Introduction
Laravel is an excellent framework for building SEO-friendly websites, but several technical SEO issues arise from misconfiguration rather than the framework itself. This guide covers the most critical checks.
1. Canonical Tags
Use link rel="canonical" on every page to prevent duplicate content. For programmatic pages with URL parameters, always point to the clean base URL.
2. XML Sitemaps
Generate dynamic sitemaps using a StreamedResponse to avoid memory limits on large datasets. Split sitemaps by type (blog, services, locations) and register them in a sitemap index. Submit the index URL to Google Search Console.
3. Robots.txt
Block admin panels, API routes, and pagination beyond page 3 in robots.txt. Disallow /admin, /api, and ?page= beyond a threshold.
4. Structured Data
Add JSON-LD Schema.org markup for LocalBusiness, BreadcrumbList, and FAQPage types. Validate with Google's Rich Results Test tool.
5. Core Web Vitals
Use Laravel's asset compilation (Vite) to minify JS/CSS. Serve images in WebP format, implement lazy loading, and use a CDN. Target LCP ≤ 2.5 s and CLS ≤ 0.1.
6. HTTPS & Security Headers
Force HTTPS via middleware or .htaccess. Add security headers (HSTS, X-Frame-Options, CSP) to improve crawl trust signals.
Conclusion
Running through this checklist monthly catches regressions early and keeps your Laravel site in excellent technical shape for search engine crawlers.