SGEN SEO FAQ

⏱ Quick answer below · full page ≈ 12 min · skim the bold Q headers to move faster.

In short. Twenty direct answers to the SEO and analytics questions SGEN operators ask most — covering metadata, sitemaps, GA4, built-in analytics, Open Graph, canonical URLs, redirects, and hreflang. Match your question to a section header, read the two-to-four-sentence answer, follow the linked module page only if you need the full walkthrough.

On this page: SEO metadata · Sitemaps and discovery · Analytics integrations · Built-in analytics · Open Graph and social sharing · Technical SEO · Search behavior

SEO metadata

Q1. Where do I set per-page SEO title and description?

Open the page or post in the editor, then scroll to the SEO panel below the content area. The SEO panel contains two fields: Meta Title and Meta Description. What you enter in those fields is exactly what search engines and browser tabs display. The fields accept plain text only — no HTML, no markdown.

The SEO panel is available on every page, post, and product record. It is not a separate module you need to enable.

Q2. What happens if I leave the SEO fields blank?

SGEN falls back in a defined order. For the meta title: the page title you set in the page settings is used first; if that is also blank, the site name from Settings → General fills in. For the meta description: SGEN extracts the first meaningful text block from the page content and trims it to fit. The fallback behavior is reasonable for low-stakes pages, but any page you want search engines to rank for a specific query should have explicit values in both fields.

Blank fields do not break indexing. They produce generic metadata that gives search engines less signal about the page.

Q3. Can I set a different SEO title from the page heading?

Yes — and doing so is often the right choice. The page heading (your H1) is what visitors read on the page; the meta title is what appears in search results and browser tabs. They can say the same thing, but they do not have to. A page heading might be "Everything you need to know about invoices" while the meta title is "Invoicing — SGEN Help". Enter the meta title you want in the Meta Title field; it does not affect the H1 displayed on the page.

Keeping meta title under 60 characters prevents search results from cutting it off.

Sitemaps and discovery

Q4. Does SGEN generate a sitemap automatically?

Yes. SGEN generates and maintains an XML sitemap at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. The sitemap updates automatically when you publish, unpublish, or delete a page. Pages set to noindex are excluded from the sitemap automatically — you do not need to manage it by hand. The sitemap includes pages, posts, and products (if ecommerce is active on the site).

You can view the current sitemap in a browser by visiting /sitemap.xml on your live domain. It is the list of URLs SGEN is telling search engines to crawl.

Q5. How do I submit my sitemap to Google?

Go to Google Search Console, select the property matching your site's domain, then open Indexing → Sitemaps in the left sidebar. In the Add a new sitemap field, enter sitemap.xml (the path, not the full URL — Search Console prepends your domain). Click Submit. Google queues the sitemap for crawl; the status column shows Success once it has been fetched without error.

Submitting the sitemap once is sufficient for ongoing crawl. You do not need to resubmit every time a page changes — Google re-fetches the sitemap on its own schedule.

Q6. Does SGEN block search engines on the staging site?

Yes. Every staging site created under SGEN has a noindex, nofollow directive in the HTTP response headers and in the default robots.txt. This prevents staging content from appearing in search results and avoids duplicate-content signals against your live domain. The block is applied automatically — you do not need to configure it. When you are ready to go live, create or connect a production domain; the production site does not carry the staging block.

Do not use staging URLs in public-facing places. Even with the block in place, links to staging URLs from public pages send crawl signals that can confuse indexers.

Analytics integrations

Q7. Can I add Google Analytics 4?

Yes. From Settings → Integrations → Google Analytics, paste your GA4 Measurement ID (format: G-XXXXXXXXXX) into the field and save. SGEN injects the GA4 tracking script site-wide on every page load. No code, no templates, no custom scripts required. The integration loads in the page head; data appears in your GA4 property within a few minutes of the first page view.

To confirm the integration is firing: open GA4's real-time report, load a page on your site, and confirm the page view event appears in the report within 30 seconds.

Q8. Can I use Plausible or Fathom instead of GA4?

Yes. Open Settings → Integrations → Custom Scripts and paste the tracking snippet from your Plausible or Fathom account into the Head Scripts field. SGEN injects it on every page. Both services use a single script tag that self-contains the tracker — no additional configuration in SGEN is needed. Goal and event setup happens inside Plausible or Fathom's dashboard, not in SGEN.

The custom scripts field accepts any third-party tracking snippet, so this approach also works for Matomo, Heap, Mixpanel, or any other tool that uses a JavaScript tag.

Q9. Can I track conversions on form submissions?

Yes. SGEN fires a form_submit event on every form submission. In GA4, open Admin → Events and mark form_submit as a conversion, or create an event with a matching condition. If you need the specific form identified in the event, SGEN includes the form name as an event parameter — you can use it to separate contact form conversions from newsletter signups or checkout completions.

For Plausible and Fathom, the form_submit event maps to the goal or event tracking configuration in those dashboards. Check your provider's documentation for the exact event name to match.

Built-in analytics

Q10. What does SGEN's built-in analytics show me?

SGEN's built-in analytics, accessible from SG-Dashboard → Analytics, shows page views, unique visitors, referral sources, top pages, and geographic distribution. The data is collected server-side, which means it is not affected by ad blockers or browsers with JavaScript restrictions. The dashboard covers the current day, last 7 days, last 30 days, and a custom date range. Metrics are site-level by default; the top-pages view breaks down traffic by individual page.

Built-in analytics does not replace a full analytics platform for conversion tracking, funnel analysis, or event-level detail. It is designed to answer "how much traffic is this site getting, and from where" without requiring a third-party setup.

Q11. Why does GA4 show different traffic than SGEN analytics?

The most common reason is ad blockers and privacy browsers. GA4 relies on a JavaScript tag that many browsers and extensions block; SGEN's built-in analytics is server-side and not blockable in the same way. The gap between the two numbers is a reasonable proxy for how much of your traffic uses ad blockers. A secondary cause is GA4's own data sampling and session-model differences — GA4 counts sessions, not raw page hits, which produces a different number even on unblocked browsers.

Neither number is wrong. They measure different things. Use SGEN analytics for raw traffic trends; use GA4 for conversion attribution, campaign tracking, and event-level analysis.

Q12. How do I see which keywords brought visitors to my site?

SGEN's built-in analytics does not show keyword-level data — no analytics platform can access that reliably since Google encrypted organic search queries in 2013. To see which keywords drive traffic, use Google Search Console. Connect Search Console by verifying site ownership (from Settings → SEO → Search Console Verification in SGEN), then open Search Console's Performance → Search results report to see queries, impressions, and clicks.

Search Console data covers Google organic only. For paid keyword data, connect your Google Ads account directly inside the GA4 property.

Open Graph and social sharing

Q13. How do I add Open Graph images for social sharing?

Open the page in the editor and scroll to the SEO panel. Below the meta fields, there is an OG Image section. Upload an image or select one from the media library. The recommended size is 1200 × 630 px; images outside that ratio are cropped or padded by the social platform. Whatever you upload here is what appears in previews when someone shares the page URL on social platforms, messaging apps, or email clients that render link previews.

If no OG image is set on a page, SGEN uses the fallback OG image set under Settings → SEO → Default OG Image. Set a default there so unoptimized pages still render a reasonable preview.

Q14. Why doesn't my OG image show up in WhatsApp or iMessage?

OG image previews are cached aggressively by social platforms and messaging apps. If you updated the OG image after the URL was previously shared, the platform is still serving the cached version. For WhatsApp, there is no cache-purge tool — the cache expires on its own schedule (typically a few days). For Facebook and LinkedIn, use their official debugging tools (Facebook Sharing Debugger, LinkedIn Post Inspector) to force a recrawl of the URL and clear their cache. iMessage caches are device-level and flush on their own.

If the image never appeared in the first place, confirm the image URL in the OG tag resolves publicly (no authentication required, no redirect chain). Test by pasting the image URL directly in a browser before and after clearing cookies.

Technical SEO

Q15. Can I add schema.org markup?

Yes. Open Settings → SEO → Structured Data. SGEN applies a base schema automatically: WebSite at the root, WebPage on every page, BlogPosting on posts, and Product on product pages (if ecommerce is active). For custom schema beyond the defaults — FAQPage, HowTo, LocalBusiness, or review markup — paste the JSON-LD block into the Custom Structured Data field on the specific page. SGEN injects it in a <script type="application/ld+json"> tag in the page head.

Test schema output with Google's Rich Results Test tool after adding it. The tool shows whether the markup parses without errors and qualifies for rich result treatment in search.

Q16. What is the canonical URL and why does it matter?

The canonical URL is the version of a page URL you want search engines to treat as the authoritative source. When the same content is reachable at more than one URL — for example, with and without a trailing slash, or with a query string parameter — the canonical tag tells search engines which version counts. Without it, search engines may split ranking signals across the duplicates and rank none of them well.

SGEN sets the canonical URL automatically based on the page's permanent URL. If you need to override it — for imported content, syndicated posts, or pages reachable through multiple paths — open the SEO panel on the page and enter the correct canonical URL in the Canonical URL field. Only change it when you have a specific reason; the default is correct for most pages.

Q17. How do I redirect an old URL to a new one?

Open Settings → SEO → Redirects → Add Redirect. Enter the old path in From (use the path only, not the full domain — for example /old-page) and the new path in To. Choose 301 Permanent as the redirect type for URL changes you intend to keep; 301 passes ranking signals from the old URL to the new one. Save, and requests to the old URL are forwarded immediately.

Redirects apply site-wide. If you are migrating a large number of URLs at once — after a domain change or a URL structure redesign — the redirects module accepts bulk import via CSV. The format is one redirect per row: old-path, new-path, redirect-type.

Search behavior

Q18. Why has my Google ranking dropped after a content edit?

Four common causes, in order of likelihood. First, the edit changed the content significantly enough that Google re-evaluated the page's relevance to its prior ranking terms — this is expected and temporary in most cases; rankings stabilize after Google recrawls and re-ranks. Second, the edit accidentally changed or removed the meta title, meta description, or an H1 — check the SEO panel to confirm those fields are still populated correctly. Third, a staging URL leaked into a link inside the page — search engines that follow those links may encounter a noindexed staging site. Fourth, the edit took the page below a content quality threshold Google uses internally — the signal is usually a gradual slide over days, not an overnight drop.

If the drop is immediate and large, check the Search Console Coverage report for any new errors logged at the time of the edit.

Q19. How long does it take for Google to find a new page?

For a site already indexed and active, new pages typically appear in Google search results within a few days of being published. For a brand-new site or a site with few inbound links, discovery can take one to three weeks. Submitting the sitemap to Search Console and using the URL Inspection tool to request indexing directly shortens that window — it does not guarantee same-day indexing, but it signals to Google that the page exists and is ready.

SGEN automatically includes new published pages in the sitemap. You do not need to add URLs manually. The sitemap update is the primary signal to crawlers that something new is available.

Q20. Does SGEN support hreflang for multi-language sites?

Yes. SGEN's SEO module includes an hreflang configuration per page. For each page that has a language equivalent, open the SEO panel, scroll to Hreflang, and add the language code and the URL of the equivalent page in each target language. SGEN outputs the <link rel="alternate" hreflang="..."> tags in the page head automatically. The x-default tag is set on the page you designate as the default language fallback.

Hreflang must be reciprocal — if page A lists page B as its Spanish equivalent, page B must list page A as its English equivalent. SGEN does not enforce this automatically; check both pages after configuration.

Q21. Can I see crawl errors in SGEN?

SGEN surfaces a basic crawl status in SG-Dashboard → Analytics → Crawl Health. The view lists pages that returned errors on last crawl, pages excluded from the sitemap, and any redirect chains longer than two hops. For full crawl error visibility — including errors Google specifically encountered — use Google Search Console's Coverage report. SGEN's crawl health view is a sanity check; Search Console is the ground truth for Google's perspective.

If you see a spike in 404 errors in the crawl health view, cross-reference with the Redirects list to confirm old URLs are covered.