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SEO

Search engines love mlsystems.dev because every page is pure static HTML with no client-side rendering tax. Here's what's already wired in, and what to do before launch.

What's already done

  • ✅ Per-page <title> and <meta description> — populated from frontmatter
  • ✅ Open Graph + Twitter cards on every page
  • ✅ Canonical URLs — prevents duplicate-content penalties
  • ✅ JSON-LD structured data on article pages — helps Google Rich Results
  • ✅ Auto-generated /sitemap-index.xml via @astrojs/sitemap
  • ✅ Static /robots.txt at public/robots.txt
  • ✅ RSS feed at /rss.xml for readers and newsletter pipelines
  • ✅ Semantic HTML — proper heading hierarchy, <article>, <nav>, <main>
  • ✅ Pure static HTML on every page — best possible crawlability
  • ✅ Self-hosted Google Fonts via preconnect
  • ✅ Trailing slash policy set to ignore for clean URLs

Pre-launch checklist

Before publicly launching, work through these:

1. Edit src/lib/site.ts

Set real values for:

url: 'https://mlsystems.dev',          // your live URL
description: 'Your real description',   // 150-160 chars, used in meta + OG
twitter: '@yourhandle',                 // or null if you don't have one yet
github: 'https://github.com/MLSysDev',
pitchEmail: 'real@email.address',

2. Add a default OG image

Drop a 1200×630 PNG at public/og-default.png. This is what shows on Twitter, LinkedIn, Slack, Discord, etc. when someone shares your homepage.

Per-post OG images are auto-generated from the post's frontmatter.

3. Verify the site in search consoles

4. Submit your sitemap

In Search Console: Sitemaps → Add a new sitemap → sitemap-index.xml.

Bing Webmaster Tools has the same flow.

5. Set up analytics

Recommended: Plausible or Umami — privacy-friendly, lightweight, no cookie banners needed. Avoid Google Analytics (slow, requires cookie consent, ML/dev audiences increasingly block it).

Drop the analytics script into BaseLayout.astro.

6. Confirm robots.txt

Open public/robots.txt and confirm:

User-agent: *
Allow: /

Sitemap: https://mlsystems.dev/sitemap-index.xml

If you want to block AI crawlers (e.g., GPTBot, ClaudeBot, CCBot), add Disallow rules here. This is a personal/editorial choice.

7. Test on real devices

Run PageSpeed Insights against your live site. Aim for 95+ on every metric. The current build should easily hit it.

Ongoing SEO practices

Writing posts that rank

  • Title: include the key term in the first 60 chars
  • Summary: 150-160 chars, descriptive, includes the key term
  • First paragraph: state what the post covers and who it's for
  • Headings: use them, hierarchically (H2 → H3), and include keywords naturally
  • Internal links: link related posts in your sentences, not just at the bottom
  • External citations: link papers, repos, and prior art — Google rewards real references

Keeping the site fast

  • Don't add heavy JS libraries to .astro pages
  • Keep images optimized (Astro's image integration handles this automatically when you import images)
  • Use client:visible for islands so they hydrate lazily, not on page load

Avoiding dark patterns

  • No keyword stuffing
  • No invisible text
  • No misleading titles vs. content
  • No clickbait that the post doesn't deliver on

Search engines have gotten good at detecting these. Don't bother.