Softr SEO Checklist
Key steps for optimizing your app and tracking results.
Softr has all the features that you need to optimize your application for search engines as well as monitor traffic, conversions, and more. Hereโs a list of some of the key things you should consider for your Softr app in terms of SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
1. Tracking and reporting
Google Search Console is an essential tool for measuring your site performance as well as detecting issues. To set it up, go to your Google Search Console dashboard, navigate to Settings => Ownership Verification, choose the HTML tag option, and copy the value of content as shown below.
![Getting the verification tag](https://www.notion.so/image/https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fsecure.notion-static.com%2F24a2a318-10e3-4be9-8934-846052ebb0a9%2Fverification-tag.png?table=block&id=398a4947-7907-44af-91ab-98ec9aee5a27&cache=v2)
Next, navigate to your Softr appโs settings and paste the tag under Google Site Verification. Hit Save and publish your app, and youโre done.
Additionally, Softr offers integrations with such user analytics tools as Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Microsoft Clarity.
2. Page SEO
In page settings, you can configure SEO Title and Description to specify how your page appears in search results.
![How the page appears in Google search](https://www.notion.so/image/https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fsecure.notion-static.com%2F195233f9-7181-4a9e-ba2a-3d6387b0e476%2Fsearch_page.png?table=block&id=6748e5a5-9a5b-43d6-95bb-a30c7021e172&cache=v2)
You need to make sure that your title and description fit the character limit. Google typically displays the first 50โ60 characters of a title tag. Descriptions are limited to about 155 characters for desktop search and 120 characters for mobile search. There are also online tools such as Mangoolโs SERP Simulator that can help you with this.
![Page SEO settings](https://www.notion.so/image/https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fsecure.notion-static.com%2Ffc68f253-e6cd-4005-82f6-333b4c0a0478%2Fpage-settings.png?table=block&id=0fe814f0-8d42-4404-81c1-99c07365d6ce&cache=v2)
Further on, you can control your pageโs indexing as well as add a Canonical URL.
To see which pages on your site are in the Google index, you can do a Google Web Search for "site:mywebsite.com."
3. Using the Custom Code section
There is a Custom Code section in every pageโs settings as well as in your appโs general settings. You can use it to add any sort of HTML or JavaScript (e.g. to integrate third-party tools that are not on the list of Softrโs integrations).
In particular, you can use the Custom Code section to add structured data in order to assist search engines in reading and categorizing the information on your page.
4. URL redirects
When we move pages to new destinations or delete them, itโs a common practice to apply a redirect from the obsolete URL to a new one to let users find the page, avoid 404 not found errors, forward the authority of the page to the new destination, and more. Using the URL Redirects feature in your app settings, you can apply a redirect to any path on your app.
5. List Details SEO setup
The List Details block works together with the List block to display details for each item in the database. Since the List Details block occupies a single page on your Softr app and displays each database recordโs details on the same page dynamically, you canโt really specify SEO parameters for each record using page settings. Therefore, Softr lets you configure SEO settings directly inside your data source. Learn more on that here.
![Adding SEO parameters inside a data source](https://www.notion.so/image/https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fsecure.notion-static.com%2F742e07d9-d084-4f56-922d-8d72381ff20b%2Fseo-fields-example.png?table=block&id=b02d17b9-6585-4969-a07b-69499c239325&cache=v2)
6. Internal and External linking
Both external and internal links help search engines understand what your page is about and how the pages on your site are related to one another.
If youโre using the Simple Text block to add text to your app, you can easily add hyperlinks through the text editor.
![The link option in text editor](https://www.notion.so/image/https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fsecure.notion-static.com%2F4097b17a-8dfe-4504-beac-9fa778dcc9be%2Fsimple-text-link.png?table=block&id=7b410381-f59f-4c6c-a5e2-7b06482dca95&cache=v2)
If youโre using another block type that doesnโt have a link option for text, you can simply add an HTML <a> tag inside the text. The following screenshot illustrates this on the example of a Hero block.
![Linking from a Hero block](https://www.notion.so/image/https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fsecure.notion-static.com%2F8f9a3a87-e920-4495-ae76-5e774321c3da%2Fa-tag.png?table=block&id=d05a5916-38eb-4d90-9ed5-1d9f64ac923e&cache=v2)
Last updated on April 27, 2023