Edge SEO is the process of implementing SEO recommendations through utilising a technology called service workers to modify requests and responses between the client and the server. As you can see in the illustration below, this service worker sits between the client user requesting the page and the origin main server. Webpages can be modified on the edge server without actually affecting the original codebase present on the main server. This means you can change basically anything on a webpage after it’s left that original server before it reaches the user.
The popular CDN Cloudflare offers a technology called Cloudflare Workers that allows you to execute JavaScript on the Edge. Other technologies providing service workers support include CDN77.com, MaxCDN, Rackspace, Akamai, Amazon Cloudfront, KeyCDN, Fastly etc.
Why would you need to adopt Edge SEO?
It’s no surprise that in some organisations, getting SEO recommendations implemented is not always straightforward given the congested dev backlogs and long lead times. Or there could be constraints with your legacy systems making it no longer fit for purpose to make any changes to the platform. That’s when EDGE SEO can come to your rescue to overcome these technical barriers. I’ll go over some of the most common SEO use cases of Edge servers.
- Common technical SEO recommendations that can be implemented include;
- Implementing redirects: When you don’t have direct access to the server to update your .htaccess or through plugins, you can implement the 301/302 redirects on the Edge server without needing IT support.
- Search console verification.
- Hreflangs implementation into the <head>.
- Implementation of custom HTTP headers.
- Collecting server logs.
- Adding JSON Schema to your pages.
- Make changes to your Robots.txt.
- A/B testing.
- Pre-rendering JavaScript.
- Implementing tracking pixels/codes.
- JS Overlays
- and more…
- Common On-page SEO recommendations that can be implemented include;
- Injecting content and images on your web pages.
- Updating page titles, and meta descriptions.
I am no expert in Edge SEO as I have never had to use it so far to implement my SEO recommendations. Lucky in my years of experience working with a development team who valued SEO and prioritised my changes in time. I highly recommend listening to the below videos, all of which feature Dan Taylor, the go-to man for all things Edge SEO.