Intro to Airtable

Airtable is the content store used in your Findable campaigns. It’s where you’ll input and maintain your data while our syncs automatically update your Webflow site with your content.

Your Airtable is preconfigured with fields that map to your Webflow CMS. The fields will vary depending on your selected template but share standard features.

Setting up your first Findable campaign is straightforward, but ensuring you’re getting the most out of it means understanding a few things about how it is set up.

Why Airtable?

If you're new to Airtable, you might wonder why we used this as a content store instead of something more ubiquitous like Sheets.

On the surface, Airtable and spreadsheet programs like Sheets and Excel share many of the same features. They allow you to manipulate data in tables and equip you with data types and formulas to manage expected inputs and calculate results easily.

Airtable differs in its features. It is designed for database management and provides a clean way to bulk update and manage data. Views in Airtable also allow you to streamline your workflow and focus on the fields most relevant to the task.

Airtable stands out with relational fields. It lets you make two-way connections between items in different tabs, linking and inheriting properties from different data tables. If you're familiar with references in Webflow's CMS, you'll know how powerful this can be.

Airtable's infrastructure is also built around programmatic functions. Connecting your Airtable API to Findable's systems takes a few clicks, allowing your data to sync seamlessly to Webflow.

The `fi_` prefix

These fields are used for system information. Changing anything in these fields can cause your sync to break.

It’s best to leave them be—they’re hidden by default.

The `combo` table

This is where your various parameters will combine to create programmatically generated pages.

Because of how Findable connects with Airtable, these will be generated after your first sync. There’s nothing you need to do when you first get started, and we’ll walk you through what needs to happen later.

Field names

Our templates are built around common data structures on websites of varying types. For consistency, we’ve opted for field names that align with Schema.org markup.

The fields in your content store offer a range of content type inputs, from Rich Text and images to numbers and URLs. You’re not required to input content that matches the field name, either: if a field asks for a price and expects a number, you’re welcome to enter any other number.

The only thing you can’t do is change the field's name; this will cause the sync to break.

Field types

Your content store is preconfigured with field types that match the data you might expect in that field. A price field, for example, has a number type, which means you can’t put letters in it.

Some fields are automatically generated using formulas that pull data from across the base to produce an output. For example, uploading an image creates a URL that points to its storage location.

Advanced users can add or remove formulas from the table, but please ensure the output matches the original data type. If a field is set to a URL and you switch it to a formula, the formula's output must be a URL.

Objects vs. Parameters

These are technical terms you might encounter in your content store. The difference is easy to understand and will help you navigate your campaigns.

Simply put, an object is the main item you want to display programmatically. These are items from e-commerce stores, physical locations for your company, services your client offers, etc.

A parameter (or param) is a keyword that can be used to describe your objects. In pSEO terms, these variables make up your head term.

Some common paramters you'll see include:

• categories

• geographic areas (locations)

• tags/keywords

• audiences

For example, a restaurant aggregator might want to create a page for “Thai Restaurants in Dallas”.

‘Thai Restaurant’ and ‘Dallas’ are our parameters.

The restaurants that meet these criteria are our objects.

Objects are placed as the first tab in your template by default.

Views

Views can be used to hide or display different fields quickly. Your content store comes preconfigured with a few that will help streamline your workflow.

The Main View contains every editable field in the base. If you want full control, use this. Otherwise, select one that matches the content you want to publish.

If you use some fields more than others, you can create a View in Airtable. Create a new Grid and hide the fields you don't need.

The Publish View

The Publis View is set up by default in ever Findable template. This is the view that tells our sync engine which fields you want to see on your site.

You can add or remove existing fields from the publish view as you need them.

Note that you will always need to include:

• The name field (the first field on the left)

• The slug field

Relations

Relations are a feature of Airtable that allows you to create a connection between items in different tabs. They go two ways: if you associate a category item with a product item, the product also becomes associated with the category.

This is like a reference if you’re familiar with Webflow’s CMS.

Findable uses relations to create a network of connections between all the items in your campaign. It’s also how we know what head terms to generate for you.

Putting it all together

Getting started with your first pSEO campaign is as simple as adding data to your content store.

For example, consider a site offering SEO products and targeting different business sectors in its campaign.

Our head term might be ‘Best {SEO service} tools for {business sector}’.

First, we create our objects. In our case, these are popular SEO tools.

Next, we create our parameters. Our example needs two: categories that describe the type of tool and a list of business sectors we’re targeting.

Next, we start assigning references. SEMRush falls into several different categories, so we select all that apply.

Finally, we assign our audiences. We want our pSEO strategy to target all audiences, so we select them all.

Remember, these connections go both ways—you can select them from whichever tab you’d like, and they’ll appear in all your views.

Once all your references are assigned, you’re ready to generate your combinations!

Check out our guide for running your first sync here.

Your head terms will automatically generate based on the parameters you’ve specified. In our example, we’ll end up with pages like:

• Best keyword research tools for blockchain

• Best backlink analysis tools for ed tech

Because these relations are also created in Webflow, you can access anything connected as a reference. So, when you’re designing your page for ‘Best backlink analysis tools for ed tech’, you’ll have access to all of the items linked to ‘backlink analysis’ and ‘ed tech’, including the objects you’ve linked them to.