Laravel SEO for AMP
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial for any web application looking to rank well in search engine results. In today's fast-paced digital world, website performance, speed, and mobile optimization have become significant factors in SEO rankings. Enter Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) — an open-source HTML framework developed by Google that helps create fast-loading mobile web pages. Combining AMP with Laravel, a popular PHP framework, ensures that your web application provides both performance and SEO-friendly mobile experiences.
AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is a project by Google that helps developers create websites that load almost instantly on mobile devices. The core idea behind AMP is to strip down the web page to its essential elements, thereby minimizing the load time.
From an SEO standpoint, fast-loading pages significantly improve the user experience, which leads to:
Google tends to rank AMP pages higher in mobile search results, so adopting AMP can give your Laravel-based website a competitive edge.
Using AMP in a Laravel application brings several advantages:
Integrating AMP into a Laravel application can be straightforward. There are multiple approaches to achieve this. We'll focus on building AMP-specific views and integrating SEO optimizations.
Start by installing a new Laravel application or use an existing one. If you don’t have Laravel installed, run the following command:
composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel amp-laravel-seo
After installation, navigate to the project directory:
cd amp-laravel-seo
To streamline the integration of AMP in Laravel, you can use the "Fruitcake/Laravel-AMP" package. Install it using Composer:
composer require fruitcake/laravel-amp
You need separate routes and controllers to serve AMP pages. You can modify your routes/web.php as follows:
// Regular route for the webpage
Route::get('/post/{slug}', 'PostController@show')->name('post.show');
// AMP-specific route for the webpage
Route::get('/amp/post/{slug}', 'PostController@showAmp')->name('post.amp.show');
In your PostController, create a method to handle the AMP view:
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
class PostController extends Controller
{
// Regular view
public function show($slug)
{
$post = Post::where('slug', $slug)->firstOrFail();
return view('posts.show', compact('post'));
}
// AMP view
public function showAmp($slug)
{
$post = Post::where('slug', $slug)->firstOrFail();
return view('posts.amp.show', compact('post'));
}
}
Next, create a new Blade view file for your AMP pages. Here's a basic AMP-compliant Blade template:
<!doctype html>
<html amp>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,minimum-scale=1,initial-scale=1">
<link rel="canonical" href="{{ route('post.show', $post->slug) }}">
<title>{{ $post->title }} - AMP Page</title>
<link rel="amphtml" href="{{ route('post.amp.show', $post->slug) }}">
<script async src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<header>
<h1>{{ $post->title }}</h1>
</header>
<article>
{!! $post->content !!}
</article>
</body>
</html>
For SEO purposes, always include canonical and amphtml links between the standard and AMP pages. This helps search engines understand that the AMP page is an alternative, optimized version of the regular page.
In the non-AMP view, include the following link:
<link rel="amphtml" href="{{ route('post.amp.show', $post->slug) }}">
In the AMP view, include the canonical link:
<link rel="canonical" href="{{ route('post.show', $post->slug) }}">
Although AMP pages naturally rank better, you still need to pay attention to the following SEO optimizations:
Ensure you have the appropriate meta tags on your AMP pages. A basic set of meta tags includes:
<meta name="description" content="{{ $post->meta_description }}">
<meta name="keywords" content="{{ $post->meta_keywords }}">
<meta property="og:title" content="{{ $post->title }}">
<meta property="og:description" content="{{ $post->meta_description }}">
<meta property="og:url" content="{{ route('post.amp.show', $post->slug) }}">
<meta property="og:image" content="{{ $post->image_url }}">
Including structured data (such as Schema.org or Open Graph) on your AMP pages can further enhance your SEO. Here's an example of a structured data script for a blog post:
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "BlogPosting",
"headline": "{{ $post->title }}",
"image": "{{ $post->image_url }}",
"author": "{{ $post->author->name }}",
"datePublished": "{{ $post->published_at->toW3cString() }}",
"description": "{{ $post->meta_description }}"
}
</script>
Google AMP provides built-in support for Google Analytics. To add analytics to your AMP page:
<amp-analytics type="googleanalytics">
<script type="application/json">
{
"vars": {
"account": "UA-XXXXX-Y"
},
"triggers": {
"trackPageview": {
"on": "visible",
"request": "pageview"
}
}
}
</script>
</amp-analytics>
One of the major benefits of AMP is its ability to be cached on Google’s AMP Cache. This allows your AMP pages to be served almost instantly from Google's servers. You don't need to do anything extra; Google will automatically cache your AMP pages when it discovers them.
Integrating AMP into your Laravel application can significantly improve your mobile SEO. It enhances page speed, user experience, and visibility in search engines. By following the best practices outlined in this article, you'll be well on your way to building fast, mobile-friendly web pages that rank higher in search engine results.
AMP’s benefits, combined with Laravel’s flexibility, make this a powerful combination for optimizing web applications for SEO.
Published By: Kartik Sharma
Updated at: 2024-09-27 18:20:16
