Learn how to build world-class SEO into your Hugo sites

Dear fellow Hugo dev,

Have you ever wondered if you’re missing out on traffic, leads and/or sales because you don’t know (enough) SEO?

Let me help you. My name is Ron Erdos, and I’ve lead SEO for pretty much all of Australia’s leading media companies, gaining tens of millions of Google clicks over the years.

I’ve also coded and operated my own Hugo sites for a few years now, and done quite well with them on Google too.

The reason I made this course? I’ve had a lot of Hugo devs reach out via this site and ask if I offer SEO training. So I put this course together.

Introducing the MoonBooth “SEO for Hugo” course.

In this actionable, no-fluff SEO course for Hugo developers, we’ll cover:

Module 1: SEO meta data in Hugo done right

  • How to implement important SEO metadata such as page titles and meta descriptions in Hugo.
  • Did you know that Hugo’s pagination leads to “duplicate page title” and “duplicate meta description” errors in Google? But don’t worry, it’s totally fixable. You’ll learn how to avoid these errors with the provided Hugo code samples.

Modules 2 and 3: My “Spotlight” SEO strategy

  • Did you know that in the early days of SEO, the more pages you had, the more chances you essentially had to win on Google? Many folks don’t realise that the game has changed; it’s 2023 and you can’t just “spray and pray” anymore.

In this module, I’ll show you how to eliminate the boilerplate pages that Hugo generates by default.

Module 4: Avoiding the “SEO Band-Aid”

  • In this module, we’ll cover What a “canonical” link is, and why it’s not the “SEO Band-Aid” many folks think it is.

Module 5: How to avoid the common error many devs make with their robots.txt file

  • In this module, I’ll show you what a robots.txt file is, and then teach you how to avoid the mistake that many devs make when implementing or editing it. I’ve included examples to help you.

Module 5: How to avoid “driving your car with the handbrake on” when it comes to Google sitemaps

  • How to optimise your Google sitemap properly. Some devs end up building Google sitemaps that are the equivalent of driving a car with the handbrake on—this course will teach you how to avoid this seemingly-innocuous mistake.

Module 7: How to avoid SEO mistakes when publishing an RSS file

  • Even if most of your users don’t use RSS, your RSS feed can be the source of inefficiencies when it comes to SEO. Learn how to avoid this mistake here.

Module 8: Optimising CSS for SEO

  • How to minimise HTTP requests when it comes to CSS—and how you can improve your SEO by doing so.

Module 9: Optimising images for SEO

  • Similarly, how to minimise HTTP requests for images—and why you should.

All examples are Hugo-specific, but can also be applied to other frameworks/languages

And of course, all the examples are Hugo-specific, as are all the code samples.

Frequently Asked Questions

What format is the course in?

The course is currently in text format, with code samples provided. It’s delivered as a series of responsive web pages in dark mode—the same as this site—so you can easily read it on your phone if you want.

If there’s demand for a video version, I might put that together.

Who made this?

My name is Ron Erdos and I run this site (and wrote the course). I’m an SEO professional with 14 years experience doing and leading SEO for large ASX-listed (Australian stock market listed) companies. I’ve also built Hugo websites for five years now. I’d like to think the MoonBooth “SEO for Hugo” Course represents a good intersection of these two skill sets.

How do I pay?

I use Stripe Checkout—integrated with Hugo, of course. You can use any credit card or debit card that Stripe accepts—MasterCard, Visa, American Express, and more.

Can I claim this as a work expense?

If your boss or accountant say yes, then sure!

Do you offer refunds?

Sure. If you’re not happy, just just send me an email at ron dot erdos at this domain within 180 days of purchase, and I’ll reverse the Stripe transaction within 24 hours. Then it might take a couple of days for Stripe to return the funds to your account. You can keep the course because hey, when it comes to digital, once you have it, you have it.