# SEO & AI Visibility ## SEO & AI Visibility **Files:** `src/config/config.toml`, page frontmatter · **Skill level:** Beginner Ecozen does the technical SEO for you: titles, descriptions, canonical links, a sitemap, `robots.txt`, structured data for a local business, social preview tags, an RSS feed, and optional files for AI tools. Your job is to set your address, describe your business, and write good titles and descriptions. ### First, Set Your Address ```toml [site] baseUrl = "https://www.your-domain.com" # ships as "https://example.com" ``` Canonical links, the sitemap, the sitemap line in `robots.txt`, the RSS feed, structured data, social previews, and the AI files all use it. The theme ships with the placeholder `https://example.com`, and `npm run build` prints a yellow `[site]` warning when the Astro build finishes until you change it. Don't deploy while you see that warning: every page would point search engines at `example.com`. A `SITE_URL` environment variable on the build takes priority over `baseUrl`, for example `SITE_URL=https://www.your-domain.com npm run build`, or a variable in your host's settings. On Vercel, the included `vercel.sh` sets it for you: production builds keep a `SITE_URL` you set in the Vercel project, or use your Vercel production domain, and preview builds use `https://staging.`. ### Titles And Descriptions Every page and entry accepts these frontmatter fields: ```yaml --- title: "Solar packages with a fixed price" # shown on the page metaTitle: "Pricing" # search result title (optional) description: "..." # page summary metaDescription: "Compare solar packages..." # search result description, 140–160 characters (optional) image: "/images/photos/my-photo.jpg" # social preview image (optional) canonical: "" # only if the page is a copy of another URL robots: "" # for example "noindex, nofollow" keywords: ["solar installer", "battery storage"] --- ``` Titles get your tagline added ("Pricing - Your tagline"); `disableTagline: true` turns it off for a page. Site-wide defaults are in `[site]` and `[seo]`. ### Sitemap And Robots - `/sitemap-index.xml` lists every page. Leave pages out with `excludeFromSitemap: true`, or whole folders with `[seo.sitemap] exclude`. Draft pages are removed automatically. - `/robots.txt` is built from `[seo.robotsTxt]` by `src/pages/robots.txt.ts`. Add paths crawlers must skip to `disallow`. ### Structured Data For Your Business Ecozen adds structured data (JSON-LD) that describes your business and pages to search engines: your business and website on every page, a `Service` on each service page, `BlogPosting` on posts, `JobPosting` on job pages, and a `WebPage` everywhere else. It is built from your content and one table in `config.toml`: ```toml [seo.localBusiness] type = "HomeAndConstructionBusiness" # or "LocalBusiness", "Electrician", "RoofingContractor" areaServed = ["Springfield", "Riverside", "Greenfield"] # placeholder: your towns or regions priceRange = "$$" openingHours = ["Mo-Fr 08:00-18:00", "Sa 09:00-13:00"] ``` The business name is `site.title`, and the address, phone, and email come from `[settings.contactInfo]`. Replace the sample towns and hours. After launch, check a page with Google's [Rich Results Test](https://search.google.com/test/rich-results). Keep the data true: the job posting data is for real openings only, so replace or delete the sample roles before launch. ### Social Preview Images ```toml [opengraph] image = "/images/og-image.jpg" # fallback image, public/images/og-image.jpg ``` A page with its own `image` uses it, cropped to 1200×630. Every other page uses the fallback image, which ships with the demo's branding: replace it with your own 1200×630 image. ### RSS Feed `/rss.xml` lists your blog posts, one feed per language (`/fr/rss.xml`). ### AI Search And AI Assistants Google says no special files or markup are needed to appear in its AI features (AI Overviews and AI Mode): a page that is indexed and can show a snippet in Search is eligible. The settings below control which AI crawlers may visit, and add optional files and links for AI tools. **1. Choose which AI crawlers may visit** ```toml [seo.robotsTxt] aiSearch = true # AI answer engines that cite pages (ChatGPT search, Claude, Perplexity, ...) aiTraining = true # crawlers that collect content to train AI models ``` Each switch writes `robots.txt` rules for a list of crawlers, in `src/lib/utils/aiCrawlers.ts`: - `aiSearch = false` asks the crawlers of AI answer engines (ChatGPT search, Claude, Perplexity, DuckDuckGo AI answers) not to fetch your pages, which can keep your business out of their answers. - `aiTraining = false` asks the training crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, Applebot-Extended, CCBot, and meta-externalagent) to stay away. Google also uses Google-Extended for grounding in Gemini apps, so this can reduce how often your pages appear in Gemini answers. Both switches also set the `Content-Signal` line under `User-agent: *`. Neither affects Google Search or AI Overviews, which use the normal Googlebot and follow your regular search rules. **2. `llms.txt` and Markdown copies** ```toml [seo.ai] llmsTxt = true # /llms.txt (an index of the site) and /llms-full.txt (all page text) markdownPages = true # a Markdown copy of services, projects, posts, open roles, FAQ, pricing, and legal pages ``` `/llms.txt` follows a proposed convention: a Markdown map of your site that some AI tools and coding agents can read. `/llms-full.txt` holds the text of every page. Search engines don't document using these files, so treat them as a convenience for tools that look for them, not as an SEO setting. Each language gets its own (`/fr/llms.txt`). With `markdownPages`, a service at `/services/residential-solar/` is also available as `/services/residential-solar.md`. Leave a page out of all of these with `excludeFromAi: true`; pages marked `noindex` are left out automatically. `llms.txt` starts with a short summary of the business, `ai.siteSummary` in `src/i18n/en.json` (and the file for each other language), followed by your contact details. The shipped summary describes a generic solar installer: rewrite it for your business. **3. The Copy page and Ask AI links** ```toml [settings.pageActions] enable = true footer = true # the Ask AI and llms row in every footer layout providers = ["chatgpt", "claude", "perplexity", "grok"] # [] hides the "Ask" links ``` Blog posts and service, project, and job pages get a **Copy page** button, a **View as Markdown** link, and **Ask ChatGPT / Claude / Perplexity / Grok** links that open the page in that assistant. Every footer also has a row with the same assistants and links to the Markdown copy, `llms.txt`, and `llms-full.txt`. See [AI Links & llms](../../features/ai-links-llms/). ### Do It With AI ```text Improve SEO for my business. For every content file with a title (src/content/**/english/), write a metaDescription of 140–160 characters based on the page content, and a metaTitle under 60 characters where the title is vague. Don't change other fields. Then do the same in the other languages. Set [seo.localBusiness] areaServed to [TOWNS] and openingHours to [HOURS] in src/config/config.toml, rewrite ai.siteSummary in every file in src/i18n/ for my business, and check that [site] baseUrl is "[MY URL]". ```