Webflow offers an array of native features that work as SEO tools. These native functionalities are seamlessly integrated into the platform. This allows users to manage many SEO tasks directly in Webflow. All of Webflow's SEO tools are available on every plan.
List of Webflow’s Built-in SEO Tools
Webflow offers some of the best built-in SEO tools:
- Automatic Sitemap Generation: Automatically generate and update sitemaps for your Webflow sites - Make discovering and crawling of your sites easier and better.
- Meta Titles & Descriptions Automation: Utilize CMS Collections for metadata - Boosts search relevance and user engagement.
- Schema Markup Integration: Implement structured data directly - Enhances content understanding and representation in search results.
- Custom Sitemap & Granular Indexing: Upload custom sitemaps and exclude pages - Offers tailored content indexing for optimized search visibility.
- 301 Redirects Management: Simplify redirect setups - Use to maintain link equity and user experience during site changes or website migrations.
- Alt Tag Editing: Streamline alt tag additions - Increases image metadata indexing and content accessibility.
- Robots.txt Management: Edit robots.txt files in-platform - Guide search engines like Google on pages to index or skip.
- Canonical Tag Setting: Assign canonical tags in Designer - Prevents duplicate content penalties and clarifies page primacy.
- On-Page SEO Controls: Control headings and content structure - Improves search engines' understanding of content relevance and hierarchy.
- SEO Settings per Page: Access a dedicated SEO panel - Customizes how content appears in search results and on social media
- Custom Code Injection: Add HTML, CSS, or JavaScript per page - Facilitates advanced SEO tactics like structured data implementation.
Webflow’s Indirect SEO Tools
Webflow’s hosting features contribute significantly to SEO, making Webflow an excellent choice for creating websites that perform well both in user experience and search engine rankings:
- Speed: Powered by Amazon Web Services & Fastly, Webflow ensures fast site loading everywhere in the world, crucial for SEO and your users' experience.
- Scalability: The Webflow platform can handle varying traffic levels, maintaining site performance.
- Security: Built-in SSL and a lack of risk-prone plugins enhance site security, an aspect increasingly considered by search engines.
- Fonts: Webflow allows for manual font uploads.
- Minification: Auto-minify HTML, CSS and JavaScript in the Webflow site settings for additional speed optimization.
- Class Clean-up: Remove unused classes with the click of one button for cleaner code and performance.
- Localization: Customize your site for visitors around the world.
Webflow Localization SEO Capabilities
Webflow's recent localization features significantly enhance your marketing and SEO capabilities by catering to diverse global audiences:
SEO Localization
- HTML lang tags: Webflow automatically sets the site language code for each locale, aiding in the content's correct interpretation by search engines, browsers, and screen readers.
- HTML page-level tags: These tags list localized page variants in the <head> tag, helping search engines understand the relationship between different localized versions of your Webflow website.
- Sitemap hreflang tags: For auto-generated sitemaps, Webflow includes hreflang tags, enabling search engines like Google to comprehend the language and regional variants of your site's content, ensuring the most relevant locale version is presented in search results.
Locale Routing
- Site or Domain-Level Routing: On certain plans, Webflow provides automatic domain-level routing based on the visitor's browser language preference, directing them to the appropriate locale version of your site.
- Page-Level Routing: Utilizing the Locale list element and page links, Webflow automatically routes visitors to their preferred language pages. For instance, switching from an English to a Spanish version of a page is seamlessly handled by the platform. This feature ensures that visitors always access content in their preferred language, enhancing user experience and potentially boosting SEO.
Using Webflow Templates
Using Webflow templates usually doesn't have a big impact on your SEO. What really matters is having a well-organized site, great content, and a good experience for your visitors. There can be differences and things to improve on like, how clean the code is or setting the correct HTML tags on divs. This might have a tiny effect, but the big things like content and user experience are much more important.
Content Management and SEO
Webflow's flexible CMS plays a pivotal role in enhancing SEO:
- Flexible CMS: Webflow's CMS allows the creation of a variety of content types, such as blog posts, event listings, and product pages, each with custom fields. For SEO, this means you can optimize each content type with specific metadata, URLs, and rich text for better search engine targeting and ranking.
- Simple Editing Tools: With Webflow's straightforward content editing interface, SEO teams can quickly modify content to keep pace with keyword trends, update meta tags, and ensure all content is current and SEO-friendly, which is vital for maintaining high rankings.
- Custom Fields without Plugins: Webflow's visual designer enables the creation of custom fields for any content type, which can be indexed and used in SEO strategies. For instance, custom tagging of images, categorization of blog posts, and structured content can be used to improve content discoverability and relevance in search engine results.
The Webflow CMS is available on every Webflow site plan except for the Basic (Free) plan.
Webflow SEO Plugin
Even though there are not many proper plugins for Webflow in terms of SEO, there is one honorable mention, and that is Semflow.
Semflow is one of the first plugins for Webflow for SEO. But, should you give it a try? Is it the best? How good and how useful is it?
It essentially serves as a basic SEO checklist. It can be helpful for absolute beginners to learn SEO. You can use it to help you optimize for your basic website need, find a new keyword that you maybe haven't used. However, it's important to note the following:
- Limited Scope: While Semflow offers a checklist for keywords, it’s not comprehensive enough for advanced SEO needs.
- More Than a Checklist: Effective SEO involves strategic planning, ongoing content optimization, and understanding user intent, which go beyond Semflow's capabilities.
- Pricing: Given its basic nature, Semflow's utility might not justify its cost, especially when free resources can provide similar guidance.
The benefits of using this plugin would be the following:
- Basic SEO Knowledge, so if you are a total beginner to SEO, it can be helpful to learn the most basic knowledge about SEO.
- Top ranking positions in uncompetitive niches, where you don’t have competition or the competition is not really putting in SEO efforts.
- Cheaper Google Ads costs. Optimizing your website technically can have an impact on lowering your cost-per-click in Google Ads.
For truly effective SEO, deeper engagement with SEO principles or professional guidance is recommended.
TIP: Webflow offers the best free course to learn SEO fundamentals in their Webflow University Course!
SOURCE: Webflow University
Third-Party SEO and Analytics Apps for Webflow
Webflow can be enhanced with third-party SEO and analytics apps:
- (PAID) Data Goat: Integrates with GA4 for custom reports, tracking various metrics and providing insights.
- (PAID) Optomate: A tool to audit your website performance and SEO with a simple setup.
- (PAID) Storipress: Manages content workflow and offers SEO optimization tools.
- (PAID) Letterdrop: Combines SEO optimization with AI writing and content distribution.
- (PAID) PageFactory: Facilitates programmatic SEO with automated content generation.
- (FREE) Humblytics: A privacy-friendly tool offering simple analytics and event tracking.
- (FREE) fluidSEO: Leverages AI for bulk updating SEO tags and managing link attributes.
- (FREE) Nocodelytics: Tailored for Webflow, offering easy analytics tracking and integration with Webflow's ecosystem.
- (FREE) AutoLink.ai: Offers AI-driven internal linking support, suggestions and analysis for your website.
These apps vary in functionality, with various pricing but also some being available for free.
The Importance of a Strategic Approach to SEO
In SEO, the most crucial tool is often your brain. Understanding your end goals is key. Effective SEO is a nuanced understanding of multiple factors, not just ticking off tasks on a checklist, it demands a comprehensive strategy:
- End Goals Identification: Define clear, measurable objectives for your business. Are you aiming for increased traffic, higher rankings, or more conversions? Aiming for the right goals will shape your SEO strategy.
- Understanding Audience Search Intent: Dive deep into why your audience is searching and what intent type of keywords they are searching for. Are they looking for information, a specific product, or a service? This insight shapes content and keyword strategies.
- Mapping the Buyer's Journey: Recognize which stage of the journey your audience is in - Awareness, Consideration, or Decision. Tailor your content, design, marketing and SEO tactics to meet them at each stage.
- Market Positioning: Analyze your unique business position in the market. Understand and learn about your niche thoroughly to create content that resonates and differentiates you from competitors.
- Competitive Analysis: Regularly analyze your competition. What are they doing well? What have you missed in your keyword research? Are there new content avenues for you to explore? This knowledge helps in refining your strategy.
- Strategic Thinking Beyond Checklists: Move past standard SEO checklists. Think innovatively about user experience, content quality, and how to provide value in a way that aligns with search engine algorithms.
- Investment Choices - Professional Help vs. Deep Learning: Decide if you will invest in professional SEO services or commit to deep learning and applying SEO principles yourself. Half-hearted efforts won't yield significant results.
- Continuous Learning and Adaptation: SEO is dynamic. Try to stay updated with the latest marketing trends, new Google algorithm changes, best practices and make plans and changes to your web timely and accordingly.
The second most important SEO tool to use to rank on Google is the Google Search Console. Google Search Console gives you the most accurate (but not live) data, which is even more accurate than other common tools (e.g. Semrush).
Webflow SEO Checklist
Having a checklist is always good in terms of organizing work. An SEO checklist is not the be all and end all but it is a good starting point and support, especially for beginners.
Our new Webflow SEO checklist provides actionable steps to optimize your Webflow site:
- Basic Setup and Optimization: Start with site settings for foundational SEO, including favicon, language code, custom domain, and speed optimization.
- Content and On-Page Elements: Focus on mobile responsiveness, header tags, image compression, and internal linking.
- Advanced and Additional Reminders: Regularly update content, focus on link building, and stay abreast of SEO trends.
Conclusion
- Webflow's SEO Tools: All of Webflow's SEO tools are natively integrated, offering functionalities like automatic sitemap generation and meta tags automation.
- SEO-Optimized CMS: The CMS in Webflow enhances SEO with flexible content options, straightforward editing, and custom fields.
- Strategic SEO Approach: Your focus should be on understanding audience search intent, mapping the buyer's journey, and not just looking for a magic tool.
Effective SEO is crucial for online success and visibility (primarily Google). If you need advanced techniques or personalized guidance, consider professional help to maximize your Webflow site's SEO potential.
