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SEO: make the lab site discoverable (meta, structured data, sitemap)#1

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mufan/seo
Jun 15, 2026
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SEO: make the lab site discoverable (meta, structured data, sitemap)#1
mufanq merged 1 commit into
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mufan/seo

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@mufanq

@mufanq mufanq commented Jun 15, 2026

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Why

Students reported they can't find the lab on search engines — only Dr. Chen's personal page shows up. The site had no meta description, no Open Graph/structured data, and no sitemap, so crawlers had almost nothing to index and the generic <title>UNITES Lab</title> didn't match queries like "Tianlong Chen lab" or "UNITES lab UNC".

What this PR does

On every top-level page (index, publication, research, group, gallery, resource):

  • Descriptive, keyword-rich <title> + <meta name="description"> naming UNITES Lab, Tianlong Chen, and UNC-Chapel Hill
  • canonical, Open Graph, and Twitter Card tags (better link previews + signals)
  • <meta name="robots" content="index, follow">

On index.html:

  • ResearchOrganization JSON-LD linking the lab → parent org (UNC) → founder (Tianlong Chen, with his Google Scholar), so engines can form a proper knowledge entity.

New files:

  • robots.txt (allows all, points to the sitemap)
  • sitemap.xml (all 6 pages)

The SEO block is wrapped in <!-- SEO:auto:start/end --> markers and generated by ~/agent/scripts/unites_seo.py, so it's easy to regenerate/update.

Recommended follow-up (needs a Google account, can't be automated here)

  1. Add the site to Google Search Console and submit sitemap.xml — this is the single biggest accelerator for indexing.
  2. Add a link to the lab site from Dr. Chen's personal homepage (backlinks help ranking).

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

The lab site had no meta description, social tags, structured data, or
sitemap, so search engines had little to index — students reported only
Dr. Chen's personal page showed up, not the lab.

This adds, on every top-level page:
- a descriptive, keyword-rich <title> and meta description naming
  "UNITES Lab", "Tianlong Chen", and "UNC-Chapel Hill";
- canonical, Open Graph, and Twitter Card tags;
- index.html: ResearchOrganization JSON-LD linking the lab to its
  parent (UNC) and founder (Tianlong Chen, with his Scholar) so search
  engines can build a proper entity.

Plus robots.txt and sitemap.xml (6 pages) to guide crawlers.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings June 15, 2026 05:03

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Pull request overview

Improves the UNITES Lab website’s search engine discoverability by adding consistent SEO metadata (titles, descriptions, canonical, Open Graph, Twitter Cards), structured data on the homepage, and crawler discovery artifacts (robots + sitemap) across the site’s top-level pages.

Changes:

  • Adds keyword-rich <title>/description, canonical, Open Graph, Twitter Card, and robots meta tags to the main HTML pages.
  • Adds JSON-LD (ResearchOrganization) structured data to index.html.
  • Introduces robots.txt and sitemap.xml to help crawlers discover and index all key pages.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 8 out of 8 changed files in this pull request and generated 6 comments.

Show a summary per file
File Description
index.html Adds SEO meta tags + JSON-LD structured data for the lab entity.
publication.html Adds SEO meta tags (title/description/canonical/OG/Twitter).
research.html Adds SEO meta tags (title/description/canonical/OG/Twitter).
group.html Adds SEO meta tags (title/description/canonical/OG/Twitter).
gallery.html Adds SEO meta tags (title/description/canonical/OG/Twitter).
resource.html Adds SEO meta tags (title/description/canonical/OG/Twitter).
robots.txt Allows crawling and references the sitemap.
sitemap.xml Lists the site’s top-level URLs for indexing.

💡 Add Copilot custom instructions for smarter, more guided reviews. Learn how to get started.

Comment thread index.html
Comment on lines +5 to +6
<!-- SEO:auto:start -->
<title>UNITES Lab | Prof. Tianlong Chen's Group at UNC-Chapel Hill</title>
Comment thread publication.html
Comment on lines +5 to 21
<!-- SEO:auto:start -->
<title>Publications | UNITES Lab (Tianlong Chen, UNC-Chapel Hill)</title>
<meta name="description" content="Selected publications from UNITES Lab (Prof. Tianlong Chen, UNC-Chapel Hill) in efficient deep learning, trustworthy AI, large language models, AI for science, and computer vision &amp; multimodal learning.">
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow">
<link rel="canonical" href="https://unites-lab.github.io/publication.html">
<meta property="og:type" content="website">
<meta property="og:site_name" content="UNITES Lab">
<meta property="og:title" content="Publications | UNITES Lab (Tianlong Chen, UNC-Chapel Hill)">
<meta property="og:description" content="Selected publications from UNITES Lab (Prof. Tianlong Chen, UNC-Chapel Hill) in efficient deep learning, trustworthy AI, large language models, AI for science, and computer vision &amp; multimodal learning.">
<meta property="og:url" content="https://unites-lab.github.io/publication.html">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://unites-lab.github.io/unites-logo.png">
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary">
<meta name="twitter:title" content="Publications | UNITES Lab (Tianlong Chen, UNC-Chapel Hill)">
<meta name="twitter:description" content="Selected publications from UNITES Lab (Prof. Tianlong Chen, UNC-Chapel Hill) in efficient deep learning, trustworthy AI, large language models, AI for science, and computer vision &amp; multimodal learning.">
<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://unites-lab.github.io/unites-logo.png">
<!-- SEO:auto:end -->
<meta charset="utf-8">
Comment thread research.html
Comment on lines +5 to 21
<!-- SEO:auto:start -->
<title>Research | UNITES Lab (Tianlong Chen, UNC-Chapel Hill)</title>
<meta name="description" content="Research at UNITES Lab (Prof. Tianlong Chen, UNC-Chapel Hill): efficient deep learning, trustworthy AI, large language models &amp; agents, and AI for science.">
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow">
<link rel="canonical" href="https://unites-lab.github.io/research.html">
<meta property="og:type" content="website">
<meta property="og:site_name" content="UNITES Lab">
<meta property="og:title" content="Research | UNITES Lab (Tianlong Chen, UNC-Chapel Hill)">
<meta property="og:description" content="Research at UNITES Lab (Prof. Tianlong Chen, UNC-Chapel Hill): efficient deep learning, trustworthy AI, large language models &amp; agents, and AI for science.">
<meta property="og:url" content="https://unites-lab.github.io/research.html">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://unites-lab.github.io/unites-logo.png">
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary">
<meta name="twitter:title" content="Research | UNITES Lab (Tianlong Chen, UNC-Chapel Hill)">
<meta name="twitter:description" content="Research at UNITES Lab (Prof. Tianlong Chen, UNC-Chapel Hill): efficient deep learning, trustworthy AI, large language models &amp; agents, and AI for science.">
<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://unites-lab.github.io/unites-logo.png">
<!-- SEO:auto:end -->
<meta charset="utf-8">
Comment thread group.html
Comment on lines +5 to 21
<!-- SEO:auto:start -->
<title>People | UNITES Lab (Tianlong Chen, UNC-Chapel Hill)</title>
<meta name="description" content="Members of UNITES Lab at UNC-Chapel Hill, directed by Prof. Tianlong Chen: PhD students, postdocs, and collaborators in trustworthy and efficient ML.">
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow">
<link rel="canonical" href="https://unites-lab.github.io/group.html">
<meta property="og:type" content="website">
<meta property="og:site_name" content="UNITES Lab">
<meta property="og:title" content="People | UNITES Lab (Tianlong Chen, UNC-Chapel Hill)">
<meta property="og:description" content="Members of UNITES Lab at UNC-Chapel Hill, directed by Prof. Tianlong Chen: PhD students, postdocs, and collaborators in trustworthy and efficient ML.">
<meta property="og:url" content="https://unites-lab.github.io/group.html">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://unites-lab.github.io/unites-logo.png">
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary">
<meta name="twitter:title" content="People | UNITES Lab (Tianlong Chen, UNC-Chapel Hill)">
<meta name="twitter:description" content="Members of UNITES Lab at UNC-Chapel Hill, directed by Prof. Tianlong Chen: PhD students, postdocs, and collaborators in trustworthy and efficient ML.">
<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://unites-lab.github.io/unites-logo.png">
<!-- SEO:auto:end -->
<meta charset="utf-8">
Comment thread gallery.html
Comment on lines +5 to 21
<!-- SEO:auto:start -->
<title>Gallery | UNITES Lab (Tianlong Chen, UNC-Chapel Hill)</title>
<meta name="description" content="Photos and moments from UNITES Lab (Prof. Tianlong Chen, UNC-Chapel Hill).">
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow">
<link rel="canonical" href="https://unites-lab.github.io/gallery.html">
<meta property="og:type" content="website">
<meta property="og:site_name" content="UNITES Lab">
<meta property="og:title" content="Gallery | UNITES Lab (Tianlong Chen, UNC-Chapel Hill)">
<meta property="og:description" content="Photos and moments from UNITES Lab (Prof. Tianlong Chen, UNC-Chapel Hill).">
<meta property="og:url" content="https://unites-lab.github.io/gallery.html">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://unites-lab.github.io/unites-logo.png">
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary">
<meta name="twitter:title" content="Gallery | UNITES Lab (Tianlong Chen, UNC-Chapel Hill)">
<meta name="twitter:description" content="Photos and moments from UNITES Lab (Prof. Tianlong Chen, UNC-Chapel Hill).">
<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://unites-lab.github.io/unites-logo.png">
<!-- SEO:auto:end -->
<meta charset="utf-8">
Comment thread resource.html
Comment on lines +5 to 21
<!-- SEO:auto:start -->
<title>Resources | UNITES Lab (Tianlong Chen, UNC-Chapel Hill)</title>
<meta name="description" content="Resources and tools shared by UNITES Lab (Prof. Tianlong Chen, UNC-Chapel Hill).">
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow">
<link rel="canonical" href="https://unites-lab.github.io/resource.html">
<meta property="og:type" content="website">
<meta property="og:site_name" content="UNITES Lab">
<meta property="og:title" content="Resources | UNITES Lab (Tianlong Chen, UNC-Chapel Hill)">
<meta property="og:description" content="Resources and tools shared by UNITES Lab (Prof. Tianlong Chen, UNC-Chapel Hill).">
<meta property="og:url" content="https://unites-lab.github.io/resource.html">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://unites-lab.github.io/unites-logo.png">
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary">
<meta name="twitter:title" content="Resources | UNITES Lab (Tianlong Chen, UNC-Chapel Hill)">
<meta name="twitter:description" content="Resources and tools shared by UNITES Lab (Prof. Tianlong Chen, UNC-Chapel Hill).">
<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://unites-lab.github.io/unites-logo.png">
<!-- SEO:auto:end -->
<meta charset="utf-8">
@mufanq mufanq merged commit 7e00b3d into main Jun 15, 2026
1 check passed
@mufanq mufanq deleted the mufan/seo branch June 15, 2026 05:06
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2 participants