After some additional investigation and reviewing the SEO checkers @Robbie lists above, here are my general findings, Bhante @sujato:
One of the most important things to consider when thinking about SEO are what keywords does SC want to rank well for. SC is ranking on the first page for the keyword sutta, which is great. However, for meditation, buddhism, early buddhist teachings, and buddha, SC is currently not found on the first 10 pages. The following site stopped searching for SC at that point because no one is likely to search past the first 10 pages presumably. keyword position checker - A Free online Google keyword rank checker
So, since I’m not sure what keywords SC wants to rank for, it’s hard to give much specific advice. That said, all or most of the SEO checkers above did notice one easy fix that is commonly agreed to be important for SEO: The title of the home page is shorter than the recommended number of 35-65 signs. SC’s title is only 12 signs. It is just SuttaCentral. That said, the description of the home page seems strong in terms of SEO and conveying a clear message about what SC is about. Presumably, the description includes SC’s targeted keywords, too. Here is the SC description that shows up in google searches:
Early Buddhist texts from the Tipitaka (Tripitaka). Suttas (sutras) with the Buddha’s teachings on mindfulness, insight, wisdom, and meditation.
So, based on that, we could expand the title to something like SuttaCentral: Early Buddhist Teachings
or if you want to reach more people searching for meditation you could even expand it to something like:
SuttaCentral: Early Buddhist Teachings on Meditation & Dhamma. I’m sure there are many other options depending on what keywords are important.
There are other ways to improve SEO based on my experience and the reports above, including using social share media or at least adding social media share buttons. However, some here understandably seem to disfavor social media, so I’m not sure this is an option. I don’t like social media personally but find it very helpful for SEO. Also, the other SEO strategies and tactics I and others use could affect the layout and appearance of SC, including some of the strategies I mentioned in a previous post. So, I won’t go into more detail about them unless someone wants me to.
Also, because SC does have such great content and features, I’m confident it will appear in more and more relevant searches so long as the important keywords are on the pages and included in the H1 titles of pages.
If anyone has any questions or suggestions, I’d be happy to hear them. I hope this helps.