Content and SEO

Content you add with Site Management Tools can impact your site’s search engine ranking. Follow the best practice guidelines detailed here to optimize the content for search engines. These search engine optimized pages can lead to a higher search engine ranking. SEO considerations include:

Image Content SEO
Merchandising Zone SEO
Enhanced and Landing Page SEO
Text Content SEO

Image Content SEO

When you create images to add as content, give the images descriptive file names so search engines can determine the nature of the image. A file named image0012.png reveals nothing about the image, but hockey_helmet.png is more than a filename. It is also a description of the image. This descriptive file name gives the search engine more information about your site.

When adding an image with SMT, always add alternate text. Since alternate text is used by screen readers and is displayed when the image cannot be displayed, the alternate text should say something about or describe the image.

You enter the alternate text in the Alternate Text field in the Image Settings in the side panel. These settings are displayed when you add new image content or edit existing image content.

The default image template file contains the following code that places alternate text on the page. This same code also constructs the image source attribute that places the image filename on the page. So you see how the descriptive file name and alternate text provide valuable information for search engines.

          <img src="<%- data.fields.string_src %>"<% if (data.fields.string_alt) { %> alt="<%- data.fields.string_alt %>"<% } %> data-loader="false" />

See image_default.txt for the full default image template.

If you customize the image template file, be sure to include the alternate text attribute.

Do not use overly large images that can slow down page load times. Size the images to fit within the areas where you place them. If you have an image you want to place in a large area and also use as a thumbnail in a small area, then use two different images of the appropriate size for the areas. Do not place the large image in the small area and allow it to be re-sized automatically.

Merchandising Zone SEO

The default merchandising zone template is configured to use URL components when constructing hypertext links to items. The URL component is set on the item record in NetSuite. Use a descriptive URL component helps promote SEO of any page that includes a merchandising zone.

The merchandising zone template also includes the alternate text attribute for images in the item record. So setting the alternate text for each image on the item record also helps with SEO.

As with images you add with SMT, using descriptive file names for the images attached to item records further promotes SEO of the page. In the following sample from the default merchandising zone template, you see where the item URL, the image file name, and the alternate text are all used to construct an individual item in the merchandising zone.

          <% var item_url = '/'+item.urlcomponent; %>
<div class="item-cell item-cell-grid">
<a class="thumbnail" href="<%= item_url %>">
<img src="<%= item.cms.image.url %>" alt="<%= item.cms.image.alt.txt %>">
</a>
<h5><a href="<%= item_url %><%= item.name%></a></h5>

See merchzone_default.txt for the full default merchandising zone template.

Enhanced and Landing Page SEO

SEO related attributes for landing and enhanced pages are set when you create the page. These attributes include:

URL for Landing Page
Page Title
Meta Description
Meta Keywords

See Pages.

Text Content SEO

There are many SEO general best practices for text on your website pages. These include not only the position of the text on the page, but also the keywords you use in the text, formatting such as heading levels, and hypertext links to other important pages. There are numerous resources available for these general best practices, so those are not detailed in this document.

Image Content SEO

Merchandising Zone SEO

Enhanced and Landing Page SEO

Text Content SEO

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