SEO Documentation

pieceofcake2/seo is a toolkit for the search engine optimization of CakePHP 2 applications, managed from admin screens:

Easy yet powerful 301 redirect tools only loaded when a 404 would otherwise occur
Highly configurable and intelligent 404 deep URL guessing utilizing Levenshtein distance and your sitemap.xml
Highly configurable and customizable meta tags for any incoming URI
Title tag overwrites based on URI
Canonical links based on URI
Custom status codes based on URI
Scraper banning administration, complete with honeypot baiting for scrapers to ban themselves
Google Analytics A/B testing management based on URIs

See CHANGELOG.md for the version history.

Installation
Configuration
Admin Screens
Redirects and Status Codes
Meta Tags
Titles
Canonical Links
DNS Prefetch
Blacklist
A/B Testing
Shells
Wiki Links

Installation

Install the plugin with Composer:

bash

composer require pieceofcake2/seo

The plugin has the cakephp-plugin type, so it is installed into your plugins directory by composer/installers. Set installer-paths in your application's composer.json so it is installed into the right place:

Layout	`installer-paths`
Modern (`config/`, `src/`, `templates/`, `plugins/`)	`"plugins/{$name}/": ["type:cakephp-plugin"]`
Legacy (`app/Config/`, `app/Plugin/`)	`"app/Plugin/{$name}/": ["type:cakephp-plugin"]`

Load the plugin in config/bootstrap.php (legacy layout: app/Config/bootstrap.php):

php

CakePlugin::load('Seo');

Create the plugin's tables in your database:

bash

bin/cake schema create --plugin Seo

# legacy layout
app/Console/cake schema create --plugin Seo

The SQL is also available in Config/sql/install.sql.

Configuration

Copy Config/seo.php.default of the plugin to config/seo.php (legacy layout: app/Config/seo.php) and adjust it:

php

$config = [
    'Seo' => [
        'approverEmail' => 'nick@example.com',
        'replyEmail' => 'noreply@example.com',
        'emailConfig' => 'default', // config of your email, if false will use default CakeEmail()
        'parentDomain' => 'http://www.example.com',
        'aggressive' => true, // if false, log offenders for later review instead of autobanning
        'triggerCount' => 2,
        'timeBetweenTriggers' => 60 * 60 * 24, // seconds
        'honeyPot' => ['admin' => false, 'plugin' => 'seo', 'controller' => 'seo_blacklists', 'action' => 'honeypot'],
        'log' => true,
        'cacheEngine' => false, // optionally cache things to save on DB requests - eg: 'default'
        'searchTerms' => true, // turn on term finding
        'levenshtein' => [
            'active' => false,
            'threshold' => 5, // -1 to ALWAYS find the closest match
            'cost_add' => 1, // cost to add a character, higher the amount the less you can add to find a match
            'cost_change' => 1, // cost to change a character, higher the amount the less you can change to find a match
            'cost_delete' => 1, // cost to delete a character, higher the amount the less you can delete to find a match
            'source' => '/sitemap.xml', // URL to list of urls in a sitemap
        ],
        'abTesting' => [
            'category' => 'ABTest', // Category for your ABTesting in Google Analytics
            'scope' => 3, // Scope for your ABTesting in Google Analytics
            'slot' => 4, // Slot for your ABTesting in Google Analytics
            'legacy' => false, // Uses Legacy version of Google Analytics JS code pageTracker._setCustomVar(...)
            'session' => true, // will use sessions to store tests for users who've already seen them.
            'redmine' => false, // or the full URL if your redmine http://www.redmine-example.com/issues/
        ],
        'dnsPrefetch' => [
            // Default prefetches, starting with // or http:// or https://
            // '//fonts.googleapis.com',
        ],
    ],
];

The file is loaded with Configure::load('seo') the first time a setting is read, unless the Seo settings are already configured.

Admin Screens

The redirects, status codes, meta tags, titles, canonical links, blacklist and A/B tests are managed under /admin/seo/.... Enable the admin routing prefix in config/core.php (legacy layout: app/Config/core.php) and protect the admin screens like the rest of your admin area (the plugin's controllers extend your AppController):

php

Configure::write('Routing.prefixes', ['admin']);

Redirects and Status Codes

Use the plugin's exception handler in config/core.php (legacy layout: app/Config/core.php). When a request results in a 404, it looks for a matching status code, then for a matching 301 redirect, then (if levenshtein.active is enabled) for the closest URL of your sitemap:

php

Configure::write('Exception', [
    'handler' => 'SeoExceptionHandler::handle',
    'renderer' => 'ExceptionRenderer',
    'log' => true,
]);

Load the handler class in config/bootstrap.php (legacy layout: app/Config/bootstrap.php), after loading the plugin:

php

require_once CakePlugin::path('Seo') . 'Lib' . DS . 'Error' . DS . 'SeoAppError.php';

Add Redirects

http://www.example.com/admin/seo/seo_redirects/

Add Status Codes

http://www.example.com/admin/seo/seo_status_codes/

NOTE: Special case status code 200 will return a minimum bandwidth noindex robots page, for alternative URL killing (410 alternative).

Meta Tags

Include the Seo.Seo helper in your AppController.php:

php

public $helpers = ['Seo.Seo'];

Alter your layout to include the SEO meta tags in the head of your layout:

php

<head>
    <!-- other head items -->
    <?= $this->Seo->metaTags() ?>
</head>

metaTags() also takes an array of default meta tags (name => content); the tags managed in the admin screen take priority.

Add Meta Tags

http://www.example.com/admin/seo/seo_meta_tags

Titles

Include the Seo.Seo helper in your AppController.php:

php

public $helpers = ['Seo.Seo'];

Alter your layout to include the SEO title in the head of your layout:

php

<head>
    <!-- other head items -->
    <?= $this->Seo->title($this->fetch('title')) ?>
</head>

Add Title Tags

http://www.example.com/admin/seo/seo_titles

Canonical Links

Include the Seo.Seo helper in your AppController.php:

php

public $helpers = ['Seo.Seo'];

Alter your layout to include the SEO canonical link in the head of your layout:

php

<head>
    <!-- other head items -->
    <?= $this->Seo->canonical() ?>
</head>

Add Canonical Links

http://www.example.com/admin/seo/seo_canonicals

DNS Prefetch

$this->Seo->dnsPrefetch() outputs <link rel="dns-prefetch"> tags for the hosts in the dnsPrefetch setting and the hosts passed to it:

php

<head>
    <?= $this->Seo->dnsPrefetch(['//maps.googleapis.com']) ?>
</head>

Blacklist

Include the Seo.BlackList component in your AppController.php:

php

public $components = ['Seo.BlackList'];

Start adding honeypot links in and around your application to bait malicious content grabbers:

php

<?= $this->Seo->honeyPot() ?>

Update your robots.txt to exclude /seo/ from being spidered. All legitimate spiders will ignore the honeypot:

txt

User-agent: *
Disallow: /seo/

Add/Manage Banned IPs

http://www.example.com/admin/seo/seo_blacklists

A/B Testing

Include the Seo.Seo helper and the Seo.ABTest component in your AppController.php:

php

public $helpers = ['Seo.Seo'];
public $components = ['Seo.ABTest'];

In your Google Analytics code on your site, add the line like so:

php

<script type="text/javascript">
    <!-- GA Items -->
    var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker('UA-SOMEKEY');
    <?= $this->Seo->getABTestJS() ?>
</script>

The generated code uses the custom variables of the classic Google Analytics tracking code (_gaq.push(['_setCustomVar', ...]), or pageTracker._setCustomVar(...) with abTesting.legacy).

In your AppController.php, to test if you're on a testable page and serve it, do something like this:

php

public function beforeFilter()
{
    $test = $this->ABTest->getTest();
    if ($test) {
        // Do things specific to this test
        $this->set('ABTest', $test);
        $this->view = $test['SeoABTest']['slug'];
    }

    parent::beforeFilter();
}

ProTip: For debugging in your controller before going live in GA, set the debug option to true. This will return tests that aren't active yet:

php

$test = $this->ABTest->getTest(['debug' => true]);

Add A/B Tests

http://www.example.com/admin/seo/seo_a_b_tests

ProTip: By setting the A/B test to debug, it will return true in your controller, but you won't be tracking the GA code.

Shells

Search and add redirects from the command line:

bash

bin/cake Seo.seo_redirects search <url or redirect>
bin/cake Seo.seo_redirects add <url> <redirect> [priority] [callback]

# for example
bin/cake Seo.seo_redirects add '/mybad/path*' '/my-cleaned-up-path' 50
bin/cake Seo.seo_redirects add '#/some-old-route-(.*)#i' '/new-route-$1' 10

Import the URLs used by the Levenshtein matching from levenshtein.source, or add one:

bash

bin/cake Seo.seo_urls import
bin/cake Seo.seo_urls add <url> <priority>

In the legacy layout, use app/Console/cake instead of bin/cake.

Wiki Links

The wiki of the original plugin by Nick Baker:

SEO Documentation ​

Installation ​

Configuration ​

Admin Screens ​

Redirects and Status Codes ​

Add Redirects ​

Add Status Codes ​

Meta Tags ​

Add Meta Tags ​

Titles ​

Add Title Tags ​

Canonical Links ​

Add Canonical Links ​

DNS Prefetch ​

Blacklist ​

Add/Manage Banned IPs ​

A/B Testing ​

Add A/B Tests ​

Shells ​

Wiki Links ​

SEO Documentation

Installation

Configuration

Admin Screens

Redirects and Status Codes

Add Redirects

Add Status Codes

Meta Tags

Add Meta Tags

Titles

Add Title Tags

Canonical Links

Add Canonical Links

DNS Prefetch

Blacklist

Add/Manage Banned IPs

A/B Testing

Add A/B Tests

Shells

Wiki Links