Search results and link previews

Every time your site builds, Willo checks each page for the things search engines and link previews look for, and fills in what is missing. A site picks this up with its next publish; you don't turn anything on. A site whose build steps were customised by hand keeps its own setup.

Link previews

When someone shares a page on Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Slack or iMessage, the preview shows a title, a description and an image. Every page gets an image:

the image the page names for itself, such as a blog post's cover;
otherwise the page's main image, the first picture at the top of the page;
otherwise your site's share image.

If you have no share image, Willo draws one: your business name and tagline on your brand colour, 1200×630. It is redrawn when your name or brand colour changes. To use a photo instead, ask Willo: "use the team photo as our share image".

Your business in search

Every page carries one description of your business for search engines (schema.org structured data): its name, address, logo, phone, email, the area you serve, opening hours, and your profiles elsewhere, including your Google Business Profile. Google uses it for the business details beside your listing.

Willo keeps these facts in your site's business details. Ask to change them in chat:

"Our hours are Monday to Friday, 8 to 5."
"We serve Portland, Salem and Vancouver, WA."
"Add our Google Business Profile", followed by the share link from Google Maps.
"We're a pest control company." Willo picks the closest business type search engines know.

A business that visits its customers and has no public address lists the area it serves instead of an address. Only facts you give are published; an empty field is left out, never guessed.

Blog and archive pages

The blog index gets a title with your business name and a description naming its newest posts. Each tag and category page gets its own description from its topic and posts, so search results don't show the same snippet many times over. Blog tag and category pages with fewer than three posts are marked noindex and left out of the sitemap.

Post dates

A blog post page that states when it was last updated in its structured data also gets the matching article:modified_time tag, the date search engines and link previews read for freshness. It carries the same date the page already shows; Willo never adds a date the page doesn't state. The date moves only on a real change, as described in when a post's updated date changes.

Images on phones

Photos you upload, stock photos and images carried over from a previous site are stored with smaller WebP copies at several widths (images 480 pixels wide or narrower, and GIFs, keep one size). Each page tells the browser all of them, so a phone downloads a copy sized for its screen instead of the full photo. The main image at the top of a page loads first and is never held back.

An image added before this was in place is served at its original size. To get the smaller copies for one, attach it in chat again and ask Willo to swap it in.

Readable text

Secondary text in the site's colour system meets the WCAG AA contrast ratio of 4.5:1 against the page background; an older site gets the new shade the next time you save its design. Willo builds header and footer links at least 24 pixels tall, so they are easy to tap.

Questions

Why does my link show a picture with my business name on it?

That page has no image of its own and the site has no share image, so Willo drew one from your business name and brand colour. Ask Willo to use one of your photos instead.

Where do I add my Google Business Profile?

Ask Willo to add it to your business details, with the link from Google Maps. It then appears in the business information search engines read on every page.

Why is a tag page hidden from search?

Blog tag and category pages with fewer than three posts are marked noindex and left out of the sitemap, so search engines spend their time on your real pages. They work as normal for visitors.