Make my website easy to find using SEO
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| Get to know Websites + Marketing
Set up my visual brand
| Personalize my home page
| Customize content
Get found with SEO
| Connect to social
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Now that your site is live, it's time to optimize its content so search engines understand how to rank you in search results. This process, known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), is how your site jockeys for position above your competitors.
It takes patience and good use of targeted keywords to get found. So let's get started!
Goals for this section:
- Find your keywords.
- Use the SEO tool on your home page, site pages and images.
- Get found in local search.
Estimated time to complete: 20-30 minutes
Find your keywords
Imagine your ideal customer is looking at a blank search bar. What do you think they would type to find exactly what your business offers? Those words and phrases will become your key to securing that potential customer.
This video provides a brief explanation of keywords and their use in getting your site found online.
Follow-up lessons include:
- Creating a keyword seed list.
- Finding your business or industry keywords.
- Finding the keywords your target audience uses.
- Spying on your competitors keywords.
We also have an article on the 12 best SEO tools to help your website show up in search results (free, paid, and available through GoDaddy).
Use the SEO tool on your site, pages, and images
The SEO tool in Websites + Marketing walks you through improving your site's SEO.
- Go to your GoDaddy product page.
- Scroll to Websites + Marketing and select Manage next to your site.
- On your Dashboard, expand Marketing, and then select SEO.
You've already added keywords to your home page when you set up your site. But, if you've made a lot of content changes, it's a good idea to revise them. Then, add keywords to the rest of your site and update your images to include alt tags that mention your desired keywords.
London demonstrates how to use keywords to optimize your images in this video.
Add your keywords everywhere that makes sense. Just make sure you're writing for people first and foremost. Search engines will rank sites higher that attract quality traffic, such as people who stay on your site longer to read everything.
Redo these steps at any time, but realize it will take time for your changes affect how search engines rank your site.
Get found in local search
If you run a business with a local presence, you will likely prefer to get found by the people who are in your service area.
We'll start by listing your business on Google and Yelp.
- On your Dashboard, select Social.
- In the section How you're performing on each platform, select Connect on the Google Business Profile card.
- Follow the prompts to connect to a listing or create a new listing.
Repeat the process to connect to Yelp.
- On your Dashboard, select Social.
- In the section How you're performing on each platform, select Connect on the Yelp card.
- Follow the prompts to claim or create your business listing.
London walks you through how to improve local SEO with business listings in the video below.
One important best practice is to make sure your business name, address and phone number are EXACTLY the same across all sites. It doesn't matter if you spell things out or use abbreviations. What matters is that your contact details remain consistent.
For example, here's a made-up business name, address, phone number and website:
Pointsman Industries 1234 Main St. NE, Anywhere, AZ (480) 123-4567 www.mycoolnewbusiness.com
Variations like the ones below will hurt your results in search pages.
- Company name variations such as “Pointsman Ind.” (abbreviation).
- Address differences such as 1234 Main Street Northeast (instead of St. or NE).
- Phone number formatting variance such as 480.123.4567 (uses periods).
- Website URL variance such as mycoolnewbusiness.com (no www) or https://www.mycoolnewbusiness.com (added https:// in front).
You're a natural at this!
Your website has content and now it's optimized for SEO so you can get found more easily by your ideal customer. Still, it'll take a while for search engines to update themselves with all your changes.
While we wait, let's connect your site to your social media accounts.
Get online
| Get to know Websites + Marketing
Set up my visual brand
| Personalize my home page
| Customize content
Get found with SEO
| Connect to social
| Accept online payment