SEO & meta

Page-level meta standards.

Title tags, meta descriptions, social cards, structured data, and robots directives — authored here as the reference for CBC’s public properties.

Scope & boundary

This page governs page-level meta: the HTML elements that tell search engines, social platforms, and browsers what a given page is and how to represent it. It covers title tags, meta descriptions, Open Graph and Twitter/X cards, structured data, and per-page robots and canonical tag mechanics.

This page does not govern URL architecture, subdomain and standalone-site strategy, cross-property canonical strategy, or domain-level SEO consolidation. Those decisions belong to the Digital Architecture Standards, which is the governing authority for all of that. This page defers to it in full and does not restate or duplicate it.

The boundary matters most in the robots & canonical section: this page covers how to mark up a canonical tag on a page; the Digital Architecture Standards owns which URL is canonical across properties.

Title tags

The <title> element is the single most important on-page SEO signal. It is the primary text Google displays in search results and in browser tabs. Every page needs a unique, accurate title.

Proposed standard — for review

Recommended CBC pattern

<!-- Main site interior pages -->
<title>{Page title} | CBC emea</title>

<!-- Subsidiary microsite interior pages -->
<title>{Page title} | {Subsidiary name} — CBC emea</title>

<!-- Main site home page -->
<title>CBC emea — Technology infrastructure and services</title>

The pipe separator (|) is the recommended delimiter. The brand name trails on interior pages so the unique content leads. The home page inverts this — the brand name leads.

Length — keep titles between 50 and 60 characters. Google truncates beyond approximately 60 characters in most viewports. Shorter is safer, but do not truncate at the cost of meaning.

Uniqueness — every published page needs a distinct title. Duplicate titles are a clear signal that content is either duplicated or under-specified. Templated titles that only swap in a category name do not count as unique.

▲ Do
  • Lead with the unique, page-specific content — not the brand name
  • Stay within 50–60 characters
  • Use a unique title per page, including within a section
  • Match the title to what the page actually delivers
▼ Don’t
  • Duplicate titles across pages
  • Use the same template string for every page in a section
  • Front-load the brand name on interior pages
  • Stuff keywords — Google rewrites titles it judges to be over-optimised

Meta descriptions

The meta description is not a direct ranking signal, but it is the summary text Google uses in snippets when no better passage is available. A well-written description improves click-through rate by setting accurate expectations.

Length — 120–155 characters. Mobile snippets truncate earlier than desktop; targeting 120–130 characters ensures the full sentence surfaces in both. Uniqueness — every indexed page should have a distinct description. Duplicate descriptions across a section are a missed opportunity.

Proposed standard — for review

<!-- Worked example: a service page -->
<meta
  name="description"
  content="CBC Infrastructure delivers on-premises edge compute
  platforms for Nigerian enterprises. Pre-configured, maintained
  by our team, and operational within two weeks of deployment."
/>
<!-- 156 chars — trim slightly for mobile safety -->

When to omit — noindex pages do not need a description; they will not surface in search results. Where Google is very likely to generate a better snippet from the page body (long-form articles with clear opening sentences), omitting the tag and letting Google extract is acceptable. Never leave a published, indexed page without a description.

▲ Do
  • Write an accurate, complete sentence — not a fragment or a list of keywords
  • Lead with the value proposition the page delivers
  • Stay within 120–155 characters
  • Write a unique description per indexed page
▼ Don’t
  • Copy the title tag verbatim as the description
  • Use the same description across multiple pages
  • Use quotation marks — Google strips them and they can distort the snippet
  • Include the brand name unless it is genuinely part of the message

Social cards — Open Graph & Twitter/X

Open Graph tags control how a page appears when shared on LinkedIn, Facebook, WhatsApp, and messaging platforms. Twitter/X card tags control the Twitter preview. Without them, social platforms extract their own summary — usually poorly.

The share image is a brand surface. For visual treatment — composition, brand mark placement, and what may or may not appear on it — see the Imagery page. The Social page (forthcoming) will carry the full share-image specification. This section documents the tag mechanics only.

Proposed standard — for review

Recommended tag set

<!-- Open Graph -->
<meta property="og:type"        content="website" />
<meta property="og:url"         content="https://cbcemea.com/page/" />
<meta property="og:title"       content="Page title here" />
<meta property="og:description" content="120–155 char summary." />
<meta property="og:image"       content="https://cbcemea.com/og/page.jpg" />
<meta property="og:image:width"  content="1200" />
<meta property="og:image:height" content="630" />
<meta property="og:site_name"   content="CBC emea" />

<!-- Twitter / X -->
<meta name="twitter:card"        content="summary_large_image" />
<meta name="twitter:title"       content="Page title here" />
<meta name="twitter:description" content="120–155 char summary." />
<meta name="twitter:image"       content="https://cbcemea.com/og/page.jpg" />

Use og:type="article" for Insights posts and case studies. The URL in og:url should match the canonical URL — defer to the Digital Architecture Standards for which that is.

Share image specification

  • Canvas1200 × 630 px (1.91:1 ratio)
  • Safe area1080 × 567 px centred (60 px from each edge)
  • FormatJPG preferred — smaller file, widely supported
  • Brand markWithin the safe area — see Imagery for visual treatment
  • Text in imageMin 24 px / sufficient contrast on the image background

The safe area keeps brand marks and key text away from platform-specific cropping. Some platforms crop to a square on mobile — avoid placing critical content near the left and right edges.

Structured data — schema.org / JSON-LD

Structured data is machine-readable markup that tells search engines what a page is about — not just what it says. It enables rich results: knowledge panels, sitelinks, article carousels, and product information. JSON-LD in a <script> tag is the recommended implementation: it does not require changes to visible HTML and can be updated without editing DOM structure.

  • WebSite

    Home page of any CBC property. Enables the sitelinks search box when Google surfaces it.

  • Organization

    Any page that can carry the root entity description — typically the home page or About page. One per property.

  • Article

    Insights, case studies, and news posts. Include headline, datePublished, author, image.

  • Product / Service

    Product or service pages with a distinct offering. Use Service for intangible CBC offerings.

  • BreadcrumbList

    Any page deeper than the root. Communicates hierarchy to Google and surfaces it in snippets.

Proposed standard — for review

Organization schema — CBC emea

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "CBC emea",
  "url": "https://cbcemea.com",
  "logo": "https://cbcemea.com/assets/logo/cbc-logo.svg",
  "description": "Technology infrastructure, communications, energy,
    and software across EMEA.",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "addressCountry": "NG"
  },
  "sameAs": []
}
</script>

The sameAs array should reference verified social profiles (LinkedIn, etc.) once they are established. The URL and logo path require confirmation against the production domain.

Validate any structured data block with schema.org/validator and Google’s Rich Results Test before deploying. Invalid JSON-LD is silently ignored by Google — it produces no error, but also no rich result.

Page-level robots & canonical tags

Boundary first: this section covers how to write the tags on a page. The Digital Architecture Standards owns which URL is canonical across properties, which pages are indexed, and the full cross-property consolidation strategy. If in doubt, consult the Architecture Standards before marking a URL canonical or changing a page’s indexing directive.

Robots meta tag

Controls whether a page is indexed and whether its outbound links are followed. The default for all public pages is no robots tag — the browser and search engine default to indexable, followable.

<!-- Default: no tag needed. Equivalent to: -->
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow" />

<!-- Explicitly exclude from indexing -->
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow" />

<!-- Index the page but do not follow links -->
<meta name="robots" content="index, nofollow" />

Canonical tag

The canonical tag tells search engines which URL is the preferred version of a page — it handles duplicate content arising from query strings, trailing slashes, and HTTP/HTTPS variants. Use it on every indexed page, pointing to the page’s own canonical URL. For cross-property canonical decisions, see the Digital Architecture Standards.

<!-- Self-referencing canonical: use on every indexed page -->
<link rel="canonical" href="https://cbcemea.com/infrastructure/edge-compute/" />

<!-- Pointing to a different canonical (e.g. syndicated content) -->
<link rel="canonical" href="https://cbcemea.com/insights/article-slug/" />
▲ Do
  • Add a self-referencing canonical to every indexed page
  • Use the exact URL the Digital Architecture Standards designates as canonical
  • Apply noindex to pages that should genuinely not appear in search (staging, internal tools, search result pages)
  • Test robots directives with Google Search Console’s URL inspection tool
▼ Don’t
  • Set a canonical without confirming the URL strategy with the Digital Architecture Standards
  • Use noindex as a lazy fix for thin or duplicate content — resolve the underlying issue
  • Rely on robots.txt to block indexing — it disallows crawling but does not prevent indexing if the page is linked
  • Serve the same content at multiple URLs without a canonical

This reference site’s own stance

This brand reference site is an internal tool. It is intentionally excluded from public search indices. It is the worked example of a correct noindex deployment.

robotsnoindex, nofollow

Not a public property — should never appear in search results.

meta descriptionOmitted

No SERP snippet will ever be generated, so the tag serves no purpose.

canonicalSelf-referencing per page

Good practice even on noindex pages — prevents duplicate-content signals if the crawl exclusion is ever changed.

og:imageNot set on internal pages

Social sharing of internal reference pages is not a supported use case.

When a property graduates from internal tool to public site, the robots tag changes to the default (remove the noindex directive) and a description is added. The canonical tag stays. The migration is a one-line change — intentional noindex is clean by design.

Cross-links & where to ask

  • Accessibility — Structure & semantics

    Semantic HTML (heading hierarchy, landmark roles, descriptive link text) is the foundation that SEO and assistive technology share. The two requirements overlap more than they conflict.

  • Imagery

    Share image visual treatment — what is on the 1200×630 canvas, brand mark placement, and whether text in the image meets contrast requirements.

  • Starters — Partner landing page kit

    Canonical scoping, OG image as a brand surface, and partner-colour containment assembled into a copyable scaffold with a change-list.

  • Digital Architecture Standards

    The governing authority for URL structure, subdomain and standalone-site strategy, cross-property canonical and hreflang decisions, and domain-level SEO consolidation. If this page and the Architecture Standards ever appear to disagree, the Architecture Standards wins.

  • Marketing Team

    SEO audit requests, title-tag review, structured data QA, and questions about the Digital Architecture Standards scope all go to the Marketing Team. When in doubt, ask before you ship.