Product Update: Optimizing Codex & Improving SEO
This week we launched the new Codex Viewer and sat down with our Senior Software Engineer to discuss the optimizations for SEO to the website and what it means for our users.
We just released a complete website overhaul; nearly all of the code has been re-written on the Codex Viewer to derive substantial search engine optimization (SEO) improvements, speed improvements and increased provenance tracking functionality.
Building a robust title registry with our auction house partners and featured collection artists will quickly make Codex one of the most comprehensive art registries in the world. Increased traffic from the SEO improvements will not only help collectors find items they love, but it will also help auction houses and artists who have registered their items on Codex by increasing traffic to their works and websites.
What were the technical changes for SEO?
Previously, the Codex Viewer was written as a “single page application” (SPA), which made it difficult for Google to index because the entire application had to load before anything could be indexed. Most of the time Google would simply “give up” waiting for the page to load and never index the page. To remedy this problem, the entire application was re-written from the ground up using a technique called “server-side rendering” (SSR). Instead of delivering the application to the client and having it initialize and load data from the browser, it is now pre-rendered with all necessary data on the server and sent to the browser in an “already initialized” state. The user (and Google’s indexing scripts) will see information immediately on the page rather than waiting for data, API web requests, etc to load. Chosen framework for server side rendering is Nuxt.js.
What benefits will this have?
- For auction houses: increased search engine hits for items registered on Codex. If someone Google searches a type collectible item and “auction”, Google reads our site with the relevant meta tags / descriptions and the Codex page for the auction house will be among the top hits.
- For artists: optimizations make it easier for people to find the Featured Collections artists and their artworks. Each artist’s page receives a set of keywords, and every public Codex Record an artist registers is made indexable by Google. Additionally, because we link out artist’s websites on our site, it will help their own website with increased search engine optimization.
- For Codex and general users: The reduction of code base shortens loading times and pages load more quickly. By reducing the overall size for the code base we are shaving off huge chunks of data and making the Viewer run much more efficiently.
Other changes and improvements from the website overhaul:
- Lazy load
While scrolling through pages with Codex Records, images won’t load until it is in view. This helps with page speed and efficiency as you’re browsing through any of the thousands of Codex Records on the Registry.
- Social media preview links
Sharing content is a significant part of the online art world, and it’s important that the preview content you share properly reflects that. Preview links now include images, names of the collections and descriptors.
- Full screen viewing on Mobile
Nearly half of our users are visiting Codex on mobile devices, so it was important that we made sure it is as easy to view and appreciate the art on a mobile device as it is on a desktop.
- Codex Record descriptions now support links
When creating a Codex Record, you can now add live links into the description of the item. Users can link directly to sales platforms, their websites and more. Check out this Record by artist Romero — the Record includes a link to a presentation and a link to OpenSea (where the NFT can be bought) in the Record’s description.
- Provenance section re-design
The provenance section of a Codex Record reflects every aspect of the Record’s life; tracking its creation, modifications and transfers. This section has been almost completely redesigned with a slew of new features that didn’t exist before. Next week we will publish an article dedicated entirely to reviewing and explaining these changes. A high level summary of the changes include: viewers can now see who made changes to a Record, what the original Record creator made and show transaction hashes. Stay tuned next week for an in-depth look at the changes and why they are so crucial — especially for digital artists.
Check out all of the updates on Codex by logging into your account here or signing up here. What do you think of the new features? We want to hear from you! Join the conversation on our Twitter, Telegram, LinkedIn and Instagram.
Written by: Corinne Moshy
About Codex
Codex is the leading decentralized asset registry for the $2 trillion arts & collectibles (“A&C”) ecosystem, which includes art, fine wine, collectible cars, antiques, decorative arts, coins, watches, jewelry, and more. Powered by the CodexCoin native token, the Codex Protocol is open source, allowing third-party players in the A&C ecosystem to build applications and utilize the title system. Codex’s landmark application, Biddable, is a title-escrow system built on the Codex Protocol, which solves long-standing challenges in auctions: non-performing bidders, lack of privacy and bidder access. The Codex Protocol and CodexCoin will be adopted as the only cryptocurrency by The Codex Consortium, a group of major stakeholders in the A&C space who facilitate over $6 Billion in sales to millions of bidders across tens of thousands of auctions from 5,000 auction houses in over 50 countries.
To learn more about Codex initiatives, visit our white paper. To inquire about partnerships and developing dApps using the Codex Protocol, please contact us via Telegram or Twitter
