1. Commerce
  2. Site Management Tools
  3. Content and SEO

Content and SEO

Content added with Site Management Tools can affect your site’s search engine ranking. Follow these guidelines to optimize the content for search engines. These search engine optimized pages can lead to a higher search engine ranking. SEO considerations include:

Image Content SEO

When you create image content, give the images descriptive file names so search engines can determine the nature of the image. A file named image0012.png reveals nothing about the image, but hockey_helmet.png serves as a filename and a description of the image content. A descriptive file name gives the search engine more information about your site.

When adding an image with SMT, always add alternate text. Alternate text should describe the image. It's used by screen readers and displayed when the image can't be shown.

Enter the alternate text in the Alternate Text field in the Image Settings side panel. These settings display when you add new image content or edit existing image content.

The default image template file contains the following code that places alternate text on the page. This same code also constructs the image source attribute that places the image filename on the page. So you see how the descriptive file name and alternate text provide valuable information for search engines.

          <img src="<%- data.fields.string_src %>"<% if (data.fields.string_alt) { %> alt="<%- data.fields.string_alt %>"<% } %> data-loader="false" />

See image_default.txt for the full default image template.

If you customize the image template file, ensure you include the alternate text attribute.

Avoid using overly large images, this can slow down page load times. Size the images to fit within the areas where you place them. If you have an image you want to place in a large area and also use as a thumbnail in a small area, then use two different images of the appropriate size for the areas. Do not place the large image in the small area and allow it to be re-sized automatically.

Merchandising Zone SEO

The default merchandising zone template uses URL components for item links. Set the URL component on the item record in NetSuite. Descriptive URL components improve SEO for pages with merchandising zones.

The template also includes the alternate text attribute for item record's image. Setting alternate text for each image on the item record also helps with SEO.

Like SMT images, using descriptive file names for item images attached to the item record further promotes the page's SEO. In the following sample from the default merchandising zone template, you see where the item URL, the image file name, and the alternate text are all used to construct an individual item in the merchandising zone.

          <% var item_url = '/'+item.urlcomponent; %>
<div class="item-cell item-cell-grid">
<a class="thumbnail" href="<%= item_url %>">
<img src="<%= item.cms.image.url %>" alt="<%= item.cms.image.alt.txt %>">
</a>
<h5><a href="<%= item_url %><%= item.name%></a></h5>

See merchzone_default.txt for the full default merchandising zone template.

Enhanced and Landing Page SEO

Set SEO attributes when creating landing and enhanced pages. These attributes include:

See Pages.

Text Content SEO

There are many SEO general best practices for your website page text. These include not only the position of the text on the page, but also the keywords you use in the text, formatting such as heading levels, and hypertext links to other important pages. General best practices are well-documented and are not detailed in this document.

Related Topics

General Notices