When you’re developing a website and placing content on it, you can do so with the help of a headless content management system (CMS). This system separates the presentation layer that everyone sees from the backend, which can significantly boost performance and enhance search engine optimization (SEO).
When using a headless CMS, your content will be centrally managed and delivered across numerous screen sizes and channels, which makes it easier for you to optimize everything. When you make an optimization to your site’s SEO, it will be applied across all channels simultaneously.
While there are numerous headless CMS platforms you can use with your website, a modern option you might want to consider is the Sanity CMS, which offers plenty of unique features.
It focuses on a structured content feature to make sure that every channel receives the same content. This tool offers considerably more flexibility and efficiency than a standard CMS. In this article, you’ll learn how to use the Sanity headless CMS to unlock your website’s full SEO potential.
Understanding Sanity CMS
Sanity is a powerful headless CMS that separates the presentation from the content. APIs are used to deliver efficient content delivery and accommodate custom data structures. These features simplify the content management process. They also allow you to reuse content with ease.
When you use a traditional CMS, all your code, design elements, and content are kept in a single location. While you’ll be able to create responsive layouts for certain devices, you can’t display the content separately from the website. In comparison, a headless CMS separates your design, content, and code so that you only need to create content once. This content can then be distributed across multiple devices and channels.
A key feature that Sanity users gain access to is structured content, which is designed to help you organize and manage content efficiently. It also makes significant improvements to SEO by ensuring that search engines have a better understanding of the content.
You can use Sanity Studio as well, which provides you with a collaborative and customizable editing environment that accommodates real-time updates. You can integrate this feature with front-end frameworks like Next.js, React, and Vue.
SEO Benefits of Using Sanity CMS
Many of the advantages you get from using the Sanity CMS involve improvements to your SEO efforts.
Content Structuring for SEO
Sanity CMS allows structured content creation, which is a technique that views content as data. This data is organized in a relational database. Instead of focusing on the content’s presentation, this method involves identifying the content’s meaning. The structured content feature is based on the COPE principle, which means “Create Once, Publish Everywhere”. Once a creator produces content, it can be distributed across numerous platforms and formats without further optimization.
For developers and content creators, this feature boosts personalization, efficiency, and findability. It can also reduce poor design decisions while future-proofing content. Once you implement this feature, you can endlessly reuse content. The SEO benefits that website owners can take advantage of include the following:
- Increases visibility
- Higher search engine rankings
- Improves chances of appearing in relevant search results
- Makes it easier for search engines to comprehend and label content
Performance Optimization
Headless architecture also contributes to faster page load times by simplifying content management and providing smooth integration with other frameworks. These features allow for the creation of a fast website that may be able to load instantly. With the Sanity Lighthouse plugin, you can monitor your website’s performance and make optimizations that reduce load speeds. This plugin works with Sanity Studio v3.
Speed is a factor that Google considers when analyzing a web page and identifying where it should land in relevant search results. Faster speeds provide users with better experiences, which is why Google often ranks sites with quick loading better than ones that take more than three seconds to show up.
Flexibility in Content Management
The Sanity headless CMS also gives you more flexibility in content management. You can choose how and when to push your content to other channels with customizable content models and content versioning.
Customizable Content Models
Sanity CMS allows you to quickly create and customize content models that meet your needs and allow your website to prosper. The numerous customization options at your disposal make it possible for you to structure your site’s content in a manner that’s suitable for your audience and workflow. You can also repurpose and reuse your content across multiple channels with these customization features.
Content modeling involves defining the content you acquire, the attributes of each type of content, and the relationships that exist between them. Your ecosystem can consist of many forms of content, which include everything from videos and images to web pages and blog posts. With content modeling, you can move these separate pieces into a single structure.
Content modeling makes it easier for people to reach your website. By making connections between your content, search engines can lead more users to your website and the relevant information within.
Metadata is another form of content that you can separate and customize with content modeling. For example, the metadata fields that you can customize with an image include title, description, and alt text. Meta descriptions and meta titles are two additional forms of metadata that you can customize. By placing relevant keywords into the metadata, your website may perform better with search engines like Google and Bing.
Content Versioning and SEO
Version control is an important aspect of making updates to your SEO. If an update doesn’t perform well, you may need to roll it back, which is only possible if you still have access to the other version. Sanity CMS handles content revisions effectively by expediting the process.
Content versioning allows for a simple rollback to the previous versions of SEO, which ensures seamless collaboration between members of your team. It also allows you to effectively track the entire SEO optimization process.
When you use a traditional CMS, a perfect versioning mechanism will be needed to perform the same functions. In Sanity, website owners benefit from a model-first approach that can be applied to projects of all sizes. Multiple team members can work on versioning simultaneously. All changes to SEO will be recorded instantly, which reduces the potential for conflicts. Authors can create jointly to minimize duplication mistakes.
Sanity Studio provides developers and editors with a simple interface that facilitates collaboration. They offer automatic content versioning, which means that developers can quickly switch to different versions that are listed in chronological order.
Before using Sanity, keep in mind that content isn’t stored forever. If you need to make a revision after identifying a mistake, do so promptly. The latest version of your content will be available forever. The plan you join determines how long other versions are retained. With the free plan, other versions are retained for three days. The growth plan extends the retention time to 90 days. If you choose the enterprise plan, you can access other versions for 365 days.
Integrations and SEO Tools
The Sanity headless CMS can be integrated with many feature-rich SEO tools that can help you make additional improvements to your content efforts.
SEO Plugins and Integrations
Sanity Studio offers a powerful developer ecosystem that contains numerous SEO plugins with full compatibility. You’ll also benefit from dashboard widgets, front-end libraries, and custom input components. Let’s say that you want to review your content before publishing it. You can use plugins like Yoast to identify errors and find ways that you can improve SEO.
When you want to enhance your SEO capabilities, consider installing the Google Analytics plugin. It allows you to measure your SEO efforts and identify areas where you can improve. For example, the Google Analytics reports you receive will identify slow-loading pages and bounce rates.
Headless Approach and SEO Analytics
Make sure you track SEO metrics with headless CMS analytics tools. For example, a plugin like Letterdrop automates SEO techniques and can help you with tasks like:
- Link health monitoring
- Technical SEO fixes
- SERP research
- Topic ideation
- Search intent analysis
- Internal link automation
Since Sanity doesn’t provide native SEO tools, you need to install plugins. These plugins will provide you with real-time SEO insight that can help you improve content optimization.
Best Practices for SEO with Sanity CMS
Before you install the Sanity CMS, consider optimizing your content for keywords and mobile devices.
Optimizing Content for Keywords
Whether you’re customizing your metadata or creating blog posts, you need to integrate keywords into all sanity CMS content. When Google crawls through your website, it will search for relevant keywords that can help your pages rank higher.
Structured Data Markup
Structured data markup allows Google to quickly read your website and pull data from the HTML. This technique involves classifying the content on your page and providing relevant information. The rich snippets and SERP enhancements that might show up on a recipe page include calories, ingredients, and cooking time.
Structured data improves search results by making them more appealing to users. There are numerous examples of websites and businesses that have benefited from structured data markup. For example, the Rotten Tomatoes website has received a 25% higher CTR for pages that have been improved with structured data.
Mobile Optimization
Sanity CMS is mobile-friendly as well. Google and other search engines prefer websites that have mobile-friendly designs. The mobile features available in the Sanity CMS include optimized images, API-driven content delivery, and responsive design.
Conclusion
The Sanity headless CMS provides developers and website owners with the tools they need to improve SEO and make sure any changes are instantly applied to all relevant channels. The content structuring feature allows you to quickly classify and reuse content. You can seamlessly roll back to previous SEO versions with the versioning tool that Sanity offers.
When you use this CMS, you can enhance your SEO, improve your website’s loading speeds, and deliver content faster. Leverage Sanity CMS to obtain sustainable SEO growth that results in higher page rankings and an increase in site traffic.
