How to cross-post your blog to DEV (dev.to) the right way
Cross-post to DEV without hurting your SEO: set the canonical URL, use the right front matter, four tags and a 1000 × 420 cover image.
On this page
If you publish on your own blog, DEV (dev.to) is one of the easiest places to reach more developers. Cross-posting is allowed and common. The one thing to get right is the canonical URL, so search engines know your blog is the original.
Why the canonical URL matters
When the same article lives in two places, search engines pick one to show. The canonical URL tells them which one is the original. Set it to your own blog post, and DEV will add it to the page for you. Your blog keeps the search ranking; DEV brings the readers.
Without it, the DEV copy can outrank your own site for your own article.
The front matter DEV understands
DEV reads a block of settings at the very top of the article, between two lines of three dashes:
---
title: How we post to 10 platforms at once
published: true
tags: ai, webdev, saas
canonical_url: https://yourblog.com/how-we-post-to-10-platforms
cover_image: https://yourblog.com/images/cover.png
series: Building Feedlio
---
- title: the article title.
- published:
trueto publish,falseto keep it as a draft. - tags: up to four, comma separated. Tags are lowercase letters and numbers only, so
Web-Devbecomeswebdev. - canonical_url: the original article on your site.
- cover_image: a link to the cover. DEV recommends 1000 × 420 px and crops other shapes to fit.
- series: groups related articles together.
Step by step
- Publish the article on your own blog first and note its URL.
- Copy the article into DEV's editor (or send it through the API or a scheduling tool).
- Add the front matter above, with
canonical_urlpointing to your blog. - Pick four tags people actually follow. Check the tag pages on DEV to see which are active.
- Use a 1000 × 420 cover so nothing important gets cropped.
- Preview, then publish.
Common mistakes
- Forgetting the canonical URL. You can add it later by editing the post, but do it from the start.
- More than four tags. DEV only keeps four.
- A cover in the wrong shape. A square or tall image loses its top and bottom.
- Posting on DEV first. If DEV has it first and your blog later, search engines may treat DEV as the original anyway.
Cross-posting with Feedlio
Feedlio can publish to DEV alongside your other platforms. In Compose, select DEV and open Dev.to settings: add the article title, up to four tags and the canonical URL. Feedlio writes the front matter for you. The preview shows the cover at DEV's real 1000 × 420 crop and the tags as readers will see them.
Write once, post to DEV, LinkedIn, Bluesky and the rest from one screen. Try Feedlio free.
