SEO-Guidelines-Smartcrawl/smartcrawl/configuration.md

SmartCrawl Configuration Guide

Module-by-module setup with recommended settings for production WordPress sites.

Initial Setup

1. Install and Activate

Install SmartCrawl from the WordPress plugin repository or upload the WPMU DEV Pro version. On activation, the Setup Wizard launches.

2. Setup Wizard

The wizard enables all modules by default. Recommended approach:

• Run the wizard — accept all defaults
• Then configure each module per the sections below
• If migrating from another SEO plugin (Yoast, Rank Math, AIOSEO): use the Import tool in Settings to pull in existing titles, descriptions, and meta data before making changes

3. Conflict Check

SmartCrawl detects other SEO plugins. Never run two SEO plugins simultaneously — they will output duplicate meta tags. Deactivate the old plugin after importing its data.

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Module: Titles & Meta

See titles-and-meta.md for the full macro reference.

Recommended Global Settings

Homepage:

Title: %%sitename%% %%sep%% [Primary service/value proposition]
Description: Hand-write this — 150-160 characters, include primary keyword + CTA

Posts:

Title: %%title%% %%sep%% %%sitename%%
Description: %%excerpt%%  (override per-post for important pages)

Pages:

Title: %%title%% %%sep%% %%sitename%%
Description: Leave blank at template level — hand-write per page

Categories/Tags:

Title: %%term_title%% %%sep%% %%sitename%%
Description: %%term_description%%

Separator: Use | or — (clean, modern look in SERPs)

Key Settings

• Noindex tag archives unless your tags have substantial unique content
• Noindex author archives on single-author sites (duplicate of your posts page)
• Noindex paginated archives (/page/2/, /page/3/) — thin content
• Check custom post types — WooCommerce products, portfolio items, etc. must be explicitly enabled

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Module: Social (Open Graph & Twitter)

Global Settings

Setting	Recommendation
Default OG Image	Set a branded fallback image (1200x630px)
Facebook OG	Enable for all post types
Twitter Cards	Enable — use summary_large_image card type
Pinterest Verification	Add your Pinterest meta tag if applicable

Per-Post Type Settings

• Posts/Pages: Enable OG and Twitter, use post title and excerpt as defaults
• Products (WooCommerce): Enable the "WooCommerce Product Open Graph" toggle — auto-adds og:type=product, price, availability
• Custom post types: Enable and verify OG tags render correctly

Per-Post Overrides

For important pages, always set custom OG title, description, and image:

• OG title can differ from the SEO title (e.g., more engaging/clickable for social)
• OG image should be exactly 1200x630px for best rendering across platforms
• OG description can be longer than meta description (up to ~300 characters)

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Module: Sitemap

Recommended Settings

Setting	Value
XML Sitemap	Enable
Include post types	Posts, Pages, Products, and any public custom post types
Include taxonomies	Categories (yes), Tags (only if indexable), custom taxonomies
Image Sitemap	Enable — helps with Google Images indexing
Google News Sitemap	Enable only if the site publishes news-style content
Notify search engines	Automatic mode

Exclusions

Exclude from sitemap:

• Thank you / confirmation pages
• Internal-use pages (login, dashboard, etc.)
• Any page set to noindex — SmartCrawl does not do this automatically
• Thin content pages with little SEO value

Important Notes

• Sitemap is limited to 1,000 most recent posts to prevent memory errors
• After making sitemap changes, use the "New Crawl" button to notify Google
• Verify your sitemap loads at yoursite.com/sitemap.xml
• Submit the sitemap URL in Google Search Console

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Module: Schema / Structured Data

See schema-markup.md for the full type reference.

Recommended Setup

1. Organization Schema — Enable globally with:

   • Business name, logo, contact info
   • Social media profile URLs
   • Same-as links to directory listings

2. LocalBusiness Schema — For local businesses, add with:

   • Full NAP (name, address, phone)
   • Opening hours
   • Geo coordinates
   • Area served
   • Appropriate subtype (60+ available)

3. Article/WebPage Schema — Default for posts and pages respectively

4. Per-page schema — Add specific types where applicable:

   • FAQ on pages with Q&A content
   • Event on event listing pages
   • Course on educational offerings
   • Product on WooCommerce products (auto-handled)

5. Validate schema at Google Rich Results Test after deploying

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Module: Redirects

See redirects.md for the full reference.

Quick Setup

• Enable the Redirects module
• Set default redirect type to 301 (Permanent)
• Enable "Auto-redirect deleted posts" (v3.9.0+) to catch deleted content
• Import any existing redirects from .htaccess or a previous plugin

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Module: Content Analysis

See content-analysis.md for scoring details.

Recommended Approach

• Always set a focus keyword for every published page/post
• Use up to 3 keywords per page (1 primary + 2 secondary)
• Aim for all green checks on the SEO analysis tab
• Target a Flesch-Kincaid readability score of 60-70 (8th-grade level)
• Don't chase a perfect score at the expense of natural writing

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Module: Breadcrumbs

See breadcrumbs.md for implementation details.

Quick Setup

1. Enable Breadcrumbs in the Advanced Tools module
2. Add [smartcrawl_breadcrumbs] shortcode to your theme template or use the PHP function
3. Choose a separator (> or / are most common)
4. Verify the breadcrumb trail renders correctly and the schema output validates

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Module: Robots.txt (Pro Only)

Recommended Content

User-agent: *
Allow: /
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php

Sitemap: https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml

Important: Use full absolute URLs for sitemap directives.

Do not block CSS/JS files — Google needs them to render pages for mobile-first indexing.

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Settings: Import/Export

• Export your SmartCrawl configuration as JSON after setting up a site
• Import that configuration when setting up similar sites to save time
• Settings are transferable between sites but titles/descriptions are templates, not content — they'll adapt to each site's content via macros

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Post-Setup Checklist

After configuring SmartCrawl:

• Run the SEO Health Checkup and address all red/yellow items
• Verify sitemap.xml loads and is submitted in Google Search Console
• Check 5-10 key pages for correct title tags and meta descriptions (view source)
• Verify Open Graph tags render correctly (use Facebook Sharing Debugger)
• Validate schema markup with Google Rich Results Test
• Check robots.txt at yoursite.com/robots.txt
• Confirm no duplicate SEO plugins are active
• Set focus keywords on all priority pages