Take a moment to think about the last time you searched for something on Google. What subconscious criteria ran through your head as you chose the listing worthy of your click? On your way to making that decision, you undoubtedly cast many other possibilities aside. Perhaps it was because the title didn’t immediately speak to your question, or the URL looked iffy.
Don’t let your clients’ pages be the ones that are passed over.
When you get hired for a web design project, part of your job is positioning the site pages you build for success within search engines and across social media. Publishing blog or website content that is well-written and valuable to readers is the critical foundation required for any powerful optimization effort.
The next chapter is managing how these pages are displayed in online searches and on social channels, from the page title to position on the SERPs (search engine results pages). Giving them the utmost clarity helps people searching on the web know when your client’s content holds the answer they’re looking for.
Ultimately, a boost in web traffic means you get to deliver a clicks and impressions metrics report that you and your clients are both satisfied with.
To start taking control over how each site page you create appears on Google and social channels, the Advanced SEO Panel is what you need (besides winning content, of course!). If you’re interested in championing your SEO expertise and earning the trust - and business - of more clients, get to know the new, sophisticated features available and how you can use them to the benefit of your pages. Nothing is out of reach with advanced SEO tools from Wix.
SEO (Google)
This is a spot you already know well as the place where you decide how the site pages you create are displayed in search engine results. Specifically, it’s where you input a strong page title, description, and unique URL.
Wondering how to optimize these SEO tags for SERPs? Wix SEO Wiz is there to offer customized suggestions based on specific keywords you want your pages to rank for. This is just one perk of the personalized plan this SEO solution devises for each site you create.
This section benefits Wix user Red Fern, as you can see below. By using an optimal format for their SEO title, and emphasizing their location in both the title and description, they are practicing an excellent local SEO strategy. It’s one example of how you can use the panel to help your clients appear on Google in the most advantageous ways for their businesses.
Social share
Google’s SERPs aren’t the only spot where your clients’ websites show up. So many of our news feeds are covered in article and website shares. And, if you’re anything like us, you’ve definitely cringed when you’ve seen a page appear with its description or title most definitely extracted from some default text on the page. Not a pretty picture.
How do you get your client’s site looking good for social, then?
If you leave everything as is after crafting your page SEO settings in the previous panel, that same SEO title and description will automatically be used for social. Sometimes, that works perfectly. Yet, other times, the messaging you develop for your clients’ social presence should be different than what shows up in the search engine results. Different audiences, different intent.
Use the Social Share panel to control the text and images that are displayed when your client’s site is shared on social networks. Having great images, titles, and descriptions for each and every page establishes a more professional look for their business, and increases the chances that people will visit their website.
Follow these guidelines when formatting your social share settings:
Image: Recommended size is at least 1200 x 630 pixels.
Title: Officially known as the ‘OG’ (Open Graph) title, it should be between 55-70 characters, including spaces.
Description: Officially known as the OG description, the recommended length is 100 characters, with an absolute maximum of 300 characters, including spaces.
Advanced SEO
This panel contains the input areas you need to manage and add more sophisticated SEO tags to your page. These professional and complex features offer you even greater capacity for sharply structuring your clients’ SEO:
Structured data:
You know how Google has been filling out their SERPs with more and more opportunities to differentiate the listed results? Think of rating stars, or carousel entries, or business hours and contact information. These are all ways of giving upfront clues to the searcher about what a page contains.