Site SEO Tags 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.

Verify site ownership with a search engine

A search engine confirms that someone controls a site before it will report that site's search data. One way to confirm it is a verification meta tag that the search engine provides, which must appear on the site.

Because setting tags replaces the site's tags in full, add the verification tag to the tags the site already has rather than sending it on its own.

To add a verification tag to a site:

1. Get the verification tag value from the search engine's console.

2. Call Get Site SEO Tags and keep the tags array from the response.

3. Append the verification tag to that array. For example:

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4. Call Set Site SEO Tags with the combined array and tags in the fieldMask.

5. Ask the search engine to check the site.

A site supports a single verification tag per provider. Sending a second tag for the same provider replaces the first, so read the current tags before writing to see whether the site is already verified.

Take a site out of search results, then put it back

While a site is being built or reorganized, a Wix user may not want it appearing in search results. Site indexability is controlled by a robots tag with a noindex directive.

To stop a site being indexed, then allow it again later:

1. Call Get Site SEO Tags and keep the tags array from the response.

2. Append a robots tag with a noindex directive to that array. For example:

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3. Call Set Site SEO Tags with the combined array and tags in the fieldMask. The change takes effect on the live site without a site publish.

4. When the site is ready to be found, call Get Site SEO Tags again.

5. Remove the robots tag from the tags array, keeping every other tag.

6. Call Set Site SEO Tags with the remaining tags and tags in the fieldMask. With no noindex directive left, the site can be indexed again.

Removing the tag is what makes the site indexable, so send the full set of tags you want to keep. A request that omits tags the site still needs removes them too.

Move a site's SEO configuration from another platform

When a site is rebuilt on Wix, its SEO configuration is spread across two levels: settings that apply to the whole site, and the title and description of each individual page.

To move a site's SEO configuration to Wix:

1. Collect the SEO configuration from the source site, separating site-wide values, such as the social share image and any verification tags, from per-page values.
2. Call Get Site SEO Tags to see the tags the Wix site already has.
3. Build the site-wide tag array by combining the tags to keep with the values from the source site.
4. Call Set Site SEO Tags with that array and tags in the fieldMask.
5. Move the per-page titles and descriptions with the Item SEO Tags API, which writes the tags of an individual page or item.

Verification tags a Wix user added through the site's SEO settings in the dashboard are returned in embedTags and can't be set through this API. Check embedTags before adding a verification tag, so you don't duplicate one the site already carries.