HTML sitemaps
All Quilter websites should contain a text sitemap, as this helps search engines navigate through and index the website, as well as supporting our visitors.
- Include a link to a sitemap in the header of every page.
- Use the ‘nofollow’ HTML attribute on links to less important pages.
XML Sitemaps
XML Sitemaps are a way of telling search engines about pages on our website that they might not otherwise discover. They can also be used to provide additional metadata about specific content types and additional information about our site. XML Sitemaps should be briefed into our Epi developers.
Redirects and error pages
- Error pages should trigger a '404 file not found' response code so search engines know that the requested URL doesn’t exist anymore.
- Use 301 (permanent redirect) to redirect traffic from pages that have moved or been renamed.
URL structure
Directory and file naming structure is important for SEO. Search engine friendly URLs present a proper directory structure using words, slashes and filenames only. They also contain targeted keywords wherever possible.