--- title: "7 Drupal SEO Tips To Rank Better On Google · Appnovation" url: "https://www.appnovation.com/insights/7-drupal-seo-tips-rank-better-google" description: "Seven practical Drupal SEO tips, from keyword research to modules and URL structure, to help your Drupal site rank better on Google." --- Article # 7 Drupal SEO Tips To Rank Better On Google [![](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/ey850001/production/dd5898668718507fac28ddd64ceeba621603422d-68x68.jpg?w=68&auto=format) Tim Welsch VP, Global Marketing](/people/tim-welsch.md) Nov 06, 2013 6 min read ![7 Drupal SEO Tips To Rank Better On Google](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/ey850001/production/1d38dbfa19773127edeb0192fce9b328dcbc1987-700x200.jpg?w=1400&auto=format) This is a post about Drupal, SEO, and Drupal & SEO. While some of this information is specific to Drupal, other parts are just general to SEO, but what makes the general parts related to Drupal is that, in most cases, [Drupal development](/services/drupal-development.md) makes it much easier to implement search engine optimization when compared to similar content management systems I have used. **1\. Keyword Research is a MUST** Know what keywords you should be using throughout your copy, in your title tags, URLs, meta tags, meta description, alt tags, internal links, and headers. The best way to do that is to use Google’s Keyword Tool, now [Keyword Planner (opens in new window)](https://adwords.google.com/ko/KeywordPlanner/Home). Using the keyword planner you can see how frequently terms are being search per month (globally and locally), how competitive they are for ranking, and how much they cost to advertise on. Better still, the keyword planner will give you related keywords to what you typed in. This tool is a must to start with for good Drupal SEO, really any SEO for that matter. **2\. Google Analytics & Google Webmaster Tools** Get these two tools, [Google Analytics (opens in new window)](http://www.google.com/analytics/) & [Webmaster Tools (opens in new window)](http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools) hooked up and running data on your Drupal site ASAP, and better still, get them hooked up together. If you aren’t pulling this data from your website you’re going to be lost in terms of what is currently going on, creating difficulty in making confident decisions on what to do next when it comes to SEO. There are a bunch of tools out there that offer similar insight when it comes to this information, but if you want to know what Google is seeing when it comes to your site, why not go directly to the horse’s mouth. **3\. Key Drupal SEO Modules To Get Installed** Drupal has several modules that every site should install. That is, if you're looking to take advantage of what Drupal already has to offer, and if you care to get found online 'organically' through someone typing words other than your company's name. * [Alinks (opens in new window)](https://drupal.org/project/alinks): Creates automatic links allowing users to associate defined text to links. * [Content Optimizer (opens in new window)](https://drupal.org/project/contentoptimizer): Helps to ensure content conforms to Drupal SEO best practices and provides analysis pages to ensure SEO best practices are followed. * [Custom Breadcrumbs (opens in new window)](https://drupal.org/project/custom_breadcrumbs): Allows you to set up parametrized breadcrumb trails for any node type. * [Global Redirect (opens in new window)](http://drupal.org/project/globalredirect): After turning on clean URLs and Pathauto, it fixes some of the more common URL problems. * [Google Analytics (opens in new window)](http://drupal.org/project/google_analytics): Visitor tracking. * [HTML Purifier (opens in new window)](http://drupal.org/project/htmlpurifier): Fixes substandard HTML on content generated by users. * [Link Checker (opens in new window)](https://drupal.org/project/linkchecker): Checks for broken links. * [Menu Attributes (opens in new window)](http://drupal.org/project/Menu_attributes): Additional attribute specification for menu items such as id, name, class, style, and rel. * [Metatag (opens in new window)](https://drupal.org/project/metatag): Enables full control of meta tags on your site, nodes, categories, views, etc. * [Mollom (opens in new window)](http://drupal.org/project/Mollom): Spam protection. * [Page Title (opens in new window)](http://drupal.org/project/page_title): Allows the page title to be set. * [Pathauto (opens in new window)](http://drupal.org/project/Pathauto): Based on the title of the page, this module autocreates an SEO-friendly URL. * [Path Redirect (opens in new window)](http://drupal.org/project/Path_Redirect): Creates proper redirects for URLs. * [Read More Link (opens in new window)](http://drupal.org/project/read_more): Creates customized, SEO-friendly read more links. * [SEO Checklist (opens in new window)](http://drupal.org/project/seo_checklist): Checklist that provides admin shortcuts and download links to pretty much all the modules and tasks to perform SEO on a Drupal site. * [SEO Compliance Checker (opens in new window)](https://drupal.org/project/seo_checker): Checks for on page SEO compliance giving the user analysis when a node is saved or previewed. * [Scheduler (opens in new window)](http://drupal.org/project/Scheduler): Allows scheduling for the publishing of nodes. * [Site Map (opens in new window)](http://drupal.org/project/site_map): Creates a plain text version of the sitemap. * [Site Verification (opens in new window)](http://drupal.org/project/site_verify): Verification assistance of site ownership for search engines. * [Syndication (opens in new window)](http://drupal.org/project/Syndication): Centralization, through a web page, all RSS feeds generated by Drupal. * [Taxonomy Title (opens in new window)](http://drupal.org/project/taxonomy_title): Title setting for taxonomy pages. * [URL List (opens in new window)](http://drupal.org/project/URLList): Lists every URL on your Drupal-based website by creating a plain text sitemap. * [XML Sitemap (opens in new window)](http://drupal.org/project/XMLSitemap): Creates search engine readable, dynamic sitemap that is Sitemaps.org compliant. **4\. Backlinks, Backlinks, Backlinks** Don’t let Google fool you, even with the [Penguin (opens in new window)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Penguin) and [Panda (opens in new window)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Panda) updates, backlinks still count pretty big. What those updates are trying to do is get rid of all the big time comment spam and professional profile builders out there by penalizing sites with an overwhelming amount of those types of links. The key to backlink building is to make it look natural, by having a good mix of links built with just plain URLs, home page URLs, keyword anchor text, long tail keyword phrases and use of "similar" keyword type phrases. Go after links from sites of all Page Rank types and make sure the links reference not only your home page but also your inner pages. Don’t sweat the no-follow links to your site, because here is the thing: they are still links and get counted, maybe not as much as a followed link, but they are still getting picked up. Go for credible links, and look at that this way: Appnovation is a [Drupal development company](/services/drupal-development.md) so we would definitely want to get a link from [Drupal.org (opens in new window)](https://drupal.org/) pointing back out our site because that is basically telling Google that Drupal.org (the foremost authority on Drupal) considers Appnovation a Drupal development company. Talking about backlinks can go on and on, but the keys are: * continuously do it; * make it look natural; * keep it as credible is possible; and, * have the links touch as many different parts of your site as you can. **5\. Watch Your Competitors** Unless you have monopoly, you are going to have to keep up with the competition. Keep an eye on what they are doing both on-page and off, as well as monitor what they are ranking for and where they are ranking. Competitors can give you great ideas on what you should be doing on your pages to make sure your rank is improving. **6\. Continuously Update** Sites can’t just be a static page that you build and push live to just sit there. Today you have to continuously create content for it. Although not just new web page after new web page, but content of all types like case studies, product reviews, client testimonials, whitepapers, eBooks, infographics, demos, portfolios, videos, communities, blogs, social sections, and so on. Keep you site as dynamic as possible and keep giving Google a reason to come back and crawl you to see what’s going on. Refresh your website with a [complete redesign](/services/drupal-development.md) from time to time so that you can add more ways for people interact with it. Basically today's websites have to be living, breathing entities that need consistent feeding and constant attention. [Drupal](/services/drupal-development.md) is an ideal content management system (CMS) for this very purpose. **7\. Make It Work Together** The key to all of it is being able to make it work together: the keywords, the tracking, the modules, the backlinks, the competitive research, and the continuous updating. Leaving out any of those is going put a pretty big dent in comprehensive Drupal SEO strategy. Each item above requires the other 6 to be involved, or at least taken into account, someway, somehow. **Bonus. A Word of Caution** Word to the wise: don’t ever put all your eggs in the SEO basket. Not too many people know what makes up the Google algorithm (I am guessing you probably don't) let alone when Matt Cutts’ team (I am also guessing you don’t know Matt Cutts or anyone on his team either) is going to make another change that could affect what your site shows up for, or where, in the rankings. [![](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/ey850001/production/dd5898668718507fac28ddd64ceeba621603422d-68x68.jpg?w=68&auto=format) Tim Welsch VP, Global Marketing · Appnovation](/people/tim-welsch.md) ## Keep reading [![What is Sovereign AI](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/ey850001/production/a5889abdd5e80376912546622e046e3fbef234b4-2496x1664.png?w=640&auto=format)](/insights/what-is-open-source-sovereign-ai.md) Article · 7 min AI ### [What Is Open Source, Sovereign AI?](/insights/what-is-open-source-sovereign-ai.md) Every company is encouraging more AI, and almost every AI bill is climbing. Sovereign AI is about two kinds of control: over your data and over your costs. 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[Andrew Douglas](/people/andrew-douglas.md) Article [![What Becomes Possible When AI Can Read All the Data](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/ey850001/production/c28ab0bd26753421ee42937e13adc7a7f19b47f0-1296x510.jpg?w=640&auto=format)](/insights/what-becomes-possible-when-ai-can-read-all-data.md) Article · 4 min AI Sep 09, 2026 ### [What Becomes Possible When AI Can Read All the Data](/insights/what-becomes-possible-when-ai-can-read-all-data.md) Most of the world's data has never been analyzed, only sampled. AI changes that. How AI-ready data platforms unlock questions no one could ask before. [Appnovation](/people/appnovation.md) Article ## Get the thinking, *before everyone else.* One considered email a month. New essays, field notes from live engagements, and the occasional strong opinion. No noise.