawl and index.
How It Works
- In production: Allows all crawling by default
- In development/preview: Blocks all crawling
- Override: Set
ROBOTS_DISALLOW_ALL=trueto block crawling in production
Configuration
sitemap.xml
Automated sitemap generation
Located at /sitemap.xml, this file helps search engines discover and index all your pages.
What's Included
- Homepage (
/) - Blog index (
/blog) - All published blog posts (
/blog/[slug]) - Last modified dates for each post
How It Works
- Automatically generated from your database
- Updates whenever you publish a new post
- Includes
lastmodtimestamps - Gracefully handles database errors (won't break your site)
Testing
Visit https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml to view your sitemap. Submit it to Google Search Console for faster indexing.
Structured Data (JSON-LD)
Rich snippets for search engines
Structured data helps search engines understand your content and enables rich snippets in search results.
Blog Posts
Each blog post automatically includes:
- BlogPosting schema - Title, description, author, dates, images
- BreadcrumbList schema - Navigation path for search engines
Example
OpenGraph & Twitter Cards
Social media previews
OpenGraph and Twitter Card meta tags control how your content appears when shared on social media.
What's Included
- og:type - "article" for blog posts, "website" for other pages
- og:title - Post title or SEO title override
- og:description - Post excerpt or SEO description
- og:image - Cover image, OG image override, or generated OG image
- twitter:card - "summary_large_image" for rich previews
Image Priority
- Explicit OG image URL (from post settings)
- Post cover image
- Generated OG image via
/api/og/post - Default OG image (from site settings)
Meta Tags
Essential meta tags for every page
Essential meta tags are automatically generated for every page.
Page-Level Tags
- title - Page title (SEO title override if set)
- description - Meta description (SEO description override if set)
- canonical - Canonical URL to prevent duplicate content
- robots - Indexing instructions (respects noindex setting)
Blog Post Overrides
In the admin panel, you can override SEO settings for each post:
- • SEO Title
- • SEO Description
- • Canonical URL
- • OG Image URL
- • Noindex flag
Best Practices
Title Tags
- • Keep under 60 characters
- • Include your brand name at the end
- • Use descriptive, keyword-rich titles
Meta Descriptions
- • Keep under 160 characters
- • Write compelling, action-oriented copy
- • Include a call-to-action
Images
- • Use high-quality images (1200x630px for OG images)
- • Optimize file sizes (use WebP when possible)
- • Always include alt text
URLs
- • Use descriptive, keyword-rich slugs
- • Keep URLs short and readable
- • Use canonical URLs to avoid duplicate content
Testing Your SEO
Tools to validate your SEO implementation