How to Do SEO on Drupal

There are many important aspects of search engine optimization (SEO). By default, the Drupal content management system is not very search engine friendly. For starters, there's no inherent module to generate site-specific or article-specific meta tags. There's also nothing in place to prevent the duplicate indexing of sites with multiple URLs that you've configured through the path alias feature. The Meta Tags Quick module takes care of the site meta data, and the Global Redirect module makes sure search engines do not index the same article with multiple URL paths, which will prevent duplicate content penalties.

Instructions

Adding Meta Tags and Descriptions

1. Visit the Meta Tags Quick Drupal page and right click on the download link. Copy the URL and sign in to your Drupal site. Click on "Modules."

2. Click "Install New Module" and paste the URL into the box. Click "Install," then click "Enable Added Modules." Check the box next to "Meta Tags Quick" to enable the feature, then click "Save."

3. Click on "Structure>Meta Tag Settings." Check the box to enable site wide meta tags. Click "Submit."

4. Type your main website keywords in the "Meta Tags" box. Type your site's meta description in the "Meta Description" box. The meta description is what users will see when your site's home page appears in search results.

5. Click on "Content" then "Find Content." Click on the article to which you want to add meta tags.

6. Type your meta keywords in the "Keyword" box, then type your article's meta description in the "Description" box. Click "Save."

Setting Search Engine Friendly URLs

1. Visit the Global Redirect Drupal module page. Right click on the download link and copy the target URL. Sign in to your Drupal site and click "Modules."

2. Click "Install New Module." Paste the link into the box and click "Install." Click "Enable," then check the box next to "Global Redirect." Click "Save."

3. Click on "Configuration." Click on "Clean URLs." Check the box to enable clean URLs, then click "Save."

Tips & Warnings

• You can also improve the search engine performance of your Drupal site by installing the XML Sitemap module and creating an XML sitemap for search engines like Google. This can help the engines index your site faster.

• You can also set up Drupal to automatically set URL path alias by installing the Pathauto module.

Resources

• Drupal.org; Meta Tags Quick
• Drupal.org; Global Redirect
• Drupal.org; Path Auto
• Drupal.org; XML Sitemap