Master Angular 4 SEO with Universal & Angular CLI
Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- What is Angular Universal?
- Benefits of Making Your Angular App Search Engine Friendly
- Getting Started with Angular Universal
- Installing Angular CLI
- Creating a New Angular Project
- Setting up Angular Universal
- Creating Server App Module
- Creating Express Server
- Configuring TypeScript files
- Updating Package.json
- Implementing Server-side Rendering
- Modifying App Module
- Creating Components
- Setting up Routes
- Adding Navigation
- Changing Meta Tags and Titles
- Testing the Angular Universal App
- Conclusion
- Additional Resources
🌟 Making Your Angular App Search Engine Friendly with Angular Universal
In today's rapidly evolving online landscape, having a search engine friendly website is essential for attracting organic traffic and improving user experience. Angular applications, however, have faced challenges in this regard. Search engine optimization (SEO) has been a major pain point for many developers, myself included. Fortunately, with the help of Angular Universal, we now have a solution to make our Angular apps more search engine friendly.
1. Introduction
In this article, we will explore the concept of Angular Universal and its role in improving the SEO of your Angular applications. We will discuss the benefits of making your app search engine friendly and guide you through the process of implementing Angular Universal step by step. By the end, you will have a solid understanding of how to leverage Angular Universal to enhance the search engine visibility of your Angular app.
2. What is Angular Universal?
Angular Universal is a technology that enables server-side rendering (SSR) for Angular applications. It allows you to generate the HTML content on the server and serve pre-rendered pages to search engine bots and social media crawlers. This is crucial for SEO as it ensures that the content of your app is visible to search engines, improving indexing and ranking.
3. Benefits of Making Your Angular App Search Engine Friendly
Creating a search engine friendly Angular app offers several advantages:
- Improved Search Engine Visibility: By implementing Angular Universal, your app's content becomes accessible to search engine crawlers, increasing the likelihood of it being indexed and ranked.
- Faster Initial Loading: Pre-rendered pages from the server lead to faster initial loading times, enhancing the user experience and reducing bounce rates.
- Full Content Accessibility: Server-side rendering ensures that the content is available even for users with JavaScript-disabled browsers or slow network connections.
- Social Media Sharing: Pre-rendered pages make it easier for social media crawlers to extract accurate metadata, enabling more engaging previews when your app is shared on social platforms.
4. Getting Started with Angular Universal
To start using Angular Universal and make your app SEO-friendly, follow these steps:
Installing Angular CLI
To create a new Angular project and work with Angular Universal, you need to have Angular CLI installed. If you haven't installed it already, you can do so by following the instructions on the Angular CLI website.
Creating a New Angular Project
Once Angular CLI is installed, create a new Angular project using the following command:
ng new my-angular-app
Replace my-angular-app with the desired name of your project. This will generate a new Angular project in a folder with the same name.
Setting up Angular Universal
After creating the project, navigate to the project folder and install the necessary dependencies by running the following command:
npm install --save @angular/platform-server @angular/animations
These packages are required for server-side rendering and animations support in Angular Universal.
Creating Server App Module
Create a new file named app.server.module.ts in the src/app folder. This module is used to bootstrap the app from the server. You can copy the necessary code from the written tutorial or refer to the GitHub repository for the complete code.
Creating Express Server
Next, we need to create an Express server to serve our Angular Universal app. Create a new file named server.ts in the project's root directory and paste the required code there. Again, you can refer to the written tutorial or the GitHub repository for the complete code.
Configuring TypeScript Files
To configure TypeScript for Angular Universal, you need to modify the tsconfig.app.json file located in the src folder. You also need to update the tsconfig.json file in the root directory of your project. Refer to the written tutorial or the GitHub repository for the complete code and instructions.
Updating Package.json
To run the project with Angular Universal, open the package.json file and update the scripts section as shown in the written tutorial or the GitHub repository. This will configure the start command to build the project and run the server.
5. Implementing Server-side Rendering
Now that we have set up the foundation for Angular Universal, let's delve into the process of implementing server-side rendering and making our Angular app search engine friendly.
Modifying App Module
In the app.module.ts file, import the necessary modules and modify the @NgModule decorator to include the ServerTransition method. This method allows Universal to replace the generated HTML on the server-side. Save the changes and proceed to the next step.
Creating Components
To demonstrate the functionality of Angular Universal, let's create a few example components. We will generate a Home component and an About component using the Angular CLI. Run the following commands:
ng generate component home --module app.module.ts
ng generate component about --module app.module.ts
These commands will generate the component files and automatically add them to the app.module.ts file.
Setting up Routes
By default, Angular CLI generates a routing configuration for your app. Open the app.routing.module.ts file and import the generated components. Set up the routes for the Home and About components. This will allow us to navigate between different pages in our app.
Adding Navigation
Open the app.component.html file and add a simple navigation menu using HTML and Angular directives. This will enable us to switch between the Home and About pages. Save the changes.
Changing Meta Tags and Titles
To optimize our app for SEO, modify the title, meta tags, and other relevant information for each component. Import the Meta and Title classes from @angular/platform-browser and use dependency injection to access them. Set the desired values for each component's title, keywords, and description.
6. Testing the Angular Universal App
Now that we have set up server-side rendering and optimized our app for search engine visibility, it's time to test it. Run the command npm run start to start the Angular Universal server. Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:4000 to see the app in action.
7. Conclusion
In conclusion, making your Angular app search engine friendly is essential for improving its visibility, user experience, and social media sharing. By leveraging Angular Universal, we can implement server-side rendering and enhance the SEO of our Angular applications. With the implementation steps provided in this article, you are now equipped to optimize your Angular app for better search engine rankings.
8. Additional Resources
To further explore Angular Universal and overall Angular SEO best practices, consider checking out the following resources:
