All You Need to Know About SEO in EverWeb

If you’ve used iWeb you’ll probably know that it didn’t have any in built SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) capabilities. If you use EverWeb you may think the same, but EverWeb does have SEO! It’s baked right in to the core of the product. There are different ways you can easily take advantage of EverWeb’s SEO capabilities and we’ll look at how you can apply SEO to your web pages in a moment, but first a reminder about SEO itself…

The Importance of SEO
SEO is important to include in your website because…

1. It improves your website’s visibility to Internet search engines.
2. When used properly it’s the best way to get the highest search engine ranking result for your website.
3. Using effective SEO ‘Keywords’ makes it easier for search engine ’spiders’ to find your website’s pages

What to be aware of about SEO
SEO gets a lot of press and hype. But in reality…

1. It doesn’t guarantee anything but can help improve your website’s visibility when properly used.
2. It should be used only on the web pages you want to bring attention to. Using SEO on generic pages such as on ‘About’ and ‘Contact Us’ pages may be just wasting your time.
3. Prioritize SEO on your Mobile pages. This is important as search engines, especially Google, increasingly give mobile search preference over desktop.
4. There’s no magic involved in SEO, you just need to know how it works to get the best search result listing possible.

Choosing Your Keywords
When planning SEO for your website you’ll need a Keyword strategy…

1. Research your Keywords. Choose words that help your website stand out from the rest. Think of words that are specific and targeted rather than general and generic. What makes your company, product, brand etc. different and unique? Use words that reflect this approach on each page you use SEO on e.g if you are selling books you could use the Keyword ‘metafiction’ (romantic irony) to be more specific, focused and specialist rather than using the generic word ‘books’.
2. Use only a few, well chosen Keywords. Too many Keywords (known as ‘Keyword Stuffing’) will likely reduce the impact of your SEO. Google tends to penalise those who Keyword ‘stuff’ so avoid the practice all together. Finally, don’t forget that too many Keywords may have a negative impact on your visitor’s experience of your website. Always remember to balance SEO with your visitor’s experience.
3. Use Keyword Planning tools to help research and select your Keywords e.g. Google Keyword Planner. See https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner for more information. Keyword Planners help give you ideas about which Keywords to use and those not to use!

Add Keywords in EverWeb
Once you’ve researched the Keywords you want to use, add them in to the following fields in the Page Settings Tab in EverWeb…

1. File Name: The file name of your web page can act as a Keyword.
2. Navigation Menu Display Name: As this field links to other pages, it’s good to use for SEO as search engines look for links.
3. Web Page Title: This field displays the text at the top of the browser window about the page. Add some Keywords in this field but don’t sacrifice your visitor’s experience for the sake of SEO.
4. Web Page Description: This field is not used for SEO but is still a good place for including some Keywords. As always, don’t sacrifice the visitor experience for SEO.

Add SEO to Your Images
SEO can, and should, be applied to any image files your website uses. Give your image files a descriptive name as search engines look at file names as well as Keyword text. If possible, rename your image files before bringing them in to EverWeb. It’s more SEO efficient. If you’ve already imported your images in to EverWeb, rename them in the Assets Tab. It’s not as SEO efficient but it’s better than not doing it at all. To rename an image file double click on its name and type in a new descriptive name.

Keywords can also be used in the ‘Alt Text’ field in the Shape Options as this may be of some benefit in SEO. ‘Alt Text’ is used to describe an image when it cannot be displayed. Keep the ‘Alt Text’ description short, and if you can mention what the page is about in the description.

Keywords are easy to add to your web page with EverWeb when you know where to place them. The difficult, time consuming part is in researching the most effective Keywords that will give your web pages the best listing in search engine results.