optimise SEO Ibexa DXP

Certain CMS make it easier to work with natural referencing and achieve great results in terms of website visibility. Ibexa DXP, with its many native SEO features, stands out as an SEO-friendly tool. In this guide, we present 10 SEO facets of Ibexa, as well as the improvements we've made.

1- Meta tags

Metadata (title and meta-description) provide search engines and users with a concise overview of the content of your pages. They influence click-through rates and the ranking of your pages in search results.

Native function

To create or modify a title or meta-description tag on Ibexa, access the dedicated section in the administration panel of the content you are editing. For the current page we have :

The Inforca key 🪄

Adding these tags can be long and tedious. That's why we used a development made by NovaSEO thatautomates the generation of these tags based on your content. This means that you can have pre-completed tags that will help your page's SEO, while still being modifiable afterwards.

If nothing is entered in the fields, the title and introduction of the article will be used:

2- Open Graph tags

Created by Facebook, the Open Graph Protocol allows you to control how links to your pages are displayed when they are shared on social networks. With Open Graph tags, you can specify titles, descriptions, images and other elements for your shares, which can increase engagement and click-through rates.

Native function

To configure tagging, go to the administration section of the page you want to promote. Ibexa suggests you enter the following information:

• Open Graph Title: The title of your page as it will appear on social networks.
• Open Graph Description: A brief description summarising the content of your page.

The Inforca key 🪄

In order to optimise these parameters for SEO, we have carried out additional development to add 4 more Open Graph tags.

• Open Graph content type. We use the "article" type for the majority of our content.
• The canonical Open Graph URL. We automatically retrieve the canonical URL of the page.
• The Open Graph image. We've simplified the process of adding images by allowing users to drag and drop their files directly into the interface. We then retrieve the URL of the inserted image.
• The ALT Open Graph tag (image text description field). We retrieve the ALT tag of the image inserted in the Open Graph image field.

3- Structured data

Using the Schema.org vocabulary, structured data helps search engines to understand the content of your web pages. By adding specific tags to your pages, they can be transformed into enriched results in search results. --> help by illustrating

Native function

Natively, Ibexa DXP does not embed a module dedicated to structured data. ❌

The Inforca touch 🪄

We have made this possible by developing a fairly modular tool: you can define data types such as "Article", "Product", "Event", etc., and fill in the fields required for each type. The data will appear at the beginning of the page's HTML code.

For the sake of detail, here's a little tip: use Google'sStructured Data Testing Tool to check that your structured data will be displayed correctly in search results.

4- Canonical URLs

Canonical tags tell search engines the preferred version of a page when there are several versions with different URLs.

Native function

In Ibexa DXP, you can add canonical tags to your pages via the main content location. Specify the canonical URL for each page to guide search engines to the preferred version.

In the case of a multi-site portal, the canonical URL can point to a page on a second site, making it possible to centralise content and optimise referencing by avoiding duplication.

5- URL construction

Short, user-friendly URLs are easier for users to understand. They help search engines to index and navigate the site. A well-structured tree structure with sub-folders allows content to be organised hierarchically.

Native function

As soon as you install your environment, Ibexa lets you define the structure of your URLs (also known as permalinks). Then, on each page of content you edit, you can specify a slug using the "Short title" field.

By default, if this is left blank, the CMS automatically generates a slug based on the page title. There are several rules or filters to define how the text is transformed into a readable URL.

• Replacement of spaces by dashes
• Converting letters to lower case
• Removal of special characters (UTF-8)
• Add a suffix if the generated slug is already used for another page

6- Redirects

A 301 redirect tells search engines that a page has been moved permanently to a new URL. Technically, the "SEO juice" is transferred from the old URL to the new one.

Native function

Ibexa DXP makes it easy to manage 301 redirects. In the "administration" panel, go to the "URL management" tab, then "URL with wildcard". Here you can add :

• The wildcard URL (meaning the one you want to redirect)
• The destination URL

7- Images

Native function

ALT tags

ALT tags (also known as ALT attributes) are text descriptions of images. In terms of SEO, they help search engines to understand the visual content of the page.

When you add an image to the space dedicated to media, you can fill in the "Alternative text" field.

Image formats

Choosing a modern image format dedicated to the web, such as WebP, allows the image to be compressed without losing quality, which reduces page loading time. Ibexa can import images in JPEG, PNG and WebP formats.

Image weight

The weight of images (the size of the file) has a direct impact on page loading time, which affects the page's ranking on search engines.

The Inforca key 🪄

To further optimise image management, we have developed a dual functionality: it converts any imported image format to WebP format and automatically compresses them to the size best suited to the end user's screen in order to optimise performance.

In addition, we manage the progressive loading of images using the source set. The source set allows you to specify several versions of an image for different screen types and resolutions. Depending on the device used by the user (smartphone, tablet, desktop), the most appropriate version of the image will be loaded. The image is rendered more quickly on pages, which improves the user experience.

8- Content management

Structuring and formatting content improves readability for users and comprehension for search engines. Structured text is easily indexed and classified.

Native function

Ibexa's "Rich Text" block offers a range of tools (CKeditor) for structuring and formatting content. Here are a few key functions:

• Definition of Hn title tags (h1, h2...)
• Creation of bulleted lists
• Internal and external links
• The ability to bold or italicise keywords

9- Multilingual content management

Publishing content in several languages will considerably improve your international ranking.

Native function

Ibexa DXP allows you to finely manage multilingual content thanks to integrated functions. In the Ibexa administration panel, access the settings to activate several languages. When creating or modifying content, you can add translated versions for each activated language.

To inform search engines about the different language versions of your pages, the CMS offers the option of integrating hreflang tags. These tags tell search engines which language version to display for users depending on their location or language settings.

The Inforca touch 🪄

To simplify and speed up the translation process, we have integrated the DeepL API with Ibexa DXP. Thanks to this connection, the translation of new pages is automated, saving time and maintaining linguistic consistency throughout the site. Here are the main benefits of this development:

• Automatic translation of new pages: When a new page is created, its content is automatically translated into the configured languages. The time taken to put multilingual versions online is considerably reduced.
• Translation of foreign URLs: URLs for translated pages are generated for each language. This improves indexing and makes navigation more intuitive for international users.
• Tag translation : meta tags, canonical tags, ALT attributes for images and other SEO elements are automatically translated.

10- Other technical elements

The Inforca touch 🪄

XML Sitemap

The XML sitemap is a file that lists all the pages on your site and informs search engines of their structure and importance.

To implement this functionality, we used the eZ SEO Bundle, aka Nova SEO. Thanks to it, we were able to automatically generate an XML sitemap from the site's pages.

The robots.txt file

The robots.txt file is used to control search engine access to certain parts of your site. You can use this file to prevent specific pages or entire directories from being indexed.

The Nova SEO bundle has also enabled us to set up this file.

HTML sitemap

The HTML sitemap is a page on your website that lists links to all the important pages. Unlike the XML sitemap, it is intended for users and helps to improve navigation.

We have developed a sitemap page that dynamically calls up the different categories and sub-categories of the site.

Breadcrumb trail

Breadcrumbs show users where they are in the site structure. It improves the user experience by facilitating navigation and allowing users to move easily up the site hierarchy. This reduces the number of clicks required to find a page.

The content tree structure has facilitated the development of the breadcrumb trail in Ibexa.