SmartCrawl 3.3.2

SmartCrawl

SmartCrawl  martcrawl plugin is a WordPress SEO plugin that creates sitemaps and auto-links keywords along with many other small functions. It sends sitemap updates to search engines, auto-link keywords to any URL, add custom descriptions and titles and it also comes with built-in Moz integration.

SmartCrawl Pro gives you everything you need for fast, powerful WordPress SEO. Start ranking higher with industry-leading features like:

• SmartCrawl  Automated SEO checkups and reports
• SmartCrawl  Sitemap auto-generator and search engine notifications
• SmartCrawl  Titles and meta descriptions
• Full support for default schema.org types
• Site crawls, scans, and reports
• Automatic linking
• 301 Redirects
• Advanced social media sharing

• This guide explains how to use SmartCrawl’s SEO features to drive more traffic to your site or network. Use the Index on the left to quickly locate usage guidance on specific features.

  If you haven’t installed SmartCrawl yet, then you should visit the SmartCrawl Pro page where you can explore the plugin’s many features, and where WPMU DEV members can install SmartCrawl Pro directly to any connected site.

  INCLUDED WITH EVERY WPMU DEV HOSTED SITE

  Every WPMU DEV hosted site comes fully loaded with Pro versions of the following plugins automatically installed for you: Smush, Hummingbird, Defender, SmartCrawl and Forminator. Not hosting with us yet? Check out our Hosting page to see if we might be a good fit for your projects.

  Streamline SmartCrawl configuration in your Hub

  Staying ahead of your competition just got a whole lot easier. SmartCrawl’s powerful suite of SEO features are fully integrated with the Hub, so you can manage all the SEO needs of all your connected sites right from one location. See our blog post, Easily Configure Your WordPress SEO with SmartCrawl and The Hub, for all the details.

  Introducing Google Lighthouse

  Google Lighthouse, the industry standard for testing website performance, is now built right into both SmartCrawl and The Hub. See SEO Health below for configuration details, or read our blog post on SmartCrawl’s Lighthouse integration for a complete overview of the feature.

  3.1 Initial Setup

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  The Quick Setup Wizard popup will appear on the SmartCrawl Dashboard screen the first time it is accessed after activating the plugin.

  All the options are turned ON by default, but you can turn OFF the ones you don’t need. Don’t

  fter you’ve chosen the features that are right for you, click the Get Started button at the bottom of the module. This will activate enabled features, open your SmartCrawl Dashboard, and start your first scan under the SEO Checkup module.

  3.2 Dashboard

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  The dashboard gives you an overview of your site SEO configuration, is where you can see your setup, and can be used to quickly jump to your desired module.

  On top of the module, you can see your sites Current SEO Score, and when you ran your last checkup. Note that a new Scan will run each time you access SmartCrawl’s Dashboard, so you can have the most recent results.

  fter you’ve chosen the features that are right for you, click the Get Started button at the bottom of the module. This will activate enabled features, open your SmartCrawl Dashboard, and start your first scan under the SEO Checkup module.

  The Content Analysis module lets you see recommended improvements to your content for the best chance of ranking high in search engines, as well as improving the readability for the average person.

  he Schema module indicates whether schema has been activated in SmartCrawl (Default Markup) and displays any additional active/inactive custom Schema Types that you have configured. The module includes handy buttons to jump straight to the configuration screen, or add new customizable schema types.

  The SEO Health module runs a full SEO scan of your site, and provides a comprehensive report of how well your site is optimized for search engines and social media.

  Here you can find a list of outstanding issues identified during the latest SEO Checkup scan, if your SEO Test Mode is set to SmartCrawl Checkup. We recommend addressing as many of these issues as possible to ensure your site is SEO friendly.

  Click the down arrow next to any listed SEO issue to see suggestions on how to improve your SEO.

  Let’s go over each result so you have a better understanding of what they do and what they mean for your site.

  Canonical

  The canonical URL (rel=canonical or the canonical tag) is what search engines refer to when they see multiple versions of a page on your website or even around the web. It is now used to solve some complicated duplicate content issues and is sometimes a better tool to use than a 301 redirect.

  To Hide Redundant Canonical Link Tags go to Settings/General Settings/Meta tags.

  Google writes a great and simple explanation of the purpose of canonical URLs here. We strongly recommend checking that out. They’ve made it as clear as possible.

  avicons are small icons that appear in the URL navigation bar and are saved with the title when a page is bookmarked. Favicons help brand your site and make navigation easier.

  How do you setup a favicon? Check out our guide here: https://wpmudev.com/blog/adding-favicons-wordpress/

  Generator

  The generator will display the version of your WordPress installation. It can be considered a security risk to have your WordPress version visible to the public, so we recommend you hide it. You can easily do this with SmartCrawl in the Meta Tags section (under Settings/General Settings).

  H1 headings are HTML tags used to help clarify the overall message of your page to search engines. H1 tags represent the most important headings on your page such as the title of a page or post.

  Using H1-H6 tags shows how different blocks of content are connected and stand in relation to one another. That’s also the reason why headings are usually configured to get consecutively smaller with higher numbers. Search engines use heading content to understand the topic of your writing. Headings make your content more visually appealing and improve readability for both your visitors and browser bots. When you provide a scannable and logical structure, Google and other search engines will reward you.

  HTTPS

  HTTPS is a secure protocol for sending and receiving data over the internet. HTTPS should be used on any site that collects sensitive customer information such as credit card information. If your site does not collect personal data, switching to https will help improve privacy and overall security. Google is now using https in setting PageRank.

  Image ALTs

  Alt image text is used if an image cannot be displayed because the image can’t be found or the internet connection is slow. Use alt image text to help users and search engines better understand the subject of an image.

  Image SEO is very important so we created a helpful guide to help you get started. https://wpmudev.com/blog/9-ways-to-do-image-seo-right/

  Meta Robots

  The robots meta tag is used to tell search engine bots and crawlers what they are allowed to crawl on your site. Prevent search engines from indexing content or scanning for links on a page from Meta/HomePage/Indexing

  Meta Description

  A meta description is an HTML tag used by search engines to identify your page topic and is often displayed in search results. A clear friendly description helps search engines determine page relevance, rank and helps visitors decide if they will click on your page.

  Want to learn more? https://wpmudev.com/blog/tip-writing-meta-descriptions/

  Microdata

  Microdata is a specification for machine readable data to be embedded within the existing content of HTML documents. It allows search engines to understand information on web pages and provides more relevant results to users. If you don’t have any, adding microdata will allow search engines to provide more relevant results from your site.

  Want to learn more? https://wpmudev.com/blog/schema-wordpress-seo/

  OpenGraph

  OpenGraph allows your web page to become a rich object in a social graph. More about OpenGraph below.

  Robots.txt

  Before a search engine crawls your site, it will look at your robots.txt file as instructions on where they are allowed to crawl (visit) and index (save) on the search engine results. The robots.txt file is used to tell search engine bots and crawlers what they are allowed to crawl on your site. You can setup specifics for each page/post here.

  Sitemaps

  A sitemap is a list of the pages on your website. A sitemap makes it easier for search engines to navigate, index and share relevant content in search results.

  SmartCrawl can automatically generate a sitemap and regularly send updates to Google. More info about Sitemaps here.

  Title

  A meta title is an HTML tag used by search engines in their results, at the top of the browser and when a page is bookmarked. A clear descriptive title helps search engines determine page relevance, rank and helps visits decide if they will click on your page.

  URL Structure: query vars

  Query vars in your URL make it hard to read. Clean URLs look more professional and are more likely to be clicked when shared on social media or in a blog.

  Want to learn more? https://wpmudev.com/blog/building-customized-urls-wordpress/

  URL Structure: underscores vs dashes

  Search engines use dashes and underscores differently. Google has clearly stated that when it comes to URL structure, using hyphens rather than underscores makes it easier for them to identify what the page is about.

  URL Structure: capitalization

  When typing an Internet address, capitalization may be important. An Internet address is only case sensitive for everything after the domain name. For example, it does not matter if you use uppercase or lowercase when entering “mysite.com” or “MYSITE.com” in the address line, it still reaches the same page.

  A server may not understand that “mysite.com/About” should redirect to “mysite.com/about”. This can lead to duplicate content issues and 404 page errors.

  Also, it is not recommended to have 2 different URLs with the same name (just capitalized) that actually have different content, for example, “mysite.com/ABOUT” and “mysite.com/about”. This can cause issues because the engines might try to canonicalize and assigns separate link juice to each URL.

  URL Structure: hashes

  Search engines such as Google ignores URL parameters that come after the hash. If your URL has a hash it may not properly be indexed by search engines.

  URL Structure: keywords

  If you’re trying to optimize a blog post for a certain keyword, you should include that main keyword in its URL. Having the right keywords in the URL structure can increase your search click-through rate.

  Want to learn more about URL Structure? https://wpmudev.com/blog/building-customized-urls-wordpress

  Anchor Tags

  An anchor link, or jump tag, enables you to create a hyperlink to a part of the same page so that customers can conveniently jump to different sections of your content. Screen readers use anchor tags to describe what the link is and/or where it is pointed.

  Redundant Anchor Titles

  The anchor title and link text are the same. Anchor titles should be unique and descriptive.

  Relative Anchors Pointing to Invalid IDs

  Checks relative anchor tags are pointing to valid IDs.