SEO means “search engine optimization.”
Basically, is your website Google-able?
The last time you wanted to take a piano class, you probably searched for piano teachers in your area, right? And then you clicked on one of the first few options that popped up in Google.
That’s exactly what you want SEO to do for you!
But you have to keep in mind, the Google algorithm doesn’t just automatically stick your website in the top #1 result as a personal favor to you. It takes into account your content, the keywords you use on your website, and a whole number of other factors. And then it works hard to make sure people looking for piano teachers (or services like your business!) find what they’re looking for.
Using Keywords for SEO
For starters, you can make sure the text and content you use on your website uses language that is specific to your industry. Start out by brainstorming some terms and phrases your clients might be searching in Google to find services like yours.
To put it simply, if you’re a piano teacher (yep, gonna keep going with that example), use words like ‘piano teacher,’ ‘classical pianist,’ and ‘learn to play piano.’ And minimize how much you talk about unrelated stuff. Like ‘playing the guitar’ if that’s not a service you offer, or ‘songwriting,’ or even talking too much about your dog Fluffy. 🤷🏾♀️
Alright, here’s an example:
- Instead of: Learn how to play the piano from a professional.
- Try this: If you want to learn how to play the piano, get piano lessons from a professional piano teacher.
Now that’s something Google can scan and know exactly what kind of services you provide. Then Google can shoot your webpage to the top of the search results for anyone searching phrases like “learn how to play piano” or “piano lessons.”
Using Headings Strategically
You might have noticed that I’ve used headings peppers across this page. (Note the “Using Keywords for SEO” heading and the one that says “Using Headings Strategically.” I do all over my website. There are a couple reasons for this:
- Organization: It’s a good way to break up content so you don’t have to read a giant, intimidating wall of text. Instead, you’re free to scan for the heading most relevant to you and read the chunks of text you’re most interested in.
- SEO, duh: When used properly, headings give Google even more clues so it can know what kind of content is on your website.
Now, I don’t mean you can just make some text big and bold and call it a heading. That’s just for visual purposes. To label certain text so that Google knows it’s a HEADING and not just regular text in a paragraph, you’ve got to do some extra work behind the scenes.
I use ShowIt for my custom websites and website templates, so that’s the example I’ll use.
Step 1
When you’re editing your website in ShowIt, click on a block of text you want to label as a heading.
In the right panel, click the “text properties” dropdown where you’ll see “text tag.” This is where you’ll label your headings!
Step 2
There are a couple of labels here, but I’ll keep it simple:
- h1: This is your page title
- h2: This is your heading.
- p: This is just regular text.
So here’s an example of how you would label your text:
Search engine optimization is really easy in ShowIt! No coding necessary.
Google pays extra attention to anything you label as headings, so use them wisely!
How to Update Your SEO Settings in ShowIt
This step is absolutely unskippable if you want your website to have the SEO strength to combat all the other sites clamoring for that top spot in Google searches. You know all that text you see when you’re looking through Google search results? It looks a little something like this:
Well you can totally customize this stuff! If you don’t write this text yourself, that’s just one more hoop Google has to jump through to figure what type of website you have and who to show it to. Not to mention when your site does show up in a Google search, sometimes the text it automatically generates can get a little wonky…
So, let’s get to how you can customize this SEO data in ShowIt!
Step 1
First, make sure you click on the page in the left side panel that you want to optimize for SEO. Your screen should look something like this:
Step 2
Next, you’ll want to click the “SEO Settings” tab that is located in the right side panel.
And voila! There are your SEO settings for this specific page!
Step 3
In the “Page Title” box, you can add the title of your page and your business name as well. Adding them together helps differentiate your content when your website shows up on a Google search result page with a list of other similar businesses. So if I searched for “portfolio,” I’ll know that I’m looking at a portfolio page from YOUR business instead of someone else’s. (I mean, can you image if every single title on the search result page just repeated “Portfolio, Portfolio, Portfolio” over and over?)
And then there’s the “Meta Description” box. You can add 1-2 sentences here summarizing what people will find on this particular page. This is an EXCELLENT place to add keywords that you know people will be searching for to get to you. So instead of just any portfolio, you can let your visitors know that this is specifically an interior design portfolio for clients in the Atlanta area!
Get Ahead of the Pack with SEO
Now one thing to keep in mind, there are probably 328470238402938402938409 websites in existence.
There’s no guarantee that your website will end up in the top 10 search results. BUT just think about the 328470238402938402938409 websites that are just slapped together with no strategy! Writing your website with SEO in mind is one way to get ahead of the pack so you can exponentially improve your chances to get seen on Google and get new clients.
Get Professional Website Optimization
Still not sure how to go about optimizing your website for results? Talk to a professional web designer! (AKA me~ 💁🏾♀️)
Book a custom Website in a Week with me! Your client-attracting, confidence-boosting website era is waiting.
