TYPO3 ships with more SEO groundwork than any other enterprise CMS – and yet I regularly see TYPO3 sites giving away the basics. I've worked with TYPO3 since version 4. This is the list I run through on every project, sorted by impact.

What TYPO3 Does Out of the Box (You Just Have to Enable It)

Since version 9, the seo system extension is part of the core. It provides:

  • Title and meta fields per page in the backend, including Open Graph and Twitter Cards
  • Canonical tags automatically, even with URL parameters
  • hreflang for multilingual sites, generated from the language configuration
  • XML sitemap, configurable via TypoScript (plugin.tx_seo)

First check whether the extension is active at all and the sitemap has been submitted to Google Search Console. Sounds trivial, but it's missing surprisingly often.

Configure Speaking URLs and Routing Properly

Speaking URLs have been a core feature since version 9 – no more RealURL hacks. Where it usually goes wrong: route enhancers for extensions. Without an enhancer, TYPO3 appends a cHash parameter to every detail URL – ugly and a duplicate content risk.

routeEnhancers:
  NewsDetail:
    type: Extbase
    extension: News
    plugin: Pi1
    routes:
      - routePath: '/{news-title}'
        _controller: 'News::detail'
        _arguments: {'news-title': 'news'}
    aspects:
      news-title:
        type: PersistedAliasMapper
        tableName: tx_news_domain_model_news
        routeFieldName: path_segment

Every extension with detail pages needs a block like this in the site's config.yaml.

Which TYPO3 SEO Extensions Are Worth It

  • EXT:schema – structured data (JSON-LD) via a clean PHP API instead of hand-written scripts. My default on every site.
  • EXT:yoast_seo – the Yoast port for TYPO3. Useful if editors want a snippet preview and readability checks. The plugin itself doesn't improve rankings.
  • EXT:redirects (core) – mandatory for every relaunch. Map old URLs to new ones, watch the 404 log in the backend.

You rarely need more. Ten SEO extensions in parallel are a warning sign, not a quality feature.

The Measures With the Biggest Impact

1. Titles Per Page Instead of Page Title Recycling

Without care, TYPO3 uses the page title from the page tree – written for editors, not for search. Fill the dedicated SEO title field deliberately: keyword first, brand last, under 60 characters.

2. Images: WebP and Compression

TYPO3 renders WebP if ImageMagick/GraphicsMagick supports it. Enable it in LocalConfiguration and set image sizes properly in Fluid templates with <f:image> instead of shipping originals.

3. Use Caching Consistently

TYPO3's page cache is strong but gets defeated by unconfigured USER_INT plugins – a single uncached plugin makes the whole page dynamic. When in doubt, use the admin panel to check what bypasses the cache.

4. Internal Links From Content

The page tree is not internal linking. Set links from body copy to your important target pages – that's what tells Google which pages matter.

Common TYPO3 SEO Mistakes

  • Sitemap contains system pages, the 404 page, or untranslated pages
  • Multilingualism with "all languages" content getting indexed as duplicates
  • News pagination without a canonical to the list page
  • Relaunch without a redirect concept – the fastest way to burn rankings
  • Staging environment without noindex, happily getting indexed

Conclusion

TYPO3 SEO is 80% configuration, not extension shopping. Enable core features, set up routing cleanly, maintain redirects, optimize images – and you're already ahead of most TYPO3 sites. The rest is content, and no CMS can do that for you. For how to approach that, see the DIY SEO guide.