We get a lot of questions about Showit SEO and we’re here to answer all of them.

…Ok, so if we answered them all we could end up with a novel, but we’re definitely here to answer the top SEO questions that you have when it comes to getting your Showit template souped up for that race to the top of Google.

If you’re looking for Showit SEO help, we have the best FREE Showit SEO guide called “3 Days to better SEO” that will help you not only get started with SEO, but also show you how to track your SEO efforts!

Here’s are the questions we’re going to cover

• How does SEO work in general?
• Should all images have alt-text?
• Are podcast show notes good for SEO?
• What is no-indexing? Will it harm my SEO?
• How do I pick keywords for my blog posts?
• What if there are no keywords for my industry?
• Where do I find keywords? (Free keyword research tools)
• Is it ok to have multiple H1 tags on a single page?
• Why do my social media links show up before my website in Google?
• What can I do for SEO that doesn’t require spending money?

Do you have any Showit SEO questions? We’d love to hear from you! Feel free to leave a comment.

Q. How does SEO work in general?

Short Answer: SEO, in general, is optimizing your website with text and keywords so that Google knows and understands who you are and how to rank you.

Long Answer: The intention of SEO is to make your website very clear about what the site is about. Each page on your website has a purpose and that page can be found in Google if you are clear enough about the topic of the page. Remember, you are trying to rank pages on your website, not the website as a whole.

The best way to do this is to use text to very clearly describe/explain the purpose of that page. When Google scans your website pages, they are looking for what that page is about. They do this by analyzing the text on that page and determining the overall topic of that page. They will then relate search terms that people are searching for in Google to your page. This is how you get indexed in Google (a.k.a show up on a Google results page).

Q. Should all images have alt-text?

Original Question

I was hoping for some guidance on alt text for images that are just decorative and don’t have a specific meaning. (I’m a coach not a creative/photographer) so I use photos to break up text and give visual interest. Best practice to leave the “SEO Description” blank or can I still add some key words (without stuffing)?

You can definitely add keywords to your pretty images!

Let’s say you’re a coach, and you have a pretty image of a clean and organized desk on your services page, you can add an alt-text that says something like –

“[industry] coach in [town/city] – [brand name]”.

Or how about –

“Coaching services for [industry] in [town/city] – [brand name]”

You can also leave them blank but adding a general description of your page and/or business in the alt-text is better than nothing.

Now, with that said, I do not recommend stuffing keywords like mentioned. A keyword stuffed alt-text would be something like, “creative coach, business coach, business coaching, coaching for photographers, coaching for athletes, coaching, celebrity coach, health coach, atlanta, new york, san diego”… that’s no good. At TONIC we’re huge fans of organic SEO. Let your copy and keywords be true to who you are.

Q. Should we assign a SEO description (alt-text) for our header logo?

Sure! You can do something simple like, “[description of what you do] – [brand name]

For example, If I were to write alt-text for Tonic Site Shop’s logo, it would be something like, “Tonic Site Shop logo – website templates for creatives”

Is this going to make or break your SEO? No, but if you’re anything like me, you’ll optimize where possible!

Want to learn more about on-page SEO for your Showit website?

Q. Are podcast show notes good for SEO?

Question

I don’t plan to have a blog but I will soon have a podcast. Can I use my podcast for SEO purposes in a similar way to a blog – i.e. add great content & some key words to the show notes and the brief post for each episode that’s posted on my website?

Yes! Absolutely. Show notes are blog posts. But just like any blog post, you can have posts that don’t go into great detail and won’t get ranked.

Remember, just because we have a blog doesn’t mean we are going to rank for whatever we want. We need high quality content that covers a topic well and answers users questions.

If you position your show notes to be more than a bullet point list of what you talked about and more of a well written 1000+ word recap of what you talked about, you’ll have a chance at ranking for terms related to your show’s topic.

It’s almost like transcribing your podcast, just not word for word. That would be boring. Recap, explain, and answer questions that people are searching for online and you’ll do great!

Q. What is no-indexing? Will it harm my SEO?

Question

Will hiding pages from SEO/Google while I work on them harm my chances of them being found in the future?

No-indexing (hiding) pages will only tell google to not place your page in a search results page. Google will still be able to see it as well as users who type that link into their browsers or somehow find it another way.

I do not recommend no-indexing (hiding) pages temporarily as this can set you back months. What I do recommend is placing a temporary coming soon landing page up on your website. If you’re just working on one page, keep the original up while you work on a copy of that page. Once that new page is done, simply swap the pages and you’re good to go!

Q. How do I pick keywords for my blog posts?

Remember, keywords are not just single words. They can be, but oftentimes (especially for blog posts) keywords are going to be more like “phrases” or “terms”. These phrases are always going to be related to the main page/post topic.

So the easiest way to pick keywords for each post is to ask yourself, what are questions related to the main topic of this post. Let’s take a look at the example below.

Eating vegan for beginners (main topic)

• What is vegan food (sub topic)
• How do you start being vegan? (sub topic)
• Is vegan meal prepping easy? (sub topic)
• Will eating vegan help me lose weight? (sub topic)
• Etc…

From the list above, we can see keywords like eating vegan, vegan food, vegan meal prep, and lose weight. All of these are keywords that will help Google understand what your post is about!

Q. What if there are no keywords for my industry?

Question

I think for me it’s hard to pick keywords that actually match the content I create but that are also going to have a shot at ranking in search. When you’re a small site it almost feels like you have to create content that fits keywords which seems backwards.

This one is a bit difficult to answer without seeing your website or knowing your industry, but I would say that there is always content to be created that can help your ideal website visitors.

For example, let’s take a look at our website, Tonic Site Shop. We sell website templates. Our main audience is creatives looking for a website design.

Now we can go and create blog posts about how to create a website design and website templates, but that would not reach the right audience. Our audience is not looking to design a website. They want a website designed for them. So what can we write about?

• SEO tips and tricks
• Showit tips and tricks (the platform we design websites in)
• List building (most of our clients are businesses)
• Recipes (that’s right, it’s on brand!)
• Copywriting tips
• Brand discovery tips

You see, we’re not writing about “how to design a website from scratch”. That’s what we do. We write about topics our ideal clients have questions about within our industry.

We need to think about our ideal clients’ needs and see if we can answer questions they have. A blog is the best place to do this. Let’s take a look at some industries and ideas of content they could be creating.

Wedding Planner

We are not going to write about how to be a wedding planner or how to run a wedding planning business. Our ideal clients are looking for a wedding planner, not to be one.

You can write about

• Best wedding venues in your area
• How to choose the right florals for a fall, winter, or summer wedding
• When is the best time to get married in your town
• The pros and cons of hiring a wedding planner

Health Coach

• 5 easy meal prep ideas for maximum weight loss
• 45 min home cardio workout you can do on your lunch break
• Which veggies have the highest amount of protein
• Should you eat sugar after working out?

Remember, we’re not necessarily writing about what *we* do in our business, we’re writing about topics that will help our dream clients.

This is going to draw in people that are looking for knowledge you have. Chances are they will get to know you and your expertise (blog post), get interested in your service, and contact you.

Q. Where do I find keywords? (Free keyword research tool)

Question

Where do we REALLY find the keywords we’re supposed to use (w/o paid tools)

Great question! My favorite *free* keyword research tool is google.com!

You can use Google to search for keywords and terms that you believe your ideal clients are looking for online.

Use the “Related searches” and “People also ask” areas to get related keyword ideas. You can also use page 1 results to study what is popular for that search.

Remember Keywords are just search terms. If you use terms that people are searching for on a page or post with high quality content, you’ll win.

Now with that said, I do want to mention that Ubersuggest is a keyword research tool that has a free and paid version. The free version gives you 3 keyword searches per day which is not a lot. I’ll go through 5-10 searches easily for one post or page. The good news is that the paid version is only $29/month. If you plan on doing a handful of SEO edits in one month, just pay for a month 🙂

Q. Is it ok to have multiple H1 tags on a single Showit page?

Question

If your page has an H1 but some of the evergreen site canvases on the same page have an H1 tag, do we remove the H1 tags from these canvases that are used in various pages of our site?

I would simply update the H1 tag in the Showit site canvas to be an H2 (or whatever tag is appropriate). If that same site canvas is used at the top of a different page and should actually be an H1, turn that site canvas into a page canvas and then set that one only to H1.

Q. Why do my social media links show up before my website in Google?

Question

I’m trying to get my website to show up on google searches before social media listings.

This is fairly normal for newer businesses. If you search for your business name in Google and your social media handles are the same as your domain (i.e. @tonicsiteshop and tonicsiteshop.com) then Google will pull up links to your website and social media platforms.

If your Social media links are showing before your website, it’s most likely due to the age of your website. Keep your website updated, post blogs fairly often, and add your website link to your social media accounts and eventually this will change.

If your website is not new, then you need to work on making it very clear to Google what your brand name is on your website. Adding your brand name to your SEO titles is one of the best ways to do this. I recommend reading our post about SEO titles and meta descriptions.

Q. What can I do for SEO that doesn’t require spending money?

Question

What are three things I can quickly implement that don’t require another purchase?

This is my favorite question. I’ll get straight to it.

1. Add your main keywords to your homepage
2. Update your SEO titles and meta descriptions
3. Set up Google Search Console and Google Analytics

Once those are done, I would focus on creating blog content that goes in depth about topics your ideal clients are looking for online.

Many people are afraid of “giving too much information away” in a blog post.

Don’t be. People don’t pay for information. People pay for organized information.

This means that people won’t find your blog and not want to hire you. They’ll find your blog, see that you’re an expert in your industry, and want to hire you for personalized (and organized) information (i.e. a service like coaching or your product).

Do you have Showit SEO questions?

We would love to hear them! Add a comment below and we’ll help you out as much as we can!