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Recommended Settings for Blog Sites

Blogs and content-focused sites have specific SEO needs. This guide provides recommended SEOvault AI settings to maximize your blog’s search visibility and reader engagement.

Core settings

Section titled “Core settings”

Output mode

Section titled “Output mode”

Recommended: Auto

Auto mode automatically generates SEO titles, descriptions, and other metadata based on your templates. This is ideal for blogs with frequent content updates.

To configure:

  1. Go to SEOvault AI > General > Output Mode
  2. Select Auto
  3. Click Save Changes

Homepage settings

Section titled “Homepage settings”

Title template:

%sitename% - %sitedesc%

Description template:

%site_tagline%

To configure:

  1. Go to SEOvault AI > Homepage
  2. Set the title and description templates
  3. Click Save Changes

This ensures your homepage clearly communicates your blog’s purpose.

Post settings

Section titled “Post settings”

Title template

Section titled “Title template”

Recommended:

%title% - %sitename%

This format:

  • Puts the post title first (most important for search)
  • Adds site name for branding
  • Uses a separator for readability

Description template

Section titled “Description template”

Recommended:

%excerpt%

This uses your post excerpt as the meta description. Ensure you write compelling excerpts for each post.

Alternative for auto-generated descriptions:

%title% - %excerpt%

To configure post templates:

Section titled “To configure post templates:”
  1. Go to SEOvault AI > Templates
  2. Set the title and description templates
  3. Click Save Changes

Social media optimization

Section titled “Social media optimization”

Open Graph

Section titled “Open Graph”

Recommended: Enable

Open Graph tags improve how your content appears when shared on Facebook, LinkedIn, and other platforms.

To configure:

  1. Go to SEOvault AI > General > Open Graph
  2. Check Enable Open Graph
  3. Set default OG image (blog logo or branded image)
  4. Click Save Changes

Twitter Cards

Section titled “Twitter Cards”

Recommended: Enable with large image

Large image cards perform better for blog content.

To configure:

  1. Go to SEOvault AI > General > Twitter Cards
  2. Check Enable Twitter Cards
  3. Select Summary with Large Image
  4. Click Save Changes

Schema markup

Section titled “Schema markup”

Recommended: Enable

Schema markup helps search engines understand your content structure.

Section titled “Recommended schema types for blogs:”
  • Article — For blog posts
  • BlogPosting — More specific for blog content
  • BreadcrumbList — For navigation
  • Organization — For your blog brand
  • Person — For author profiles

To configure:

  1. Go to SEOvault AI > General > Schema
  2. Check Enable Schema Markup
  3. Configure default schema types
  4. Click Save Changes

Sitemap

Section titled “Sitemap”

Recommended: Enable

XML sitemaps help search engines discover and index your content.

To configure:

  1. Go to SEOvault AI > Sitemap
  2. Check Enable Custom Sitemap
  3. Set sitemap URL to /sitemap.xml
  4. Click Save Changes

Post types to include:

Section titled “Post types to include:”
  • Posts (always)
  • Pages (if they have SEO value)
  • Categories (optional)
  • Tags (optional)

Exclude tag archives if they don’t provide unique value.

Canonical URLs

Section titled “Canonical URLs”

Recommended: Enable

Canonical URLs prevent duplicate content issues.

To configure:

  1. Go to SEOvault AI > General > Canonical URLs
  2. Check Enable Canonical URLs
  3. Click Save Changes

Feed optimization

Section titled “Feed optimization”

Recommended: Enable feed excerpting and source links

Protect your content and drive traffic back to your site.

To configure:

  1. Go to SEOvault AI > General > Feed
  2. Check Excerpt feed content
  3. Set excerpt length to 400 characters
  4. Check Add source link to feeds
  5. Check Add noindex header to feeds
  6. Click Save Changes

Advanced blog-specific recommendations

Section titled “Advanced blog-specific recommendations”

Author archives

Section titled “Author archives”

Decision: Noindex author archives

Most blogs should noindex author archives to prevent duplicate content. Only index if each author has unique, valuable content.

To configure:

  1. Go to SEOvault AI > General > Noindex
  2. Check Noindex Author Archives
  3. Click Save Changes

Date archives

Section titled “Date archives”

Decision: Noindex date archives

Date-based archives create thin content pages. Noindex them to focus SEO on your actual posts.

To configure:

  1. Go to SEOvault AI > General > Noindex
  2. Check Noindex Date Archives
  3. Click Save Changes

Tag archives

Section titled “Tag archives”

Decision: Noindex or canonicalize

If you use tags heavily, consider noindexing them or setting canonical URLs to point to the main blog page.

To configure:

  1. Go to SEOvault AI > General > Noindex
  2. Check Noindex Tag Archives
  3. Click Save Changes

Search results pages

Section titled “Search results pages”

Decision: Noindex

Never index internal search results.

To configure:

  1. Go to SEOvault AI > General > Noindex
  2. Check Noindex Search Results
  3. Click Save Changes

Content optimization tips

Section titled “Content optimization tips”

Write effective excerpts

Section titled “Write effective excerpts”

For each post, write a compelling 150-160 character excerpt that:

  • Summarizes the post’s main point
  • Includes relevant keywords naturally
  • Encourages clicks from search results

Use focus keywords

Section titled “Use focus keywords”

Set a focus keyword for each post to guide your optimization:

  1. Edit a post
  2. In the SEOvault AI meta box, enter a focus keyword
  3. Use the keyword naturally in your title, content, and headings

Optimize images

Section titled “Optimize images”
  • Use descriptive alt text
  • Compress images for faster loading
  • Use appropriate file names (e.g., blog-post-topic.jpg not img123.jpg)
  • Set featured images for all posts

Internal linking

Section titled “Internal linking”
  • Link to related posts within your content
  • Use descriptive anchor text
  • Create topic clusters around key themes
  • Use the SEOvault AI internal links feature if available

Performance considerations

Section titled “Performance considerations”

Caching

Section titled “Caching”

Use a caching plugin to improve page load speed, which is a ranking factor.

Mobile optimization

Section titled “Mobile optimization”

Ensure your blog is mobile-friendly. Most traffic comes from mobile devices.

Core Web Vitals

Section titled “Core Web Vitals”

Monitor Core Web Vitals in Google Search Console and address issues:

  • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
  • First Input Delay (FID)
  • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

Monitoring and maintenance

Section titled “Monitoring and maintenance”

Regular tasks

Section titled “Regular tasks”
  • Weekly: Check Google Search Console for issues
  • Monthly: Review top-performing posts and optimize further
  • Quarterly: Audit internal links and update old content
  • Annually: Review and update settings based on algorithm changes

Key metrics to track

Section titled “Key metrics to track”
  • Organic traffic growth
  • Keyword rankings
  • Click-through rates from search
  • Average time on page
  • Bounce rate

Common blog mistakes to avoid

Section titled “Common blog mistakes to avoid”
  • Duplicate content — Don’t repost the same content with minor changes
  • Keyword stuffing — Write naturally for readers, not search engines
  • Ignoring mobile — Ensure your blog works perfectly on mobile devices
  • Thin content — Each post should provide unique value
  • Broken links - Regularly check for and fix broken internal and external links

When to customize these recommendations

Section titled “When to customize these recommendations”

Customize settings if:

  • Your blog has a unique structure (e.g., portfolio blog)
  • You target a very specific niche with different SEO needs
  • You have custom post types that require special handling
  • Your audience behavior differs from typical blog readers
Section titled “Related docs”