If you’re building a website, you want people to read it. The best way to help new visitors find you is with a little push from Google. To ensure your site shows up in search results, you’ll want to invest some time in SEO, otherwise known as search engine optimization.
It’s all about tweaking your website to make sure it’s more visible to Google and other search engines. (And if you’ve created one with Wix, you’re off to a great start because Wix SEO tools can help boost your website.)
Within the world of search engine optimization, there’s what is called on-page SEO and off-page SEO. Read on to discover what it is all about, why you need it and how you can quickly (and easily) fine-tune your own website. Follow these tricks of the trade and before long your site will be showing up in search results and attracting lots of attention.
What is on-page SEO?
There are two types of search engine optimization: on-page and off-page.
On-page SEO refers to everything you can do ON your website to help you rank higher. Don’t worry, we’ll go into detail below.
Off-page SEO refers to actions you can take on other websites to help boost your site’s ranking. These include getting links from other websites, writing guest blogs, posting on social platforms or writing in forums.
Once you master on-page you can give your site another boost by diving into off-page optimization as well.
Why do you need it?
The goal of on-page SEO is to help Google match your website to your target audience. If the search engine can’t quickly and easily understand what your site is about, it’s less likely to display it in search results. Looking at the content, images, page titles and more, Google scans websites to learn about them.
Now that we’ve covered the what and the why, it’s time for some tips.
10 tips for on-page optimization:
Select great keywords
Before you can optimize your site, you need to choose the right keywords. These are the phrases that your customers are Googling when looking for a business like yours. Once you’ve made a list of target keywords, you want to use them throughout your website.
Optimize your content
When Google scans your site, they read your text very carefully. You want to use your keywords generously throughout your content, particularly in important places like your headers. Just remember, you’re writing for humans so you want to keep things sounding natural. If you’re stuffing your keywords, Google will pick up on that and penalize you for it.
Choose SEO-friendly URLS
When choosing your domain and naming each page on your site, keep your users and Google’s bots in mind. Your domain is one of the first things they see. Wix lets you customize your page names — so you can choose whatever name you like. Remember that the name of each page will show up as part of the URL so try to include keywords in your domain. For example, if you own Amy’s Shoe Store, a good page name might be www.amysshoes. com/winterboots. This is far better than www.amyshoes. com/copyofhomepage1, right?
Use keywords in your meta tags
After they look at your URL, search engines read your site’s titles and descriptions, also known as your meta tags. No clue what a meta tag is? The title and description are shown in Google search results below each website link, so your site visitors may also read them to determine if your site offers what they want. They are not showing on your website itself – only on result pages. Remember to write unique and descriptive texts for every single page and be sure to incorporate your keywords as much as possible – but again, in a way that sounds natural.
Write descriptive alt text
Google can’t read images so they use alt text to understand what’s depicted in the graphics or photographs on your site. These brief written descriptions are a great place to use your keywords and your business name! Learn how to add alt text to your images on Wix.
Submit your URL
Want to make sure your website gets a once-over from search engines? Once you go live, send Google and Bing an invitation to come scan your site by submitting your URL directly to them. In a click, you can get your ranking underway by telling them to read and index your site. Here’s where you can submit your page to Google and to Bing.
Use internal links
Internal links help users navigate between the different pages on your site and they’re great for SEO. Just like a human visitor, search engines will click on links to visit different pages on your site. You can use hyperlinks to send users to your Contact Page, your online store or to any other place. These are clickable words that take users directly to a different page. Calling all bloggers! Internal links are particularly important for you. Use links to send your readers to other relevant blog posts, to your About page or to the purchase page for a specific item you’re selling online.
Make sure your content is shareable
If your content is popular on social networks, Google will take notice. The best way to help make this happen is to include share buttons on your website. It should be super easy for anyone reading your website or one of your blog posts to share it on their own social media profiles.
Learn more:
Make it mobile
More searches are performed on mobile devices than from laptops, so as of 2015, Google decided to give bonus points to mobile-friendly sites. If you want your site to show up on the nearly 60% of searches performed on phones, you better make sure it’s mobile-optimized. Luckily, the Wix mobile Editor makes this super-simple to do!
Include your contact information
If you run a local business, use your address and location-based words throughout your website. This will help search engines know to show your site to potential clients in your geographical area. Even if your business isn’t location-specific, it’s important to clearly display your contact information on every page of your site. It helps build your credibility for Google and (duh!) makes it easier for your customers to reach you! Read more about improving your local SEO and boost your foot traffic.
Meet your on-page sidekick
You may have heard that Wix has the best SEO, and we’re here to show you how it’s done. Introducing Wix SEO, your best friend when it comes to on-page optimization. Not sure how it works? It’s simple, just fill in your keywords, and the Wiz will work its magic. You will get a complete checklist which includes all the pages you need to optimize in order to start ranking higher on Google! You’re welcome. Just in case you needed more convincing, the folks at Google said it perfectly themselves: “For the Wix users, this [Wix SEO Wiz] is a pretty cool experience because they can see their page in the search results immediately after they have created it. There is no waiting, there is no wondering, ‘Am I on search or not?’ Within seconds, they’re on Google.”