Inblog SEO Setup Wizard Guide from A to Z

Let's figure out a complete step-by-step guide on setting up the SEO wizard.

Mar 11, 2024

Inblog SEO Setup Wizard Guide from A to Z

Contents

Basic blog representation Blog name and logo Language Domain Connection Connecting as a Subdomain Connecting as a Sub-directory (or, a Sub-folder)Site Verification If you already registered your own domain in the Search ConsoleIf you want to add your blog to the Search ConsoleSubmitting a Sitemap to Google Search Console Robots.txt: Default Configuration, and How to Edit How to Edit a Robots.txt file in Inblog?

Welcome to the SEO Setup Wizard, your ultimate guide to optimizing your business blog for better SERP rankings. With easy-to-follow steps, you can enhance your blog's search engine visibility and reach your target audience more effectively.

The following steps include providing basic blog information for Google Search and adding your blog to the Google Search Console, as well as submitting the sitemap for faster indexing.

Plus, you can now easily check the indexing status and track your post's SERP positions for each post on the dashboard.

Let's get started!

Basic blog representation

In this step, we ask you to add some information about your blog. That will allow us to explain your blog to Google Search.

Blog name and logo

Enter your blog name and upload a logo.

Language

Choose your default language to add a lang attribute to help Google detect the language of a page and improve SEO accessibility.

Here’s an example of a correctly implemented langtag:

<html lang="en-us">

The attribute uses a two-digit code to declare the default language, often followed by a two-digit code to declare the region of the language.

Don’t make assumptions about language codes. You might assume that

<html lang=”en-uk” >

refers to English as spoken in the United Kingdom — but the correct attribute is:

<html lang=”en-gb">

The full list of acceptable langcodes can be found in the ISO 639 language code.

👉 If you want to know more about lang attribute, check out our documentation.

Domain Connection

In this step, we ask you to connect your blog to your main domain.

You can embed your blog as a subdomain (e.g., blog.example.com) or a sub-folder (e.g., example.com/blog) to enhance site architecture and brand presence, benefiting SEO.

Connecting as a Subdomain

Enter the URL address you want your sub-domain to point to and click the Activate Custom Domain button to receive instructions.

👉 If you need any help? Contact us.

Connecting as a Sub-directory (or, a Sub-folder)

Enter the URL address you want your sub-directory to point to and click the Activate Custom Domain button to receive instructions.

Important:
Sub-directory support is available for the Next.js framework.
(Static Exports are not supported)
Vercel and AWS Amplify support sub-directories for web hosting.
For no-code platforms, Framer and Webflow, a reverse proxy configuration via Cloudflare is needed.

👉 If you need any help? Contact us.

activate custom domain as a sub-directory

If you need any assistance, please send us a help request! We provide all support, including technical support, through video meetings.

👉 If you need any help? Contact us.

Site Verification

In this step, by verifying your blog ownership and registering it in Google Search Console, you can expect to enhance the indexing speed of your blog and posts. This procedure is also necessary for the subsequent step of submitting the sitemap.

Plus, by integrating with Google Search Console, you can create an insightful dashboard with Search Console data.

Please follow the steps below:

If you already registered your own domain in the Search Console

If you already registered your own domain in the Search Console, click “Continue with Google” button below to connect Search Console.

Choose your Google account to continue with the authentication.

Click "Allow" button to grant Inblog a permission to view your Search Console website data.

If you want to add your blog to the Search Console

You haven’t registered your own domain to the Search Console, and want to add your blog to the Search Console, click “Register blog in the Search Console”.
Head over to Google Search Console and click on the "Start now" button.

If you already have access to other properties and need to add a new one, click the "Search property" box as illustrated below and then click the "+ Add property" option below your existing properties.
Select the URL Prefix property type and enter your custom domain URL, such as 'https://blog.yoursite.com'or 'https://www.yoursite.com/blog'. Click 'Continue'.

Inblog use the adding HTML meta tag method to verify your ownership. Please click on the 'HTML tag' area.

Copy the provided meta tag. It will be unique and tied to a specific user.
Paste copied HTML tag into the <head> section below, and click 'Save HTML tag' button.
Click "Verify" in Google Search Console.
Click "Verify" in Google Search Console.
In the "Step 5: Allow Inblog to access your Search Console", click on the 'Continue with Google' button which will take you through to Google’s authentication flow to get the necessary permissions.
Choose your Google account to continue with the authentication.
Click "Allow" button to grant Inblog a permission to view your Search Console website data.

Submitting a Sitemap to Google Search Console

Important: Before you can submit your sitemap to search engines, you need to verify your ownership of your site's domain with them. Learn how to verify your domain. Learn how to verify your domain.

To submit your sitemap,

Go to Google Search Console.
Select your site from the drop-down.
Select Sitemaps on the navigation sidebar.
Enter the URL slug of the sitemap you want to submit under Add a new sitemap. For example, to submit the sitemap for your entire site, enter sitemap.xml.
Click Submit.
Once Google is done processing your sitemap, you’ll see a message like this:

👉 If you want to know more about sitemaps, check out our Guide to Sitemaps.

Robots.txt: Default Configuration, and How to Edit

By default, Inblog generates a robots.txt file with the following contents:

These directives allow all search engines to crawl your blog. In addition, we add a link to your sitemap, so search engines, and can find it and crawl your blog and posts more efficiently.

How to Edit a Robots.txt file in Inblog?

You can modify the robots.txt file in Inblog as follows. You can find the robots.txt editor under "Blog settings > Robots.txt" section.

The method of editing the Robots.txt file differs slightly depending on the method of connection (subdomain or subdirectory) when embedding a blog onto your website using a custom domain.

Connected as a Subdomain

When connecting a custom domain as a Subdomain like 'blog.example.com', Inblog provides default directives for the robots.txt file as follows:

User-agent: *
Allow: /
Sitemap: https://inblog.ai/blog/sitemap.xml

You can directly edit the file using the robots.txt editor in the blog settings.

Connected as a Sub-directory

When connecting a custom domain as a Sub-directory (or sub-folder) like 'example.com/blog', Inblog rewrites the robots.txt file from your root domain, such as 'yourdomain.com/robots.txt' to add your blog sitemap.

The modified robot file provided by Inblog is as follows:

User-agent: *
Allow: /
Sitemap: https://inblog.ai/sitemap.xml
Sitemap: https://inblog.ai/blog/sitemap.xml

To edit the robot file, follow the instructions below. This setup routes the robot file to Inblog, allowing you to manage it directly within Inblog.

NextJS

Add these rules to the rewrites function in next.config.js file as shown below. Make sure that these rules are in the top order.

const nextConfig = {
  async rewrites() {
    return {
      beforeFiles: [
        {
          source: "/blog",
          destination: "https://inblog.ai/grayzipblog",
        },
        {
          source: "/blog/:path*",
          destination: "https://inblog.ai/grayzipblog/:path*",
        },
        {
          source: "/robots.txt",
          destination: "https://inblog.ai/grayzipblog/robots.txt",
        },
        {
          source: "/_inblog/:path*",
          destination: "https://inblog.ai/grayzipblog/_inblog/:path*",
        },
      ],
    };
  },
};

module.exports = nextConfig

AWS Amplify

Go to App Settings -> Rewrites and redirects. Add the following rules in the Open text editor. Ensure these rules are positioned at the top of the list.

[
  {
    "source": "/blog",
    "target": "https://inblog.ai/grayzipblog",
    "status": "200",
    "condition": null
	},
  {
    "source": "/blog/<*>",
    "target": "https://inblog.ai/grayzipblog/<*>",
    "status": "200",
    "condition": null
  },
  {
    "source": "/robots.txt",
    "target": "https://inblog.ai/grayzipblog/robots.txt",
    "status": "200",
    "condition": null
  },
  {
    "source": "/_inblog/<*>",
    "target": "https://inblog.ai/grayzipblog/_inblog/<*>",
    "status": "200",
    "condition": null
  }
]

👉 If you want to know more about robots.txt, check out our Guide to Robots.txt .