It is always challenging to explain to your non-technical colleagues what are the undoubted advantages of a JAMstack architecture compared to the old monolithic solutions. When it comes to SEO, however, the main advantage is obvious to anyone who knows enough about the subject: optimized static sites load so fast there is no competition with other traditional solutions. Moreover, there's no more important factor for search engines than a website's load times. We could end our blog post here, honestly: give your SEO team a super fast architecture, and they will be pleased as pie. There is more though: JAMstack offers a wide range of advantages to your team when it comes to optimizing and enhancing your content for a wide range of search engines. Here are four things to work on for a bullet-proof SEO!
Work on structured data
The knowledge graph cards, AMPs, and local ads are voluntarily diverting users' attention from organic results, thus reducing clicks on your website.
To tackle this problem, it is essential to work on structured data, making it easier for search engines to crawl, organize, and display your content. An excellent job on your structured data will give your search results a wide range of Rich Snippets, increasing your CTR by almost 30%. Schema markup also allows your content to appear in Knowledge Graph Cards and Rich Cards, two of the most popular search features of Google.
Static pages on a JAMstack architecture are already easier to understand for the crawlers because they love static HTML code, and adding JSON-LD markup to the source code it’s pretty straightforward. Most headless CMSs give you SEO tools to manage structured data from the get-go across all platforms (structured data is a deciding factor even for apps), but your editorial team and SEO specialists can manage schema markup on Google Tag Manager to make this process scalable across multiple pages. Just remember to use “History Changes” as a trigger instead of “Page Views” if you are using site generators like Gatsby or Gridsome because their sites behave like Single Page Web Apps.
You can even write some basic scripts to inject structured data in your website dynamically; we added the code below to our blog, for example, to create structured data for every new post automatically:
<script>(function(){var data = {"@context": "http://schema.org","@type": "BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage": {"@type": "WebPage","@id": {{Page URL}}},"headline": {{SCHEMA - Article Headline}},"image": {"@type": "ImageObject","url": {{SCHEMA - Article Image}},"height": 413,"width": 1159},"datePublished": {{SCHEMA - Article datePublished}},"author": {"@type": "Person","name": {{SCHEMA - Author Name}}},"publisher": {"@type": "Organization","name": "DatoCMS","logo" : {"@type": "ImageObject","url": "https:/datocms.com/datologo.jpg","height": 200,"width": 200}},"description": {{SCHEMA - Article Description}}}var dateModified = {{SCHEMA - Article dateModified}};if(dateModified){data.dateModified = dateModified;} else {data.dateModified = {{SCHEMA - Article datePublished}};}var script = document.createElement('script');script.type = "application/ld+json";script.innerHTML = JSON.stringify(data);document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(script);})(document);</script>
This is how it looks like live on Google’s Testing Tool:
You can do something similar for an e-commerce, for example, shaving off hours upon hours of work on your SEO.
The schema.org site helps to get a clearer idea of what you can do with your markup; the potentiality is limitless.
Content Rich Pages
One of the most central concepts in modern SEO is the importance of Content. “Content is King,” we always say, and we generally mean it. The problem is that in the race for visibility and pertinence, we have slowly but surely shortened the length of the content we produce. Although it is true that the attention span of an average user is at the lowest, recent studies show that longer pages produce more backlinks than short ones, also leading to a significant increase in average time spent on site. We have noticed, for example, that articles with more than 1,500 words have better results in Google's ranking, thus leading to more organic visits over time.
The problem of static sites was until recently the lack for the writing team of a powerful and easy to use editor; today many headless CMSs offer intuitive tools to build visually compelling and text rich content in a matter of minutes.
DatoCMS makes it easy to build a tailored authoring experience for your editors and marketers thanks to its visual model builder and a super fast preview mode.
Keep it simple (and fast!)
How we search for information on the internet has changed: according to Google 1 research out of 5 go through a voice assistant. Deloitte estimated over 250 million voice assistants were in our homes by the end of 2018. Voice-based technology is going to generate at least seven billion dollars in revenue this year. We are generally doing something else while searching with our voice, so our queries have a more natural and colloquial tone. Intercepting this kind of search pattern requires a significant change in keyword optimization strategies. Metadata may need long-tailed keywords consisting of multiple words, while texts that are too "literary" and overwritten will lose ranks on Google pretty fast.
Written content in 2019 should:
be created with a specific research intent in mind, like a question (e.g., "Where can I buy museum tickets?" or "Where can I find the best prices?");
be written in an informal tone that uses familiar and more natural words at least in the metadata that can be pronounced more efficiently;
employ highly specific keywords, even at the cost of making them very long.
On the technical side, we need to remember that voice search is almost mobile only; if you want to see your pages ranked higher, your writing team needs a truly mobile-first website with a perfectly responsive front-end. Modern Static Sites are faster, more reliable and modular. A JAMstack architecture helps you strike a balance between ease of use and a platform-agnostic approach.
Shareability is a thing
46% of users look to Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube when it comes to evaluating a purchase. As many as 70% of B2C companies have seen their revenue increase thanks to the much-reviled Facebook.
The way users consume content is the reason why Google and other search engines like Bing are increasingly rewarding content that shows the right level of engagement on multiple platforms. Like, retweets, social links, and shares are not just vanity points, but a litmus test of the desirability of your content.
Building and caring for your social presence helps not only to intercept your potential customers where they hang out the most but to bring quality traffic to the website.
Some bits of advice:
Produce a balanced monthly editorial plan that contains a mix of useful, emotional and informative contents.
Monitor daily all your social accounts and make sure to promptly respond to user feedback in both private and public spaces.
Write easy to digest content with a clear message and a strong hook.
Make sure your content is ready to share, ensuring that your CMS can transparently manage Open Graph data.
An headless CMS like DatoCMS helps you create compelling and social network-friendly content thanks to editable automatic meta tags for Twitter Cards and Facebook Open Graph.