SEO friendly footer customization

Help Customization
1

Hi!

I saw this thread which discusses how the footer can be modified, but all the solutions are just css and javascript modifications

The problem with those approaches is that they can really hurt SEO. I can modify the page however I want using Javascript, but it won’t change what the search engines see.

And what search engines see is one of the main reasons for me to choose a blogging platform in the first place instead of just rolling out my own blog.

I think this feature is crucial for a service like Write.as.

  1. It’s not that I don’t want to people to know I’m using Write.as. I do, I like the aesthetics very much and value the service that you offer. But I want to mention this in my own way and using a different footer layout.
  2. I see that many people add important snippets of information to their footers, like copyrights, disclaimers, licenses and link. It’s very important for all those to be included in the static server response to be seen by search engines.
  3. It’s not only about the stuff mentioned above not being seen by search engines, but also about the result not matching the initial html. Search engines can access what has been rendered after JS is run, and a mismatch may hurt page’s rating. The latter is very rare I think, but since the main purpose of a blog is to generate static content, I would like it to be perfect at that task.

So is this something you are considering adding?

@support

Thanks!

2

friendly ping!

I don’t expect an immediate answer, I’m sure dev have a lot on their hands.

But I’d love to know whether this feature is acknowledged and to better understand the state of Write.as!

4

Yep this is a great point, and right now we’re actually piloting a “custom design” feature for certain customers that lets them modify their site’s basic structure. It’s not ready for wide use yet, but maybe we could just release the “custom footer” part to help out with this.

Thanks for bringing it up – we can keep the conversation going and I’ll share any updates here.

5

@matt, I kind of agree with @everdimension on the interaction with users, great to read you’re still working to improve write.as

A footer to me would serve 3 purposes:

  1. have a section identical throughout all pages, including the landing page, the individual posts, the RSS served pages, the email list, etc. For a reference point, in my case, it is 126 words. It can be of smaller character size and/or different font.

  2. hold a variety of legal references/linked pages such as Copyright, Privacy, T&C, Disclaimers, etc.

  3. server side generated, so not defined in javascript or other user end generated stuff which may get blocked by the user, for example through plugins. If someone visits from a text only browser, it is shown.

Hope it helps!