Bubble.io SEO Tip: Why it's important to use Link elements

The Importance of Using Link Elements for SEO

Should you be using a link element instead of a workflow action to navigate your users around your app? Well, if you are wanting your app to be SEO optimized, then yes, definitely, you need to be using link elements.

Example: Contact Database and Profile Page

I have a simple contact database here and if a user clicks on the name of a contact, they go through to a profile page which I'm building up to display that contact information. If I go back and then show you the workflow I've got, I have if you click on the name, then there is a workflow action to go to page with the current cell's contact.

The Disadvantage of Workflow Actions for SEO

Now the disadvantage of that is that is all done sort of behind the scenes in Bubble. It's not something that is rendered in HTML on the, when the page loads it doesn't give Google the clues it needs in order to index your app.

Using Link Elements: A Better Approach

A better approach is instead to use the link element. I won't worry too much about styling, so I just want this to be a quick demo and then link to internal page profile and then data to send current cell's contact. Yeah, I'll leave the rest the same. So that's it preview. So I can display in terms of text exactly the same information as I can style it in a very similar way that I could before.

The Importance of HTML Hyperlink Elements for SEO

But if I right click on here and go inspect, you can see that there is actually an HTML hyperlink element in here. And this is really important because when Google crawls your pages in your app, it will look for real links between your pages such as this and then it will follow that link and it will index the content at the end if that's indeed what you desire.

The Issue with Workflow Actions for SEO

Now the issue is that the way I had it set up previously using a workflow action is there was not this link, this A element at all in the content. So if you need it to be SEO optimised then use the link.

Drawbacks of Using Links

Now there are some drawbacks of links, some things that you can't do. For example, you couldn't link the whole of, if we have a look in the elements tree, here's my row. Let's say I wanted if a user clicks on any part of the row, they go through to the profile page.

A Compromise: Combining Workflow Actions and Link Elements

So normally you would select everything and then put it into a group and then you can do a workflow action on the group, eight to two page profile. So that way if a user is going to click here, it takes them through to the profile. And perhaps this is a good illustration of an appropriate compromise because I have now got this set up for the user that anywhere they click it takes them through to the relevant profile. But by including a link element in just one instance in my repeating group, I still have got that all important HTML content visible.

Conclusion: The Importance of Link Elements for SEO

I hope that goes some way to illustrate why it's important to use link elements. When I started at Bubble I certainly thought what's the point of a link element when I found that I was linking from every page using an element action. But it is important and it can really help with your SEO.