Is SEO part of your marketing strategy?

In the bustling digital marketplace, being visible is half the battle won.

Setting up Showit for SEO correctly will set your business off in the right direction.

In this beginner guide, we take you through the must-knows of Showit SEO and how to implement it on your website.

Showit Settings

Showit SEO Settings: A Beginner’s Guide

1. Add a Favicon

• Location in Showit: Site Settings > Site Info
• What is a Favicon? A favicon, short for ‘favorite icon’, is a small, iconic image that represents your website. Typically, it’s displayed in the address bar of a browser, on the browser tab, and in bookmarks. It’s a crucial part of your website’s identity as it helps users easily identify your site.
• Why It’s Important: Favicons make your website look professional and polished. It improves your brand’s visibility making your business easier to identify among a sea of browser tabs.
• How to Do It: If you haven’t created a favicon, you can easily create one using Canva or via a “Favicon Generator” on Google. Once you have your favicon, upload it in Showit by going to Site Settings > Site Info.

2. Set Up Google Analytics

• Location in Showit: Site Settings > Third Party
• Why It’s Important: Google Analytics is vital for understanding your website traffic and the behavior of your visitors. It helps you make informed decisions based on data.
• How to Do It: First, create a Google Analytics account to obtain your unique “UA code.” Once you have the code, just paste it into the Tracking ID box under Site Settings > Third Party in Showit. For a detailed guide, check out our article on how to add Google Analytics to your Showit website.

3. Optimize Page SEO Settings

• Location in Showit: Individual Page Settings
• Why It’s Important: Each page on your site has an opportunity to rank in search engines, and optimizing your page SEO settings is crucial for this.
• How to Do It: For each page, go to the “SEO Settings” tab. Here, you can edit the page title, meta description, and share image.
  • Page Title: This is what appears in search engine results and browser tabs. Make it descriptive and include keywords relevant to the page content.
  • Meta Description: This brief description appears in search results. It should summarize the page content and entice readers to click.
  • Share Image: This is the image that will appear when your page is shared on social media. Choose an image that represents the page well.

By following these simple steps, you can significantly improve your website’s SEO performance on Showit. Remember, SEO is an ongoing process, so keep refining and updating your settings as your website evolves.

WordPress Blog Setting (For Blog Users)

Blogging is a powerful tool for engaging your audience and improving your website’s SEO. Showit seamlessly integrates with WordPress, allowing you to create and manage a blog within your website.

1. Selecting an SEO Plugin

• Automatic Inclusion of Yoast: When you start with WordPress on Showit, you’ll find that Yoast SEO is automatically included. It’s a popular SEO plugin that offers a range of features for optimizing your content.
• Preferable Alternative – Rank Math: However, I personally prefer Rank Math for its advanced features and user-friendly interface. Rank Math offers detailed SEO analysis and suggestions that can be very beneficial.
• Important Note: Choose either Yoast or Rank Math, but not both. Having more than one SEO plugin can lead to conflicts and issues in your site’s SEO functionality. For a comprehensive guide on the best plugins for a Showit blog, including SEO plugins, check out our article here.

2. Setting Up Permalinks

• Location in WordPress: Dashboard > Settings > Permalinks
• Why It’s Important: Permalinks are the permanent URLs to your individual blog posts, pages, and other content on your site. They are crucial for SEO as they help search engines understand the structure and content of your site.
• Recommended Setting: Change your permalinks to ‘Post Name’. This setting creates clean and simple URLs that are SEO-friendly.
• Step-by-Step Guide:
  1. Go to your WordPress dashboard.
  2. Navigate to Settings and then to Permalinks.
  3. Select the ‘Post Name’ option.
• Caution for Existing Blogs: If you have been blogging for a while or are migrating from a platform with a different permalink structure, be cautious. Changing permalink settings can break the links to your previously published content. In such cases, consider installing a redirection plugin like “Redirection” before making any changes. This will ensure that your old URLs are correctly forwarded to the new ones, maintaining your site’s integrity and user experience.

By carefully choosing the right SEO plugin and setting up your permalinks correctly, you can significantly improve your Showit blog’s SEO performance. Remember, these settings play a vital role in how search engines crawl and index your site, so it’s important to get them right.

Optimizing Showit Website Speed for SEO

Does Site Speed Affect SEO?

Yes, page speed is a crucial ranking factor for search engines like Google. A faster website offers a better user experience, making it more likely for Google to rank it higher. This is because a slow website can frustrate visitors, leading them to leave, which Google wants to avoid.

What Slows Down Your Showit Website

A few common elements can impact the speed of your Showit website:

• Heavy Images: Large image files can slow down your site.
• Animations: Though visually appealing, excessive animations can reduce speed.
• Third-party Tools: Tools like email platforms, analytics, etc., can affect loading times.
• Background Videos: Long videos playing in the background can be resource-intensive.

How to Find Out Your Site Speed

To measure your website’s speed, use Google’s PageSpeed Insights:

• Visit PageSpeed Insights.
• Enter your site’s URL and click “Analyze.”
• Run the test multiple times to get an average score.
• Aim for green scores in desktop results and avoid red scores in all areas.

Methods to Speed Up Your Showit Website

1. Optimize Images:
   • Use JPEGs for regular images and SVGs for transparent backgrounds.
   • Resize images to the exact dimensions needed.
   • Compress your images using tools like TinyPNG.
2. Optimize Videos:
   • Embed videos instead of uploading directly to Showit.
   • Remove background audio from videos used as backgrounds.
   • Limit the number of videos and use compression tools.
3. Manage Redirects Efficiently:
   • Keep redirects to a minimum.
   • Use 301 redirects for permanent changes.
   • Regularly audit and remove unnecessary redirects.

Remember, while you can’t use WebP images on Showit (as of now), focus on optimizing within the platform’s constraints. Check out our detailed guide on how to speed up your Showit website for more comprehensive tips and strategies.

Design Best Practices for SEO on Showit

When designing your website on Showit, it’s crucial to adhere to both aesthetic and SEO best practices. Here are some key considerations:

How your Showit website content is ordered

What I am about to tell you is one of the most important and most overlooked parts of SEO on Showit. Get this part right and search engines will be able to easily understand your content. Get this part wrong and you can gain all the backlinks in the world, but search engines won’t make sense of your website.

The order your content appears in Showit editor determines how a search engine reads your content!! Read it again, if you or your designer has paid no attention to the order of content in Showit editor, search engines are probably having a difficult time understanding your content. Annoyingly, the content at the bottom of the layer list will show up first. So whatever is at the top of the page in the design editor should appear at the bottom of the layer list in the left side panel. The order of the content on the page should be inverse to the order of the content in the side panel.

Use a tool like Textise so you can read your content like a search engine does.

Choose Your Fonts Wisely

Two important points when it comes to fonts:

1. Don’t use too many fonts on your website:

Every font and style adds weight to your page. Stick to a select few and limit the use of different styles to keep your site light and fast.

2. Avoid using multiple fonts for a single line of text, particularly for content that includes your keyword.

A search engine will read this as different lines instead of one flowing sentence. The picture below is an example of this, this is something to avoid.

It is possible to add multiple fonts and styles to a sentence or a heading in one text box on Showit. You can find instructions here.

Heading and Other Element Tags on Showit for SEO

Utilize appropriate heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to structure your content hierarchically.

This not only helps readers navigate your website but also assists search engines in understanding the importance and context of your content.

• Only use one H1 tag on each page – make sure it includes your main keyword for that page.
• All footer text should be marked as (p) for Paragraph
• Make sure you use ‘Nav’ for your main navigation aka menu
• Use <div> for any text such as big numbers

How to Optimize Your Showit Footer

Your Showit Website footer is prime real estate on your website. Ensure that you optimise it as much as possible. We have an in-depth article showing you how here: What to include in your showit website footer for SEO’ here.

Best WordPress Plugins to Use

Showit’s integration with WordPress opens up a world of possibilities through plugins. Here are some essential plugins to enhance your Showit website’s SEO capabilities:

• Rank Math: A feature-rich SEO plugin that offers advanced capabilities like schema markup, redirection management, internal linking suggestions, and in-depth SEO analysis.
• Smush: An image optimization plugin that automatically compresses and optimizes images without sacrificing quality, improving page load times and overall website performance.
• JetPack:  Jetpack is a versatile plugin that offers a range of features to optimize your Showit website for search engines and enhance its overall functionality.

To learn more about the best plugins for your Showit WordPress blog click here.

Does Showit Have Analytics?

Yes, Showit allows users to integrate Google Analytics into your website.

While Showit itself doesn’t have a built-in analytics system, it supports the integration of Google Analytics for tracking and analyzing website traffic.

Which I believe is the better choice anyway.

To learn how to add Google Analytics to your Showit website learn how here.

Is Showit Good for SEO

Showit, known for its user-friendly and customizable web design platform, raises a common question: Is it good for SEO? The short answer is yes. Showit’s flexibility and integration capabilities make it an effective tool for implementing SEO strategies.

Key SEO Benefits of Showit

• Customization: Showit allows for extensive customization, which means you can optimize every aspect of your site for SEO, from headings to meta tags.
• Mobile Responsiveness: With its mobile-responsive design capabilities, Showit ensures your site performs well on both desktop and mobile devices, a critical factor for SEO.
• WordPress Integration: Showit seamlessly integrates with WordPress for blogging. This combination leverages WordPress’s robust SEO capabilities while maintaining Showit’s design flexibility.
• Control Over Page Structure: You have complete control over the structure and content of your pages, enabling you to optimize for both user experience and search engine algorithms.

Considerations for Optimal SEO Performance

While Showit offers a strong foundation for SEO, it’s essential to actively engage in SEO best practices:

• Regularly update your content and utilize SEO-friendly design principles.
• Keep abreast of SEO trends and adjust your strategies accordingly.
• Utilize Showit’s features to their fullest to ensure your site is not only aesthetically pleasing but also optimized for search engines.

Showit can be an excellent platform for SEO when used effectively. By taking advantage of its customization features and combining them with solid SEO strategies, you can create a website that ranks well in search engines and appeals to your audience.

For a more detailed exploration of Showit’s SEO capabilities, read our full article on Is Showit Good for SEO.

How to Use ChatGPT to Help with SEO Tasks

ChatGPT can be a valuable tool to assist with various Showit SEO tasks. It can help with multiple tasks including:

• Keyword Research: Engage with ChatGPT to brainstorm and explore relevant keywords for your content strategy. Ask for keyword suggestions, analyze search volume, or seek insights into emerging trends.
• Content Optimization: ChatGPT can provide guidance on optimizing your content for SEO. Ask for tips on incorporating keywords naturally, improving readability, or structuring your content for better search engine visibility.
• SEO Troubleshooting: If you encounter any SEO issues or challenges, ChatGPT can help diagnose the problem and provide potential solutions. Seek advice on optimizing page titles, improving meta descriptions, or resolving technical SEO issues.

To get the most out of ChatGPT the right prompt can make a big difference to your response. We have a Google doc of all the best ChatGPT Prompts for SEO here.

Can I do SEO for free?

Absolutely! While many think of SEO as a costly venture, it’s entirely possible to implement effective SEO strategies without spending a dime. Free SEO involves a blend of creativity, research, and utilizing available resources smartly.

Key Areas of Focus for Free Showit SEO

• Keyword Research: Understanding what your audience is searching for is crucial. You can start with free tools like Google Keyword Planner or even a simple brainstorming session based on your knowledge of the industry.
• Content Creation: Produce quality content that answers your audience’s questions and includes your target keywords naturally.
• On-Page Optimization: Ensure your website’s titles, meta descriptions, and content align with SEO best practices.
• Backlink Building: This can be as simple as reaching out to partners or industry connections for link exchanges or guest blogging opportunities.

Remember, effective SEO isn’t just about spending money; it’s about investing time and effort in understanding and applying SEO principles. For those new to keyword research, our guide on how to do keyword research yourself offers a great starting point. If you’re looking for more comprehensive assistance, consider our keyword research services for a more tailored approach.

With persistence and the right strategies, you can achieve impressive SEO results for free. It’s about being resourceful and committed to continually learning and adapting your tactics.

So there you have it. Showit, our favorite website builder, is not just about creating amazing websites. It’s a powerful charm that can get great SEO results helping professionals like you shine brightly in the digital universe and draw in the right audience.

By mastering Showit’s SEO-friendly features and following the golden rules shared in this comprehensive guide, you can skyrocket your website’s position on search engine ranks, attract an organic crowd, and carve out a mighty digital footprint.

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