5-minute SEO fixes
I've seen a lot of websites that are missing 2 really important SEO items over the years. The crazy thing is, these two things only take 5 minutes to fix!
Sometimes we just don’t know what we don’t know! And it can make a big difference in helping the right people find our businesses.
1.) Change your site title
Include your location and what you do before your business name in your site title! Google sees these keywords first, and because it's your title it will help you rank higher.
For example, on our site, the browser bar and the title on Google don't just say "Crème Brands," instead they say "Branding for Creatives & Wedding Professionals | Crème Brands."
If you're a more geographically based business, you'll want to prioritize location or the locatons you target in your title. For example, "Portand Oregon Florist — Suzy’s Flowers"
Try to think about what your ideal clients are typing into Google to find someone like you, and then name your site title accordingly!
Ok, got a new site title in mind? Awesome! Here's how to plug it in, depending what website platform you're on.
Squarespace: Go to design > logo & title
Wordpress: Go to appearance > site title
Wix: Go to page settings > SEO
Shopify: Go to general settings > shop name
By changing your site title on your site, it will change how your site title displays on Google and in your browser bar and help your SEO!
2.) Send Google your sitemap
This sounds hard, but it’s actually quite easy! A sitemap is a file on your website that tells Google a list of all the pages on your site. Chances are, this file is already ready and waiting for you, and you just need to submit it to Google, no super-tech knowledge required!
I recommend that you resubmit your sitemap frequently so Google always has the freshest list of your content for the best SEO.
1. Create an account with Google Webmaster.
2. Add your website. Click on the red "add a property button" in the Search Console and then enter your url
3. Verify your site. You'll have the option to verify the site through several options. If you don't feel comfortable uploading the verification file, click on the tab on the right "alternate methods" and verify it with your domain login or another method.
3. Locate or generate your sitemap url (/sitemap.xml)
If you're on Squarespace, Wix, or Shopify you automatically have this file and don't have to create it. The url is simply yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml
If you're on Wordpress, you can generate an XML sitemap file from the Yoast plugin. Go to Dashboard > SEO > XML Sitemaps and toggle the switch to ‘Enabled’.
4. Submit a test sitemap to double check the content
Click on sitemaps then click the red button "add/test a sitemap"
First, make sure everything is properly loading! Type in /sitemap.xml into the box and click test.
5. Submit the property
If it shows pages and images loaded in your test, you're now ready to submit the fina; sitemap. Repeat the same steps but this time click "submit."
Now you should see there is a pending sitemap with Google that looks something like this.
That's it! You're all done!
