Configuring websites for SEO

Page title

The page title is displayed to users in the header of their browser (or tab) when the page is viewed. Many search engines use this title for the page in their search result lists.

The system adds the content of the field into the <title> element in the HEAD section of the page’s output.

Page description

A brief description of the page and its purpose. The description can be used for SEO purposes and when performing searches on the website.

The system adds the content of the property as a description meta element in the HEAD section of the page’s output. Some search engines index this tag.

Google sitemap URL

These two settings set up the URL of the website’s Google (XML) sitemap and the path of the source document. The sitemap allows you to instruct web crawlers how to index the site’s pages.

See also: Google Sitemaps

Google sitemap path

Robots.txt path

Specifies the path of the document that generates the website’s robots.txt file.

See also: Managing robots.txt

Allow permanent (301) redirection

If enabled, the system uses permanent (301) redirection instead of standard temporary (302) redirection. This is highly recommended, because it allows web crawlers to properly react to any changes made on your website and pass page rank to the new or main URL.

Move ViewState to the end of the page

If enabled, the system places the ViewState field at the end of the output code generated for pages. This helps search engine crawlers process more page content.

Use NOFOLLOW for user links

If enabled, the system instructs search engine crawlers not to follow links posted by users on Forums, Message boards or in Blog comments. This is achieved by including the rel=“nofollow” attribute in the output code of all such link tags.

This can prevent damage to your website’s search ranking caused by user‑generated links that lead to unrelated content. The setting can also help stop spammers from passing page rank to other sites.

Default replacement document

See the Assigning replacement documents for deleted pages section below.

Use URLs with trailing slash

Specifies how the rewriter handles trailing slashes in URLs. Possible options:

• Leave the URL as is
• Always use URLs with a trailing slash
• Always use URLs without a trailing slash

Redirect document aliases to main URL

Enabling this setting ensures that documents always have only one valid URL and other aliases are redirected to this main URL. The main URL of a document is determined either by its alias path, or custom URL path if one is specified.

Note: You can override this setting for individual document aliases through their Alias redirection property.

For more information about document URLs, see Setting document aliases.

Redirect invalid case URLs to their correct versions

Determines how the system handles the letter case of characters in URLs. Available options:

• Do not check the URL case
• Use the exact URL of each document
• Redirect all requests to lower case URLs
• Redirect all requests to upper case URLs

Redirect documents to main extension

If enabled, the system ensures that all document URLs use the current main extension. The main URL extension is the first one specified in the Friendly URL extension setting. Any URLs with a different extension are automatically redirected to a corresponding URL with the main extension.

Process domain prefix

Determines how the rewriter handles the www domain prefix in the website’s URLs. You can leave the domain as it was entered or have it rewritten to either always or never include the www prefix.

Note: This setting does not apply for IP addresses and top‑level domains.

Default page

Allows you to redirect (permanent 301) all possible URLs that access the home page of your website to one single URL. Using a unified home page URL is highly recommended, because it prevents the duplicate content problem on your website’s most important URL.

You can choose from the following options for the home page URL:

• Not specified - supports all possible home page URLs and does not perform any redirection.
• Use domain root - always uses the base URL of the website’s domain name.
• Use page defined by default alias path - always uses the URL of the document specified by the website’s Content -> Default alias path setting.
• Use default page URL - always uses the default URL: <domain>/default.aspx

Important: This setting only works correctly if the website is hosted on IIS 7 or newer, and uses an application pool with an Integrated Managed pipeline mode.

Force domain culture

If checked, the system generates the domain name in document URLs based on the current content culture. Whenever a user switches to a different language on the website, the URL is redirected to the corresponding domain name.

You can assign cultures to domains by editing () your site in the Sites application:

• Set the culture of the website’s main domain through the Visitor culture property on the General tab.
• To define domain names for other languages, create Domain aliases with an appropriately set Visitor culture.

Note: You cannot use this option in combination with language prefixes.

Use language prefix for URLs

If enabled, the system generates document URLs with language prefixes. A language prefix is a subdirectory inserted into the URL. The name of the prefix matches the culture code (or culture alias) of the content culture selected on the website.

Example: <domain>/en-US/Home.aspx

Allow URLs without language prefixes

If enabled, URLs without language prefixes are allowed. Otherwise the system redirects such URLs to a corresponding URL that includes a language prefix.

Only applies if Use language prefix for URLs is enabled.