Snipe Cloud Office Help

Help Center for SnipeOffice 25.8 Cloud, browser edition

myPage meta tags and SEO

Snipe myPage (modern channel) includes four meta tag managers plus site-wide storage in site-globals.xml and mypage-project.json. Because the myPage app itself runs inside the browser and is not indexed like a public website, this Help Center is the primary place to learn what each tool does and which tags it writes.

See also: myPage overview | Complete myPage tools reference | .htaccess SEO rules | error pages

Quick reference: which tool owns what?

Site-wide storage: site-globals.xml

When you click Apply to all pages in any global meta tool, myPage updates every HTML file and writes or refreshes site-globals.xml at the project root. The XML has four sections:

• <technical> charset, viewport, theme-color, robots, cache-control, rating, distribution, revisit-after, author, publisher, copyright, hreflang links
• <contact> phone, email, address, og-site-name, og-url, og-locale
• <social> one <profile id="…" url="…"/> per network
• <custom> optional extra global meta or link tags (advanced)

The same data is copied into mypage-project.json under siteMeta when you download a ZIP. Reopening the ZIP restores globals and writes them back into all HTML pages. New HTML files created with File → New File… inherit globals automatically.

Technical Meta Tags (site-wide)

Tools → Technical Meta Tags… (modern channel only). One set applies to every HTML page.

Defaults for new projects: viewport width=device-width, initial-scale=1, rating General, distribution global, revisit-after 7 days.

Revisit-after formats

Google ignores revisit-after, but Bing, Snipesearch.net, DuckDuckGo, and smaller crawlers may use it as a hint. myPage offers presets: 7 days (recommended), 14 days, 30 days, 1 month, 24 hours, or a custom value. Days is the clearest format (e.g. 14 days).

Publisher tag

Declares your official publishing brand site-wide. Match your business name exactly across all pages. Combine with author and copyright for a complete ownership stack. Alternative engines and archives may parse this field.

Contact Meta Tags (site-wide)

Tools → Contact Meta Tags… Writes business contact and site identity fields into every page.

Social Meta Tags (site-wide)

Tools → Social Meta Tags… adds <meta name="social-PLATFORM"> tags for your profiles. Pick a platform from the dropdown (80+ networks grouped by category: major social, messaging, professional, microblogging, photo, video, publishing, music, forums, and more). Each selection shows an example URL; replace exampleprofile with your handle. Use + Add platform for multiple networks.

Example output:

<meta name="social-facebook" content="https://www.facebook.com/yourpage">
<meta name="social-twitter" content="https://x.com/yourhandle">
<meta name="social-linkedin" content="https://www.linkedin.com/in/yourprofile/">

These tags help directories, Snipesearch.net, and structured-metadata parsers identify your official profiles. They are separate from Open Graph (og:) share tags, which SEO Meta Inspector sets per page.

SEO Meta Inspector (per page)

Tools → SEO Meta Inspector… edits one HTML file at a time. Use the page dropdown or overview table to switch pages without closing the dialog. Set/Missing badges show whether essential fields are filled.

Canonical link (per page)

The <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/page/"> tag tells search engines which version of a page you want treated as the original or master version. It prevents problems caused by duplicate or near-duplicate content across different URLs and ensures SEO credit is consolidated correctly.

Canonical tags were introduced jointly by Google, Yahoo, and Bing in 2009 to solve duplicate-content confusion from tracking parameters, sort options, printer-friendly versions, and slight URL variations. Today they are a critical foundation of professional SEO.

Why canonical tags matter:

• Duplicate content control: stops engines from treating minor URL variations as separate pages
• Consolidates link authority: merges backlinks from different URL versions under the canonical
• Focuses indexing: instructs engines to crawl and index the preferred version
• Protects against SEO dilution: prevents splitting value across similar pages
• Simplifies reporting: unifies traffic and performance data under one URL

Where canonical tags are essential:

• E-commerce product pages (filters, color variations)
• Blogs with category or tag variations
• News sites with printer-friendly versions
• Pagination and sort order variations (?sort=price)
• UTM-tracked URLs for marketing (?utm_source=newsletter)
• Sites with both www and non-www accessible versions

If any version of your content is accessible via more than one URL, you need canonicals. Set one absolute HTTPS URL per page in Tools → SEO Meta Inspector (Canonical link section). Self-canonicalize every indexable page even when no duplicates exist.

Proper syntax:

• Always use an absolute URL (not relative)
• Place inside the <head> section (myPage writes this for you on Apply)
• Only one canonical tag per page
• Ensure the canonical URL is valid and returns 200 OK on your live host

In myPage:

• Set Contact Meta Tags → Site URL (og:url) to your preferred site base (HTTPS, www or non-www)
• Open SEO Meta Inspector, select a page, and click Set self-canonical for this page
• Review the suggested URL, then click Apply to this page
• Match sitemap URLs and canonical URLs; combine with 301 redirects for domain consolidation

Common mistakes to avoid:

• Pointing to a non-existent URL
• Using relative paths instead of full URLs
• Multiple canonical tags declared on one page
• Forgetting canonicals on dynamic or parameterized pages
• Canonical pointing to a different domain without redirects

The canonical tag does not boost rankings on its own, but it protects your site integrity, preserves link authority, and ensures engines understand your true content hierarchy.

Category (per page)

<meta name="category" content="Technology"> declares the primary topic of this page. Use one clear category per page (Technology, Health, Finance, Travel, etc.). Smaller engines and aggregators may use this as a topical hint.

Expires (per page)

<meta name="expires" content="Wed, 15 May 2025 12:00:00 GMT"> marks when time-sensitive content expires. Use RFC-compliant GMT dates for events, promotions, or campaigns only. Leave blank on evergreen pages (home, guides, product pages). Google mostly ignores expires; Snipesearch and smaller crawlers may use it.

Site-wide values (viewport, theme-color, rating, distribution, revisit-after, publisher, robots, contact, social) appear read-only in the SEO dialog and are edited in the other meta tools. Applying SEO changes does not overwrite site-wide tags.

Recommended workflow for a new site

1. File → New from Template… or New Web Site
2. Technical Meta Tags: set viewport, charset, robots, rating, distribution, publisher, theme-color, revisit-after
3. Contact Meta Tags: phone, email, address, og:site_name, og:url (site base for self-canonical URLs)
4. Social Meta Tags: add your main social profiles
5. SEO Meta Inspector: set title, description, and canonical on each page; use Set self-canonical
6. Tools → .htaccess Rules: HTTPS, preferred host, 301/302 redirects, trailing slash, extensions
7. Tools → Generate Error Pages: 404, 410, 500, 503 templates + ErrorDocument
8. Tools → Generate Site Map and Generate robots.txt
9. Tools → Check Links before download
10. File → Download Site (ZIP) and upload to your host

Supporting SEO files (not meta tags)

• sitemap.xml and sitemap.html from Tools → Generate Site Map
• robots.txt from Tools → Generate robots.txt
• .htaccess from Tools → .htaccess Rules (Apache hosts); see .htaccess guide
• 404.html / 410.html / 500.html / 503.html from Tools → Generate Error Pages; see error pages guide
• site-globals.xml auto-maintained by meta tag tools
• mypage-project.json included in every site ZIP for project restore

Search engines and crawlers

Major engines (Google, Bing) use many signals beyond meta tags: content, links, sitemaps, and mobile usability. Technical meta tags still matter for mobile-first indexing (viewport), international SEO (hreflang, content-language), and alternative engines (DuckDuckGo, Snipesearch.net, Sphider, YaCy, regional crawlers) that parse traditional head metadata. Complete, consistent meta across all pages reduces misindexing and improves trust on smaller platforms.