SEO Best Practices for a Notion-Powered Blog

1. Optimizing Metadata for Better Search Visibility

Search engines rely on metadata to understand and display your content properly. Since Notion’s API doesn’t provide built-in SEO features, you must generate meta tags dynamically.

Setting Up Dynamic Meta Tags

Use Next.js’s built-in <Head> component to define meta tags for each blog post.

import Head from 'next/head';

export default function BlogPost({ post }) {
  return (
    <>
      <Head>
        <title>{post.title} | My Blog</title>
        <meta name="description" content={post.summary} />
        <meta property="og:title" content={post.title} />
        <meta property="og:description" content={post.summary} />
        <meta property="og:image" content={post.coverImage} />
        <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image" />
      </Head>
      <article>
        <h1>{post.title}</h1>
        <p>{post.content}</p>
      </article>
    </>
  );
}

Adding Canonical URLs

Prevent duplicate content issues by specifying a canonical URL.

<link rel="canonical" href={`https://myblog.com/posts/${post.slug}`} />

2. Implementing Structured Data (JSON-LD) for Rich Results

Google favors websites with structured data for better ranking and rich previews.

Example BlogPost JSON-LD Schema

<script type="application/ld+json">
{`
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "BlogPosting",
  "headline": "${post.title}",
  "description": "${post.summary}",
  "image": "${post.coverImage}",
  "author": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "name": "Author Name"
  },
  "publisher": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "My Blog"
  },
  "datePublished": "${post.publishedAt}"
}
`}
</script>

This increases the chances of featured snippets and rich search results.

3. Improving Indexing for Notion-Based Blogs

Ensure Pages Are Crawlable

Notion pages are often private, and search engines cannot index them directly. Make sure your Next.js site is:

Publicly accessible (no authentication required).
Generating proper sitemaps and robots.txt to guide crawlers.

Generating a Sitemap

Use a dynamic sitemap to help Google discover pages:

export default async function handler(req, res) {
  const posts = await fetchNotionData();
  const sitemap = `
    <urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
      ${posts.map(post => `
        <url>
          <loc>https://myblog.com/posts/${post.slug}</loc>
          <lastmod>${post.updatedAt}</lastmod>
        </url>
      `).join('')}
    </urlset>`;
  res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'application/xml');
  res.send(sitemap);
}

Submit the sitemap in Google Search Console to improve indexing.

Using robots.txt for SEO Control

Specify which pages should and shouldn’t be indexed:

User-agent: *
Allow: /
Disallow: /admin/
Sitemap: https://myblog.com/sitemap.xml

4. Optimizing Performance for Faster Page Load Times

Google considers page speed a ranking factor. Since Notion fetches data via an API, loading speeds may vary. Here’s how to optimize:

Enable ISR (Incremental Static Regeneration)

Instead of fetching Notion data on every request, use ISR:

export async function getStaticProps() {
  const post = await fetchNotionData();
  return { props: { post }, revalidate: 60 };
}

This updates content periodically while keeping performance high.

Optimize Images

Notion hosts images externally, which can slow down performance. Use Next.js Image Optimization:

import Image from 'next/image';
<Image src={post.coverImage} width={800} height={400} alt={post.title} />

5. Enhancing Internal Linking and Content Strategy

Google favors well-structured sites with strong internal linking.

Adding Related Posts

Dynamically suggest related blog posts to keep users engaged:

{relatedPosts.map(post => (
  <Link href={`/posts/${post.slug}`} key={post.id}>{post.title}</Link>
))}

Using Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs improve navigation and SEO:

<nav>
  <Link href="/">Home</Link> &gt; <Link href="/blog">Blog</Link> &gt; {post.title}
</nav>

Conclusion

Although Notion lacks native SEO tools, you can optimize your Next.js Notion-powered blog by implementing structured metadata, improved indexing, faster performance, and strong internal linking. By following these strategies, you’ll ensure better visibility on search engines and improved user engagement.