SEO & Metadata Management

Keywords: metadata tags, open graph, twitter card, search engine optimization, meta tags, sitemap xml

Asok provides a powerful, SvelteKit-inspired system for managing page metadata (titles, meta tags, social share properties) directly from your Python logic or templates.

1. The meta object

Every request object has a meta helper that manages the page’s <head> elements.

Usage in Python (page.py)

You can set metadata attributes directly on request.meta.

from asok import Request

def render(request: Request):
    request.meta.title = "Contact Us"
    request.meta.description = "Get in touch with the Asok team."
    return request.html("contact.html")

Usage in Templates (page.html)

The meta object is available globally in templates. You can use it as a function to set values.

{{ meta.title("Our Services") }}
{{ meta.description("We provide high-quality Asok development.") }}

<!-- OpenGraph and Social Media -->
{{ meta.property("og:image", static("img/hero.png")) }}
{{ meta.property("og:type", "website") }}

<!-- Custom Meta Tags -->
{{ meta.name("robots", "index, follow") }}

<!-- Canonical and Other Links -->
{{ meta.link("canonical", "https://example.com/services") }}

2. Automatic Injection & Overrides

Asok intelligently manages the injection of these tags into your final HTML.

How it works

  • Deduplication: If you set the same meta tag (e.g., description) multiple times, only the last call wins.

  • Smart Replacement: If your base template has a hardcoded <title> or <meta name="description">, Asok will automatically remove them and replace them with your dynamic values. This ensures your SEO data always takes priority.

  • Escaping: All content is automatically HTML-escaped to prevent XSS vulnerabilities.

3. Support for Inheritance

Metadata tags can be placed anywhere in your templates, including at the very top of a file that extends a base layout.

{% extends "base.html" %}
{{ meta.title("This Works!") }}

{% block content %}
    <h1>Page Content</h1>
{% endblock %}

Asok automatically preserves these top-level side effects during the inheritance phase, ensuring they are executed even if they are outside a {% block %}.

3. Clean Blocks for SEO

When using {% block title %} or {% block description %} in your templates, Asok automatically suppresses the internal HTML comment markers (e.g., <!-- block:title:start -->) that are usually injected for SPA updates.

This ensures:

  • Browser tab titles remain clean.

  • Meta tag content attributes are not corrupted by comment markers.

  • SPA partial updates still work perfectly as the engine knows how to target these specific tags directly.

API Reference

meta.title(value)

Sets the <title> tag. Can be assigned in Python via request.meta.title = value.

meta.description(value)

Sets the <meta name="description"> tag. Can be assigned in Python via request.meta.description = value.

meta.property(property, content)

Injects a <meta property="..." content="..."> tag (ideal for OpenGraph).

meta.name(name, content)

Injects a <meta name="..." content="..."> tag.