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SEO Optimization

Optimize your Jekyll site for search engines with Arsxy theme

The Arsxy theme includes built-in SEO features to help your content rank better in search engines. This guide explains how to make the most of these features.

Built-in SEO Features

The Arsxy theme comes with several SEO optimizations out of the box:

  • Meta tags: Automatic generation of essential meta tags
  • Open Graph protocol: Social media sharing optimization
  • Twitter Cards: Enhanced Twitter sharing
  • Structured data: JSON-LD schema for better search results
  • XML sitemap: Automatic sitemap generation
  • Semantic HTML5: Proper document structure for better indexing
  • Speed optimization: Fast-loading pages for better rankings

Setting Up Basic SEO

1. Configure Site Information

In your _config.yml, ensure you have the following basic information:

title: Your Site Title
description: >-
  A detailed description of your site (150-160 characters is ideal for SEO).
url: "https://yourdomain.com"
baseurl: ""  # Leave empty unless your site is in a subdirectory

2. Configure SEO Settings

Add these SEO-specific settings to your _config.yml:

# SEO settings
seo:
  og_image: "/assets/images/og-default.jpg"  # Default Open Graph image (1200×630px recommended)
  twitter_card: summary_large_image  # Options: summary, summary_large_image
  twitter_username: yourusername
  facebook_publisher: yourusername  # Optional
  google_site_verification: "your-verification-code"  # Optional

Optimizing Individual Posts and Pages

For individual posts and pages, you can add SEO-specific front matter:

---
layout: post
title: "Optimized Post Title for SEO"
description: "A compelling meta description that will appear in search results and social shares."
image: "/assets/images/post-specific-image.jpg"  # Featured image
canonical_url: "https://yourdomain.com/original-post-url/"  # Use for syndicated content
noindex: false  # Set to true to exclude this page from search engines
---

Best Practices for SEO with Arsxy Theme

Titles and Headlines

  • Keep titles under 60 characters: This ensures they display properly in search results
  • Use H1 for the main title: Each page should have exactly one H1 tag
  • Structure headings hierarchically: Use H2, H3, etc. in a logical order
  • Include keywords naturally: Avoid keyword stuffing

Content Optimization

  • Write comprehensive content: Aim for at least 300 words per page
  • Use descriptive URLs: The theme automatically creates clean URLs
  • Optimize images: Use descriptive filenames and always include alt text
  • Internal linking: Link to other relevant content on your site
  • External links: Use rel="noopener" for external links (the theme does this automatically)

Images for SEO

The theme optimizes images for SEO by:

  1. Automatically adding appropriate alt text based on image captions
  2. Lazy-loading images to improve page speed
  3. Adding width and height attributes to prevent layout shifts
  4. Supporting WebP format with fallbacks for older browsers

Example of the built-in image include:

{% include image.html 
   src="/assets/images/example.jpg" 
   alt="Descriptive alt text" 
   caption="Optional image caption" 
   width="800" 
   height="500" 
%}

Implementing Schema Markup

The Arsxy theme automatically implements basic schema.org markup. For more specific types, you can add custom schema in your page’s front matter:

---
layout: post
title: "Product Review: Awesome Tool"
schema:
  type: "Product"
  name: "Awesome Tool Pro"
  description: "A comprehensive review of the Awesome Tool Pro"
  brand: "Awesome Company"
  offers:
    price: "99.99"
    currency: "USD"
  rating:
    value: "4.8"
    count: "52"
---

Monitoring Your SEO Performance

While the Arsxy theme optimizes your site for search engines, it’s important to monitor your performance:

  1. Set up Google Search Console for your site
  2. Connect Google Analytics by adding your tracking ID to _config.yml
  3. Regularly check for crawl errors, indexing issues, and performance metrics

SEO Tools Integration

The theme is compatible with the following SEO tools and services:

  • Google Analytics
  • Google Tag Manager
  • Fathom Analytics
  • Plausible Analytics
  • Microsoft Clarity

To integrate one of these tools, add the appropriate configuration to your _config.yml:

# Analytics
google_analytics: "UA-XXXXXXXX-X"  # Universal Analytics
gtag: "G-XXXXXXXXXX"  # Google Analytics 4
google_tag_manager: "GTM-XXXXXXX"  # Google Tag Manager
fathom_analytics: "ABCDEFGH"  # Fathom Analytics
plausible_analytics: "yourdomain.com"  # Plausible Analytics
microsoft_clarity: "abcdef1234"  # Microsoft Clarity