# SEO settings for your help center

_Category: Domain, access and SEO_

Choose how your help center appears in Google and other search engines, and how its links look when people share them. You set these defaults once for the whole help center, in the template editor.

**Who can do this:** Owners and Admins (Editors through **Customize** on your help center) · **Plans:** All plans

## Set your title and description

1. In the left menu, click **Template editor**. It opens on **Brand**.
2. Scroll down to **SEO**.
3. In **Default page title**, enter the name search results should show, for example `Northwind Help Center`.
4. In **Meta description**, write one or two sentences about what readers will find.
5. Click **Publish**, then **Publish** again in the **Publish changes** dialog.

![Screen recording. In Brand, set the Default page title search results show. Write a short Meta description. Hide from search engines keeps the whole help center out of Google.](https://helpcenter-io.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/self/LrTW5IOnfLZwxCn7evXYxTa9tFhOQ6ZniZNjrH9f.gif)
SEO settings live in Brand, below your logo and favicon.

Your home page uses the Default page title as its title. Every other page puts its own name first and adds the Default page title after it: an article uses its search title, or its title if it has none. Any page without its own description uses your Meta description.

The **Description** field in **Settings** → **General** is for your own reference: search results and link previews don't show it. Write the description readers should see in **Meta description** here.

## All SEO settings

You'll find these in **Brand**, under **SEO** and **Open Graph (social sharing)**. Publish your design to apply changes.

| Setting | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Default page title** | The title of your home page, added to the end of every other page's title. Up to 80 characters. It also names your help center in llms.txt and on the page readers use to add your help center to their AI assistant. |
| **Meta description** | The summary search engines may show under your title. Up to 300 characters, but search engines usually cut it off at around 155 to 160, so put the important part first. |
| **Meta keywords** | Keywords separated by commas. Search engines give them little weight. |
| **Hide from search engines (no-index)** | Off by default. When on, every page asks search engines not to list it. See [Hide your help center from search engines](https://self.helpcenter.io/content/hide-from-search-engines). |
| **Nofollow external links** | On by default. Adds `rel="nofollow"` to links in your articles that point to other websites, so search engines don't pass authority to them. |
| **Whitelisted domains** | Shown while **Nofollow external links** is on. Websites whose links stay normal, separated by commas, for example `github.com, status.example.com`. |
| **og:title** | The title shown when someone shares a link to your help center on social media or in a chat app. When empty, the page title is used. |
| **og:description** | The description in those link previews. When empty, the meta description is used. |
| **og:image** | The image in link previews. A 1200 × 630 PNG or JPG works best. Without one, your pages don't set a preview image. |

## What HelpCenter.io does for you

- **Sitemap.** `/sitemap.xml` lists your home page, categories and published articles, and your robots.txt points search engines to it. If your help center is live in a subfolder of your website, the sitemap lists that address, and you add it to your website's own robots.txt (see [Host your help center in a subfolder of your website](https://self.helpcenter.io/content/host-your-help-center-in-a-subfolder)).
- **Canonical URLs.** Every page names its main address, so search engines don't treat copies of a page as separate pages. Each language version names itself as its main address.
- **Languages.** If your help center has more than one language, each page links to its translations with hreflang tags, and the sitemap lists every language version.
- **Breadcrumbs.** Article and category pages include breadcrumb structured data that search engines can show in results.
- **No clutter.** Search result pages and the not-found page ask search engines not to list them.
- **AI crawlers.** Your help center also publishes llms.txt and ai.txt for AI assistants. See [How search engines and AI crawlers read your help center](https://self.helpcenter.io/content/llms-txt-and-ai-crawlers).

When your own domain is connected, all of this uses it. See [Use your own domain](https://self.helpcenter.io/content/custom-domain).

## Titles and descriptions for single pages

Each article can have its own search title and description, which replace the defaults on that article's page. See [Set an article's search title, description and URL](https://self.helpcenter.io/content/article-seo).

Categories have their own **Meta title** and **Meta description** under **Search engine listing** in the category's settings. See [Add a category icon, image and description](https://self.helpcenter.io/content/category-icons-and-images).

## Tips

- Keep the Default page title short, since it's added to every page's title. Your brand name plus "Help Center" is usually enough.
- Write the Meta description for people deciding whether to click, not for search engines.
- For more on getting found, read [Help center SEO: get your articles found](https://self.helpcenter.io/content/help-center-seo).

## Related articles

- [Set an article's search title, description and URL](https://self.helpcenter.io/content/article-seo)
- [Hide your help center from search engines](https://self.helpcenter.io/content/hide-from-search-engines)
- [How search engines and AI crawlers read your help center](https://self.helpcenter.io/content/llms-txt-and-ai-crawlers)
- [Help center SEO: get your articles found](https://self.helpcenter.io/content/help-center-seo)