SEO Patterns API: Sample Flows

This article presents possible use cases and corresponding sample flows that you can support. It provides a useful starting point as you plan your implementation.

Apply a title convention to a whole page type

A Wix user may want every product page to carry the site name after the product name, without setting a title on each product.

Because a page type may have a pattern already, and because Create and Set aren't interchangeable, this flow reads the pattern before deciding which one to call.

To apply a title convention to a page type:

1. Call List SEO Pattern Variables for the page type, and confirm that the variables you plan to use are offered. A pattern referencing anything else is rejected.

2. Call Get SEO Pattern for the page type and read source:

   • PATTERN_SOURCE_DEFAULT means the site has no pattern of its own. Build your tag list from defaultPattern and call Create SEO Pattern.
   • PATTERN_SOURCE_USER means the site already has one. Build your tag list from pattern and call Set SEO Pattern with pattern in the fieldMask.

3. Add or replace the title template in that list. For example:

   Copy

4. Check the response: source is now PATTERN_SOURCE_USER, and the pattern you sent is returned in pattern.

The change reaches the live site without a site publish. It applies to every page of that type that doesn't have SEO tags set for the item itself, so a product with its own title keeps it. To find those products, read hasOverride with the Item SEO Tags API.

Audit which page types a site has customized

Before changing anything, it's useful to know which page types a Wix user has already customized, so an import doesn't overwrite deliberate choices.

To audit a site's patterns:

1. Call List SEO Patterns. The response isn't paged, so one call returns everything the site has stored.
2. For each entry, read source. PATTERN_SOURCE_USER means the page type is customized; PATTERN_SOURCE_DEFAULT means it was reset back to the Wix default and its pattern is empty.
3. Write only to the page types where source is PATTERN_SOURCE_DEFAULT, leaving customized page types untouched.

Note that this list isn't an inventory of the site's page types. A page type that has never had a pattern stored isn't returned at all, even though it does have a pattern in effect. To check one of those, call Get SEO Pattern for the page type.

Return a page type to the Wix default

A convention that no longer suits a site can be removed, so the page type generates tags the way it did before.

To reset a page type:

1. Call Get SEO Pattern for the page type and keep defaultPattern, so you know what the pages will generate afterwards.
2. Call Reset SEO Pattern To Default for the page type.
3. Check the response: pattern is empty and source is PATTERN_SOURCE_DEFAULT.

The page type remains in the response of List SEO Patterns after a reset, with the same empty pattern. To customize it again later, call Create SEO Pattern rather than Set SEO Pattern, because the site no longer has a pattern of its own for it.