Setting Up Framer SEO

As a designer, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) wasn’t really on my radar at the beginning of my career – why should it be? I’ve made great work, and great work exists to be seen. The people will come!

Only, it doesn’t happen like that.

It’s nice to think that your online space will just ‘get found’, like an art curator ‘just finds’ great art, but the internet doesn’t work that way – and great design means nothing if your site doesn't show up in search results.

Framer provides some solid SEO foundations, luckily. Learning to utilize them has brought my site to the forefront of Google, and honestly, it’s crazy how easy it was to set up.

In this guide, I’ll go through everything you need to know about optimizing Framer websites for search engines — from basic settings to advanced strategies.

Understanding Framer's Built-in SEO Features

You can edit quite a few different SEO features in Framer right out of the box. We’ll get into the manual changes you can make later on.

Here's what Framer automatically generates:

• Robots.txt file: This is a file in your website’s code, that tells search engines which pages to crawl and which to ignore. You can check yours by adding "/robots.txt" to your domain (yourdomain.com/robots.txt).

• Sitemap.xml: This file helps search engines understand your site structure and find all your pages. It’s literally just a map of your site. Framer looks after this automatically, even as you add new pages.

• Responsive design: All Framer templates are mobile-friendly by default, which is a huge ranking factor for Google.

The automatic features will give you a pretty solid foundation, but they're just the starting point. How you configure the rest of your settings is what will set you apart.

How to Use SEO Settings For Framer Websites

There are a few main settings in SEO. They only take a minute or two to set up, but make a huge impact on search visibility. Let's focus on the ones that deliver the most value for your time for now.

How to Change Site Title and Description in Framer

Your site title and description appear in search results and are ultimately what get people to click through to your site from Google. Here's how to make them work for you:

1. Go to your site settings

2. Under the General tab, find the Site Title and Site Description fields

3. For your title, include your primary keyword and brand name. For example, mine is ‘Hamza Ehsan - Framer Templates’.

4. Keep your description under 160 characters and include your main value proposition

Sites with descriptive, keyword-rich titles typically rank 15-20% higher than generic ones.

How To Add SEO To Pages in Framer

Each page on your site needs individual optimization with keywords specific to each page. Here’s how to do it:

1. Select any page in your Framer project

2. In the right panel, find the "Page Settings" section

3. Add a page title that includes relevant keywords

4. Write a custom meta description that summarizes the page

For CMS-driven pages like blog posts, Framer lets you use variables to automatically generate titles and descriptions based on your content.

You can still add your own if you’d like. It’s just to ensure that every page has proper SEO metadata without needing manual configuration.

How To Add Alt Text in Framer

Search engines can't "see" images, so they rely on text to understand what's in your pictures. This is called Alt Text. Here’s how to add it to your images:

1. Select any image in your Framer project

2. In the Properties panel, find the "Alt Text" field

3. Add descriptive text explaining what's in the image (e.g., "Designer using Framer to create a responsive website" instead of "design image")

Don't skip this step. The main purpose of an Alt Text is to help those who are visually impaired or blind to understand what is on the page.

So, although Alt Text is very helpful for SEO, please don’t stuff it with keywords and irrelevant comments in the hope of boosting your site. Instead, keep accessibility in mind and use mindful, accurate descriptions of your images.

Advanced SEO in Framer

So, we’ve gone through the basic must-haves for your Framer site. If you want, you can leave your SEO there.

But if you want to give your site an edge over competitors, there are a few extra things you can do. These steps are a little more complex, but totally worth it.

Using Framer CMS for SEO Benefits

Framer's Content Management System (CMS) is a really great way to leverage SEO, but only when it’s used correctly. Here’s some of the things you can do for SEO with the CMS:

1. Create collections for blog posts, case studies, or resources

2. Ensure each CMS item has unique SEO settings (title, description, URL)

3. Use the custom fields feature to add structured data like publish dates

4. Organize content into categories for better information architecture

By far the greatest, most fruitful way to gain visibility is by publishing regular, high-quality content through Framer's CMS. It signals to search engines that your site is active and relevant.

On the topic of active and relevant – update your content regularly! Google loves it. A monthly tweak to template documentation and resources can do all the difference.

Internal Linking Structure

User experience is massively impacted by how you link pages together across your site, and therefore, so is SEO. Here are some tips:

1. Create logical navigation paths through your site

2. Link related content to each other (e.g., link related blog posts across your site)

3. Use descriptive anchor text rather than generic "click here" links

4. Your most important pages should be accessible in 2-3 clicks from your homepage

Internal links will distribute ‘SEO authority’ through your site, and will help search engines understand which pages are most important.

Managing Redirects

If ever you update your site domain or change page URLs, you should set up a redirection route. Proper redirection will prevent lost traffic and make sure that you don’t lose your SEO value. Here’s how you do it:

1. Go to your Framer site settings

2. Navigate to the "Redirects" tab

3. Add your old URL path in the first field

4. Enter the new destination URL in the second field

It’s pretty common to learn this lesson the hard way during a site redesign, (been there, done that), but redirecting will save you months of rebuilding traffic.

General SEO Factors To Think About

Alongside everything we’ve talked about so far, general SEO for a website is affected by a few other factors that can’t be changed with a quick rephrase or click of a button. Search engines also consider:

Site Speed

Here's how to optimize your sites for performance:

1. Compress images before uploading

2. Try not to use heavy interactive elements on key landing pages

3. Avoid too many custom fonts (stick to 2-3 font families)

4. Test your site speed using Google PageSpeed Insights regularly

Content Strategy

Even with perfect technical SEO, you’ll need quality content to rank well. I do this in the form of blog posts (like this one). Plan your content to rank by:

1. Research keywords that your target audience is searching for

2. Create valuable, in-depth content around those topics

3. Structure content with proper headings (H1, H2, H3) for readability

4. Update your high-performing content regularly to keep it fresh

From my experience, tutorial content typically generates 3x more organic traffic than product pages, because it answers specific questions that designers are actively searching for.

Measuring SEO Performance

What gets measured, ultimately, gets improved. By keeping a close eye on what’s working well and what isn’t, you’ll be able to refine your approach to SEO and work with you readers. Some tips:

1. Connect Google Analytics and Search Console to your Framer site

2. Track key metrics like organic traffic, rankings, and click-through rates

3. Notice which pages perform well and which need improvement

4. Make data-driven decisions about future changes

Common Framer SEO Mistakes to Avoid

• Duplicate content: Using the same page title and description across multiple pages

• Missing alt text: Leaving images without proper descriptions

• Poor mobile experience: Not testing how your site functions on smaller screens

• Keyword stuffing: Overusing keywords in an unnatural way

• Broken links: Not checking for and fixing dead links regularly

Key Takeaways

Here's what you need to remember about Framer SEO:

• Built-in features: Framer handles robots.txt, sitemap generation, and responsive design automatically.

• Metadata matters: Properly configured titles and descriptions have the biggest impact on rankings.

• Image optimization: Always add descriptive alt text to help both search engines and accessibility.

• Content strategy: Regular updates through the CMS keep your site relevant in search results.

• Technical elements: Internal linking, redirects, and page speed all play crucial roles in ranking.

• Track performance: Use analytics to measure what's working and adapt your approach accordingly.

To be honest, proper page titles, descriptions, and image alt text will get you 80% of the way there.

And if you want to skip the hard bits, check out my Framer templates with SEO best practices already built in, with fast loading times and well structured layouts to boot.

Browse my template collection here.