# SEO Alignment After Public Updates

Date: 30 June 2026

## Pages checked

- Homepage and course catalogue
- Course category directory and top-level category pages
- Course detail pages and diploma programme pages
- Verify Certificate, FAQ, and all Content Manager public pages
- Using Coursepedia, Student Guide, and Instructor Guide
- Public footer destinations

## Metadata updated

- Updated the Using Coursepedia SEO title and description for student and instructor help searches.
- Added clearer titles for the Student Guide and Instructor Guide.
- Connected Content Manager Open Graph titles, descriptions, and featured images to server-rendered
  metadata and client-side navigation.
- Confirmed canonical URLs, descriptions, Open Graph fields, and index rules on affected pages.
- Certificate searches with a code remain `noindex,follow` and canonicalise to `/verify/`.

## Structured data

- Course structured data now always includes an image, Coursepedia provider, URL, offer, price,
  currency, certificate availability where applicable, and the new top-level category.
- Original category names and course tags remain available as structured-data keywords.
- Course breadcrumbs now use the mapped top-level category URL.
- Category pages expose original category names as collection keywords.

## Redirects and category URLs

- Old category routes now redirect directly to their final top-level category instead of using a
  second redirect.
- Old course routes for unpublished courses now fall back directly to the mapped category page.
- Short Course, Diploma Course, and Advanced Diploma category URLs redirect to their programme
  pages even when no matching course is currently published.
- Original category names remain searchable through course categories, aliases, subcategories,
  filters, and course data.

## Sitemap and public discovery

- Confirmed the sitemap includes the homepage, catalogue, programme pages, certificate
  verification, FAQ, Content Manager pages, all three help routes, published courses, and active
  top-level categories.
- Added managed page and category update dates where available.
- Old category aliases are excluded from the sitemap so only final category URLs are indexed.
- Footer-only pages remain discoverable through the sitemap and their public links.

## Broken links

- Extended the public link checker to validate every internal Content Manager footer link as well
  as sitemap and essential public URLs.
- No broken public links remained after the alignment pass.

## Manual checks before launch

- Add the production sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
- Inspect a sample of high-traffic old course and category URLs after deployment.
- Request reindexing for the homepage, catalogue, new category pages, and Using Coursepedia.
- Validate one live course page in Google's Rich Results Test after the production domain is
  connected to the new LMS.
- Monitor 404 and redirect reports during the first weeks after launch for uncommon WordPress URLs.
