What is SEO for?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. As the name implies, when you build with SEO in mind your site will be optimized to rank higher and be included in top search results.

So what type of Optimizations are included when I build your site?

Site Title, Page Title and Item Titles are optimized.
Site Description is optimized.
SEO descriptions for each page.
Blog preferences are updated.
Browser Icon.
Social Sharing Images.
Custom 404 page.
Business Location information.
Make sure redirects and URLs are pointed to the correct page.

Site Titles:

Your Site Title, Page Title and Item Titles are what are displayed in an open tab.

Example:

The site title in DigitalPlaces Designs
The Resource page title is : Resources - DigitalPlaces Design.

Adding these types of titles for SEO makes it easy for your visitor as well so they can easily tell which page they are on by simply looking at the open tab.

Remember this helps your search engine as well as your site's user friendliness.

Site Description:

Also known as Meta descriptions, this is a small piece of information that describes your site's content. This description is visible below the page title in search results. It is a good way to communicate to a visitor browsing through search results that your site is the one that will give them the resource/information/items they need.

SEO Descriptions:

Similar to the Site Description, page descriptions will give visitors a helpful snip-it of information on what that page is about.

Blog Preferences:

Just like a page title, what information do you want to display on the open tab?
The choices here are:

The numeric year your post was created on
The numeric month your post was created on
The numeric day your post was created on
The title of your blog post

Example:

If I wanted to display the title of my blog post I would choose “The title of your blog post” and it would look similar to this: https://www.digitalplacesdesign.com/blog-page-url/new-post-title.

Browser Icon:

It’s no secret people generally can more quickly associate an image/logo with a brand than reading the actual name. Adding a browser icon can help identify the site by the business logo.

Social Sharing Images:

Have you ever copied a link and sent it to a friend? Was there an image that appeared with it making it easy to see what was sent without even having to view the link?

That’s what this is all about. You want to make sure you site is optimized in this area by either adding an image that represents your whole site, adding an image that represents an individual page, blog post, product, etc.

Custom 404 page:

Ugh, the aggravation when you try to access a resource and you get a 404 (not found) page. Know one wants this to happen to their site, but the unfortunate truth is something might happen where a visitor runs into this error. You can always opt to use a default Squarespace 404 page that displays to visitors. However, I recommend that you design a custom page for this that is unique to your site and encourages visitors to stay on the site.

Make sure redirects and URL’s all point to the correct page:

This seems like a “duh” moment, but all too often sites are created with default URLs that need to be changed to point to the correct page or just make sense.

As I create your site I look over the URLs that are automatically created and make sure they make sense and take the visitor to the appropriate page they are trying to navigate to. After your site has been built, at the very end I go through each page and each link to double check everything.

This is important to get right before your site is published. If you do have to make a change after the site is already published, your records can take anywhere between 24 to 72 hours to update. Best make sure it’s done right the first time!

Basic SEO??