SEO Meta Tags

⚠️ PRELIMINARY FEATURE - BETA
This feature is currently in beta testing. The API and functionality may change in future releases. We welcome feedback and suggestions as we refine this feature.

Overview

The seoMeta field type allows you to define SEO meta tags at the form/page level. These tags are extracted during Server-Side Rendering (SSR) and injected into the HTML <head> section, enabling:

Search Engine Optimization - Better indexing by Google, Bing, etc.
Social Media Previews - Rich previews when links are shared on Slack, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Discord, etc.
Dynamic Meta Tags - Use _calc expressions to populate tags from database data

Field Structure

Basic Schema

{
  "type": "seoMeta",
  "metaTags": {
    "title": "Page Title - Your Brand",
    "description": "Page description for search results",
    "og:title": "Social Media Title",
    "og:image": "https://yourdomain.com/image.jpg"
  }
}

Properties

Property

Type

Required

Description

type

String

Yes

Must be "seoMeta"

metaTags

Object

Yes

Meta tag definitions

Behavior

In Editor (GUI)

Visible - Field appears in the form designer in the tree view
Editable - Designers can modify meta tags
No Rendering - Does not render in the actual form

In Production (Runtime)

Hidden - Field does not appear to users
SSR - Meta tags are extracted during SSR for bots/crawlers
Client-Side - Meta tags are also injected into document.head at runtime for regular users, enabling correct browser tab titles, social sharing from the SPA, and <html lang> attributes
Merged - If multiple seoMeta fields exist on the page, their metaTags are merged and later fields override earlier ones

Meta Tags Object

The metaTags object supports two types of values:

1. Static Values

{
  "title": "About Us - Acme Corp",
  "og:image": "https://cdn.acme.com/about.jpg"
}

2. Dynamic Values with `_calc`

{
  "title_calc": "model.product.name + ' - $' + model.product.price",
  "description_calc": "model.product.description || 'Default description'"
}

Important: The _calc suffix is removed when rendering:

title_calc → becomes title in HTML
og:image_calc → becomes og:image in HTML

Supported Meta Tag Types

Special Keys

These keys have unique behavior and do not render as <meta> tags:

Key

Behavior

title

Sets <title> tag (browser tab / search result title)

language

Sets <html lang="..."> attribute. During SSR, defaults to "en" if omitted

_comment*

Ignored — for developer notes and organization

Standard Meta Tags

Use name="" attribute:

{
  "description": "Page description",
  "keywords": "keyword1, keyword2",
  "author": "Your Name",
  "robots": "index, follow"
}

Renders as:

<meta name="description" content="Page description">
<meta name="keywords" content="keyword1, keyword2">

Open Graph (Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack)

Use property="" attribute:

{
  "og:title": "Social Media Title",
  "og:description": "Social media description",
  "og:image": "https://example.com/image.jpg",
  "og:type": "website",
  "og:url": "https://example.com/page"
}

Renders as:

<meta property="og:title" content="Social Media Title">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/image.jpg">

Twitter Card

Use name="" attribute:

{
  "twitter:card": "summary_large_image",
  "twitter:title": "Twitter Title",
  "twitter:description": "Twitter description",
  "twitter:image": "https://example.com/twitter.jpg"
}

Renders as:

<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">
<meta name="twitter:title" content="Twitter Title">

Article Meta (Blog Posts)

Use property="" attribute:

{
  "og:type": "article",
  "article:published_time": "2024-01-15T10:00:00Z",
  "article:author": "John Doe",
  "article:section": "Technology"
}

Product Meta (E-commerce)

Use property="" attribute:

{
  "og:type": "product",
  "product:price:amount": "29.99",
  "product:price:currency": "USD",
  "product:availability": "in stock"
}

Dynamic Expressions with `_calc`

Add _calc to any key to evaluate it as a JavaScript expression. The expression has access to the model object from the form's data model.

{
  "title_calc": "model.product.name + ' | My Store'"
}

If both a static key and its _calc counterpart exist, _calc takes precedence.

Complete Examples

Static Page

{
  "type": "seoMeta",
  "metaTags": {
    "title": "About Us - Acme Corporation",
    "description": "Learn about Acme Corp's mission, values, and team",
    "og:title": "About Acme Corp",
    "og:image": "https://cdn.acme.com/about-og.jpg",
    "og:type": "website",
    "twitter:card": "summary_large_image"
  }
}

Dynamic Page (using `_calc`)

Any key with a _calc suffix is evaluated as a JavaScript expression with access to model. The _calc version takes priority over the static key.

{
  "type": "seoMeta",
  "metaTags": {
    "title_calc": "model.product.name + ' - $' + model.product.price + ' | Acme Store'",
    "description_calc": "model.product.description?.substring(0, 160)",
    "og:title_calc": "model.product.name",
    "og:image_calc": "model.product.images?.[0]?.url || 'https://cdn.acme.com/default.jpg'",
    "og:type": "product",
    "twitter:card": "summary_large_image"
  }
}

Requirements

The seoMeta field also works in the browser at runtime, but SSR must be enabled if you want bots and social crawlers to receive the tags in the initial HTML response. Meta tags are extracted and rendered server-side when:

A bot/crawler accesses the page (Googlebot, Facebookbot, etc.)
SSR is enabled for the form's layout in site settings
The form is successfully loaded with data

Form Data (`onFormRequest`)

For dynamic _calc expressions:

The form's onFormRequest hook must be enabled
The hook must populate the model object with data
SSR will fetch this data automatically

For static values:

No onFormRequest needed
Tags are rendered as-is

Validation & Best Practices

Character Limits

Tag

Recommended Length

title

50-60 characters

description

150-160 characters

og:title

60-90 characters

og:description

55-65 characters

twitter:title

70 characters

Image Requirements

Platform

Size

Aspect Ratio

Open Graph (Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack)

1200x630px

1.91:1

Twitter Large Image

1200x675px

16:9

Twitter Summary

120x120px (min)

1:1

Best Practices

✅ Always include fallbacks in _calc expressions
✅ Use absolute URLs for images
✅ Test previews on actual platforms (Slack, Facebook, etc.)
✅ Keep descriptions concise and compelling
✅ Use high-quality images (1200x630px minimum)
❌ Don't use relative URLs for og:image
❌ Don't exceed character limits (truncated by platforms)

Testing

Test as Bot

Use curl with a bot user-agent:

curl -H "User-Agent: Googlebot" https://yourdomain.com/page

Look for meta tags in the <head> section.

Facebook Debugger: https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/
Twitter Card Validator: https://cards-dev.twitter.com/validator
LinkedIn Inspector: https://www.linkedin.com/post-inspector/
Slack: Just paste the link in any channel

Troubleshooting

Meta Tags Not Appearing

Check:

Is SSR enabled for this layout?
Is the form loading successfully?
Are you testing with a bot user-agent?
Does the seoMeta field exist in the form schema?

Dynamic Values Not Working

Check:

Is onFormRequest enabled for the form?
Is the model object populated with data?
Are _calc expressions syntactically correct?
Check server logs for evaluation errors

Solution:

Clear the platform's cache using their debugging tools
Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter cache previews for 7 days
Use their inspector tools to force a refresh

Security

Escaping

Server-rendered meta tag values are HTML-escaped before they are written into the SSR response:

<script>alert('xss')</script>
// Becomes:
&lt;script&gt;alert('xss')&lt;/script&gt;

`_calc` Expressions

_calc expressions are evaluated with access to the page model, and evaluation failures are caught and logged. Keep these expressions simple and side-effect free.

Auto-Generated Tags

The following are injected automatically if not explicitly defined in metaTags:

Tag

Value

<link rel="canonical">

Current page URL

og:url

Current page URL

Page Language

Set the page language with the language key:

{
  "language": "fr",
  "title": "Titre de la Page"
}

Renders as:

<html lang="fr">

For dynamic language based on model data:

{
  "language_calc": "model.userLanguage || 'en'"
}

If omitted, SSR falls back to "en".

Dynamic robots.txt and sitemap.xml

BetterForms automatically generates robots.txt and sitemap.xml for each tenant.

Static pages with ssr.enabled: true are included automatically.

For dynamic clean URLs such as product detail pages or blog posts, BetterForms can also expand the sitemap through the common onSiteMap hook. This is important because search engines discover and index the clean server-visible URL, not the browser hash URL.

Example onSiteMap response:

{
  "response": {
    "urls": [
      { "loc": "/products/PRD_D3758281-4BE9-4DAC-9E74-3ED4DAE718C2" },
      { "loc": "/products/PRD_7D0CD18C-876A-4CBD-B157-C8E638FD4E7D", "lastmod": "2026-04-11" }
    ]
  }
}

Rules:

static SSR layouts are listed automatically
dynamic URLs should be returned by onSiteMap
loc must be a clean path beginning with /
return clean URLs, not hash URLs such as /#/products/...
lastmod is optional

If onSiteMap is not implemented, BetterForms still returns a valid static-only sitemap.

Feedback

This is a preliminary feature. Please share feedback or suggestions in the Slack channel #suggestions.

Last Updated: February 2026

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Overview

Field Structure

Basic Schema

Properties

Behavior

In Editor (GUI)

In Production (Runtime)

Meta Tags Object

1. Static Values

2. Dynamic Values with _calc

Supported Meta Tag Types

Special Keys

Standard Meta Tags

Open Graph (Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack)

Twitter Card

Article Meta (Blog Posts)

Product Meta (E-commerce)

Dynamic Expressions with _calc

Complete Examples

Static Page

Dynamic Page (using _calc)

Requirements

Server-Side Rendering (SSR) for crawlers and social previews

Form Data (onFormRequest)

Validation & Best Practices

Character Limits

Image Requirements

Best Practices

Testing

Test as Bot

Test Social Previews

Troubleshooting

Meta Tags Not Appearing

Dynamic Values Not Working

Social Previews Not Updating

Security

Escaping

_calc Expressions

Auto-Generated Tags

Page Language

Dynamic robots.txt and sitemap.xml

Related Documentation

Feedback

2. Dynamic Values with `_calc`

Dynamic Expressions with `_calc`

Dynamic Page (using `_calc`)

Form Data (`onFormRequest`)

`_calc` Expressions