{"id":10595,"date":"2017-08-04T16:05:00","date_gmt":"2017-08-04T16:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.webhosting.uk.com\/blog\/?p=10595"},"modified":"2025-10-24T12:23:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T12:23:25","slug":"4-key-steps-to-improving-drupal-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webhosting.uk.com\/blog\/4-key-steps-to-improving-drupal-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Key Steps to Improving Drupal SEO"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Drupal is a powerful platform for building great websites but how do you get those websites to rank well on search engines? Unlike WordPress, which is relatively search engine friendly by design, Drupal needs a little more input when it comes straight out of the box. In this post, we\u2019ll explain what steps you need to take to improve Drupal SEO and help your site rank higher in search engine results.<\/p>\r\n

    \r\n
  1. Use clean URLs
    <\/span>One of the most important on-site SEO techniques is to include important keywords in the URLs of your website\u2019s posts and pages. When looking for web pages to show in search results, search engines will specifically look at a URL for an indication of how relevant the content is to the searcher\u2019s query.
    Ideally, the URL should closely resemble the page\u2019s title. So, if the page was called \u2018Summer Holiday Outfits for Kids\u2019 the URL should be \u2018yourwebsite.com\/summer-holiday-outfits-for-kids\u2019. This way, the search engine would see both the title and the URL indicating that the page was relevant to someone\u2019s search.
    These types of URL are referred to as clean URLs. In WordPress, you can set up clean URLs very easily in the settings. With Drupal, however, you will need to install a module before this can take place. The module in question is the Pathauto Module.
    <\/strong>On installation of Drupal, you may discover that your server cannot support clean URLs. This can happen if the server\u2019s \u2018mod-rewrite\u2019 extension has been disabled. If this is the case, check out Drupal\u2019s Clean URL page where help can be provided.
    Once your server is set up to support clean URLs, you will then be able to install the Pathauto module and use \u00a0it to create URLs that are based on page titles and are far more search engine friendly.<\/li>\r\n
  2. Using meta tags and meta descriptions
    <\/strong>Drupal\u2019s Metatag module enables you to add precise and relevant meta data to your website content. Meta data is used in two ways: firstly, search engine algorithms use it to determine the relevance of the page for a query and, secondly, the meta description is often shown in search results, enabling users to read the page content before visiting it.
    What you write in the meta description can be the difference between your page being clicked on or ignored. If you don\u2019t write a meta description, the search engine usually just pulls any random text from your web page that contains the user\u2019s keywords. When you write your own, you can use it like a call to action to get the reader to click through to your website. Those who use this SEO technique find that click through rates can massively improve.
    Importantly, the Metatag module lets you create individual meta tags for each page of your site, enabling search engines to judge each page\u2019s relevance far more accurately.<\/li>\r\n
  3. Speed up for better ranking
    <\/strong>Search engines have a dislike for slow loading websites as they offer a poor user experience, for this reason, they rank them lower. Consumers have the same opinion: according to Kissmetrics, 40% of users abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load and a one second delay in loading drops conversion rates by 7%. With this in mind, the importance of speeding up your Drupal website cannot be underestimated.
    Google is so concerned about slow loading websites that it has introduced a free speed test for webmasters. The \u00a0PageSpeed Insights<\/a> \u00a0will tell you how well your site performs on both desktop and mobile devices, and it will produce a range of performance enhancing recommendations based on its analysis of your site. Testing your Drupal site using Google\u2019s PageSpeed should be the starting point for this important area of SEO. If you are looking at more visitors from mobile phones than a PC then you should also consider building mobile pages using the AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) technology.
    The technical areas that \u00a0Google tool will look at include HTML, CSS and JS compression, image compression, and browser caching, all of which can be managed to improve loading speeds. The test also shows you issues with server response times, which is more difficult to remedy and highlights the importance of choosing dedicated Drupal hosting<\/strong> where servers are optimised for the Drupal platform.
    Useful modules to help you improve any issues found during the Google PageSpeed test include the Views Content Cache and Boost.<\/li>\r\n
  4. Advanced script compression
    <\/strong>When websites need to run a wide range of CSS and JS scripts to function properly in a browser, sending all the information in separate packets can significantly slow down the loading time. One way to overcome this is through CSS and JavaScript compression. By configuring the AdvAgg Module, you can compress Drupal\u2019s CSS and JavaScript or you can also use the module Speedy to replace Drupal\u2019s core JS files with compressed alternatives. Both of these can bring improvements to loading times and lead to better search engine rankings.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

    Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

    From reading this post, you will now have a better understanding of how you can improve SEO for Drupal in regard to URLs, meta tags and meta descriptions, loading times and advanced compression. These more technical aspects of your SEO can have a big impact on your ranking. Do remember that you will also need to focus on your on-page SEO (keywords in content, etc.) and off-site SEO (external links, social media likes, etc.).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

    If you are considering dedicated Drupal hosting for your website, take a look at our Drupal hosting packages<\/a><\/strong>. We\u2019ll even take care of the migration for you – for free.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Drupal is a powerful platform for building great websites but how do you get those websites to rank well on search engines? Unlike WordPress, which is relatively search engine friendly…<\/p>\n

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