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User-Generated Content SEO Architecture

This document describes WeWrite's SEO strategy for user-generated content (UGC) - ensuring pages created by users are properly indexed by search engines.

Latest Audit Reference

For the latest end-to-end findings and prioritized remediation plan, see:

  • docs/seo/SEO_GEO_AUDIT_2026-04-29.md

That audit includes technical SEO fixes applied on April 29, 2026 (private-page indexing hardening, utility-route noindex directives, and sitemap-index route correction), plus a GEO readiness plan.

Current Implementation Status

What's Working Well

1. Metadata Generation (app/[id]/page.tsx & app/[id]/layout.tsx)

  • Title tags: Dynamic titles based on page content (e.g., "My Article by username")
  • Meta descriptions: First 160 characters of page content
  • Canonical URLs: Properly set to https://www.getwewrite.app/{pageId}
  • Open Graph tags: Full OG implementation for social sharing
  • Twitter cards: Summary large image cards

2. Structured Data / JSON-LD (app/[id]/layout.tsx)

  • Article schema: Each page has Article structured data with:
    • headline, description, datePublished, dateModified
    • author (Person) or publisher (Organization for group pages)
    • mainEntityOfPage with canonical URL
  • BreadcrumbList schema: Navigation hierarchy for better SERP display
    • Home > Author > Page Title (for user pages)
    • Home > Group > Page Title (for group pages)

3. Sitemaps (app/utils/sitemapGenerator.ts)

  • Main sitemap (/sitemap.xml): Static pages and navigation (app/sitemap.ts)
  • Pages sitemap index (/api/sitemap-pages-index): Cursor-paginated index for public page sitemap batches
  • Pages sitemap (/api/sitemap-pages): Public user page chunks referenced by the pages sitemap index
  • Users sitemap (/api/sitemap-users): Active user profiles
  • News sitemap (/api/sitemap-news): Recent content (configurable via ?days=N, default: last 2 days)
  • Sitemap index (/api/sitemap-index): Aggregates all sitemaps

Important: The /sitemap.xml file only contains static pages. Dynamic content pages are served via /api/sitemap-pages-index and /api/sitemap-pages. Pages disallowed in robots.txt (e.g., /search, /activity) are excluded from the sitemap.

Priority is dynamic based on view count:

  • 1000 views: 0.8

  • 100 views: 0.7

  • 10 views: 0.6

  • Default: 0.5

4. Robots.txt (app/robots.ts)

  • Allows crawling of public content: /, /u/, /user/, /group/, /trending, etc.
  • Blocks private areas: /admin/, /settings/, /notifications/, ?edit=true, ?private=true
  • Includes all sitemap references
  • Sets crawlDelay: 1 to be respectful to crawlers

7. LLM Crawler Guidance (public/llms.txt, public/llms-full.txt)

  • Provides canonical domain and citation guidance for AI systems
  • Points crawlers to primary sitemap and sitemap index endpoints
  • Clarifies utility/auth surfaces to avoid citing for content discovery

5. OpenGraph Images (app/[id]/opengraph-image.tsx)

  • Dynamic OG image generation for each page
  • Shows: Title, content preview (with styled links), author, sponsor count
  • 1200x630 resolution
  • Fallback to WeWrite branding if page not found

6. Server-Side Content Rendering (app/components/seo/ServerContentForSEO.tsx) ✅ IMPLEMENTED

Solution: We render page content server-side using the ServerContentForSEO component, which is included alongside the client-side interactive editor.

// In app/[id]/page.tsx (success case)
return (
  <>
    {/* Server-rendered content for SEO crawlers */}
    {pageData && (
      <ServerContentForSEO
        title={pageData.title || 'Untitled'}
        content={pageData.content}
        authorUsername={pageData.authorUsername || pageData.username}
        createdAt={pageData.created}
        lastModified={pageData.lastModified}
        pageId={id}
        // Engagement stats for Schema.org interactionStatistic
        viewCount={pageData.viewCount || pageData.views}
        sponsorCount={pageData.sponsorCount}
        replyCount={pageData.replyCount}
      />
    )}
    {/* Interactive client component */}
    <Suspense fallback={<ContentPageSkeleton />}>
      <ContentPageClient pageId={id} initialStatus="page" initialPageData={pageData} />
    </Suspense>
  </>
);

Data sources (fetched in app/api/pages/[id]/route.ts):

  • viewCount: From page document
  • sponsorCount: Count of unique users who allocated USD to this page
  • replyCount: Count of non-deleted pages that reply to this page

How it works:

  • Content is rendered as semantic HTML with Schema.org microdata
  • Uses sr-only class (visually hidden but accessible to crawlers)
  • Includes <noscript> fallback for crawlers that don't execute JS
  • Parses Slate.js content structure into plain HTML
  • Preserves internal links for crawl discovery

What's included in the SEO content:

  • Article headline and description
  • Word count
  • Canonical URL
  • Published/modified dates (both datePublished and dateModified)
  • Author information (when available)
  • Publisher information (WeWrite)
  • Full article body as semantic HTML
  • Engagement metrics via Schema.org interactionStatistic:
    • ReadAction with view count (signals popularity)
    • DonateAction with sponsor count (signals trust/quality)
    • CommentAction with reply count + commentCount property

Future Improvements

Priority 1: Enhanced Structured Data

Add more schema types for better rich results:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Article",
  "articleBody": "Full text content here...",
  "wordCount": 1500,
  "image": {
    "@type": "ImageObject",
    "url": "https://www.getwewrite.app/{id}/opengraph-image"
  },
  "interactionStatistic": {
    "@type": "InteractionCounter",
    "interactionType": "https://schema.org/ReadAction",
    "userInteractionCount": 1234
  }
}

Priority 3: Additional SEO Enhancements

  1. FAQ Schema for pages with Q&A content
  2. HowTo Schema for tutorial/guide pages
  3. Review Schema if pages have ratings/reviews
  4. Internal linking signals - expose outgoing/incoming link counts

Priority 4: Technical SEO

  1. Core Web Vitals - Monitor LCP/FID/CLS for content pages
  2. Mobile-first indexing - Ensure content looks good on mobile Googlebot
  3. Pagination for long content - Consider rel="next" / rel="prev"
  4. Hreflang - If supporting multiple languages

Testing SEO Implementation

Tools to Use

  1. Google Search Console

    • URL Inspection tool for individual pages
    • Coverage report for indexing status
    • Rich results report for structured data

  2. Google Rich Results Test

  3. Schema Markup Validator

  4. Mobile-Friendly Test

  5. Lighthouse

    • SEO audit in Chrome DevTools

Manual Testing

# View rendered HTML without JS
curl -A "Googlebot" https://www.getwewrite.app/{pageId}

# Check if content is in initial HTML
curl https://www.getwewrite.app/{pageId} | grep -i "page content text"

File Reference

File Purpose
app/[id]/page.tsx Page component with metadata generation
app/[id]/layout.tsx JSON-LD structured data
app/[id]/opengraph-image.tsx Dynamic OG image generation
app/[id]/ContentPageClient.tsx Client-side content rendering
app/components/seo/ServerContentForSEO.tsx Server-rendered SEO content
app/sitemap.ts Static pages sitemap
app/robots.ts Crawler directives
app/utils/sitemapGenerator.ts Dynamic sitemap generation
app/api/sitemap-pages-index/route.ts Cursor-paginated pages sitemap index
app/api/sitemap-pages/route.ts Pages sitemap API
app/api/sitemap-users/route.ts Users sitemap API
app/api/sitemap-news/route.ts News sitemap API
public/llms.txt LLM crawler citation guidance
public/llms-full.txt Extended GEO guidance
scripts/seo-audit.js Repeatable SEO/GEO health checks

Monitoring

Key Metrics to Track

  1. Index Coverage - % of public pages indexed
  2. Impressions - Search visibility
  3. Click-through Rate - SERP performance
  4. Rich Results - Schema markup adoption

Search Console Queries

Monitor performance for:

  • Brand queries: "wewrite"
  • Content queries: page titles, topics
  • Author queries: username searches

AI Search Optimization

WeWrite's SEO implementation is designed to work well with AI-powered search engines:

Server-Side Rendering

  • Content is rendered server-side via ServerContentForSEO.tsx
  • Full text content is available in initial HTML response
  • No JavaScript required to read page content

Structured Data

  • Rich Schema.org markup helps AI understand content structure
  • Article schema with author, dates, engagement metrics
  • BreadcrumbList for navigation context

Content Accessibility

  • Clean, semantic HTML structure
  • Proper heading hierarchy
  • Internal links preserved for context

URL Configuration

All SEO-related URLs use the canonical domain https://www.getwewrite.app. Configuration is centralized in app/utils/urlConfig.ts:

  • PRODUCTION_URL: 'https://www.getwewrite.app'
  • getBaseUrl(): Returns the appropriate base URL for the current environment
  • getFullUrl(path): Combines base URL with a path

Fallback URLs in SEO files should always use https://www.getwewrite.app (with www) for consistency.

Last updated: January 5, 2026