SEO Rails Helpers

Collection of view helpers to improve search engine optimization of Ruby on Rails application.

Installation

SEO Rails Helpers requires Ruby version >=1.9.3 and Rails >= 3.2

Add this line to your Rails application's Gemfile:

gem 'seo_rails_helpers'

And then execute bundle command to install.

Usage

1. seo_page_title

This helper will produce SEO friendly page title. It assumes you are using either content_for or provide helper in your page view to store page title.

Include seo_page_title in the <head> section of your layout

ERB example:

<head>
  <%= seo_page_title %>
  <%# other elements %>
</head>

Haml example:

%head
  seo_page_title
  -# other elements

This will create HTML title element:

<title>Page Title | Base Title</title>

Exact format of title element will vary based on user-specific options.

seo_page_title options

Name	Description	Default
`:page_title`	Identifier for stored page title. Specify symbol representing identifier in your `provide` or `content_for` method.	`:title`
`:separator`	Character that separates `:page_title` and `:base_title`	\|
`:base_title`	Base title, like your brand or app name. In case `:page_title` is missing or empty the title will consist of `:base_title` only.	Your Rails application name

example seo_page_title usage

provide(:page_title, 'Example Page')

seo_page_title(page_title: :page_title, 
               separator: '>', 
               base_title: 'Example Site')

Will produce following title element:

<title>Example Page &gt; Example Site</title>

2. seo_meta_description

This helper will create and insert meta element to specify description. Unlike seo_page_title, it produces meta description only when corresponding page explicitly sent it via either content_for or provide. Reason for such behavior - having any kind of default meta description is considered a bad SEO practice and may result in search engine ranking penalty.

Include seo_meta_description in the <head> section of your layout

ERB example:

<head>
  <%= seo_meta_description %>
  <%# other elements %>
</head>

Haml example:

%head
  seo_meta_description
  -# other elements

This will create HTML title element like:

<meta name="description" content="Example meta description" />

seo_meta_description options

Name	Description	Default
`:description`	Identifier for stored meta description. Specify symbol representing identifier in your `provide` or `content_for` method.	`:description`

example seo_meta_description usage

provide(:meta_description, 'Custom meta description')

seo_meta_description(description: :meta_description)

Will produce following title element:

<meta name="description" content="Custom meta description" />

Contributing

Fork the project and submit a pull request.