Category "Web Development"

As a business owner, you understand how critical it is for people to be able to find you online. In today’s digital age, that often starts with search engine optimization, or SEO. And if you’re currently in the market for a website builder that won’t hold you back in the SEO department, you may be wondering, is Showit good for SEO?

In theory you could SEO any website, but it comes down to the effectiveness of the platform itself. As a national SEO company we handled tons of websites on various platforms. Recently we’ve been getting a few clients on the Showit platform so we decided to write this article to help others. If you are looking for a website to be developed, don’t forget to give us a call!

While a shiny, beautifully-designed Showit website is a good place to start, you don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket. Even more critical is making sure your ideal clients can actually locate you when they go to Google, Bing, or Yahoo and search for a service you provide. But as is true of most things SEO-related, knowing exactly where to begin can feel more than a little bit complicated. So today we’ll simplify the matter. By the time you finish reading, you’ll know whether or not Showit can help or hinder your site’s ability to get found by search engines, and if it’s the best platform for your business needs. Is Showit good for SEO?

Is Showit Good for SEO: Unveiling the Truth

Let’s tackle the elephant in the room first. Can Showit hold its own when compared to website building giants like WordPress and Wix? In short, the answer is a resounding “yes.”

Although many people default to believing WordPress is superior to other platforms (at least when it comes to SEO), this belief isn’t necessarily based on objective evidence. If we were to try and create an experiment to see whether platforms such as Squarespace or Showit measure up to WordPress, how would we go about doing so? Creating identical content is immediately ruled out because Google frowns upon duplicate content.

Having unique content on every platform won’t get us anywhere either. Google wouldn’t be able to determine whether content or platform structure contributed most significantly to the site’s overall SEO score.

To determine if a specific platform is hindering search results, simply move pre-existing content that has a measurable history of search engine success to a new website built on a different platform.

A scenario we found where someone began by painstakingly migrating every single post (over 500.) from a Squarespace site to a Showit site (integrated with WordPress). The process took 3 months to complete. But what was found, in the end, was incredibly surprising.

As it turned out, traffic between the Squarespace and Showit websites remained largely the same. What’s more, the PageSpeed Insights (a ranking factor of SEO) were significantly improved for the content hosted on Showit. In a nutshell, if your SEO is suffering, there is a good chance the culprit is something other than the platform itself.

To truly help you determine if Showit has what it takes to meet your SEO needs, this post will highlight both pros and cons of the platform.

Is Showit Good for SEO? Here Are Some Benefits:

As you get to know more about how Showit functions and is structured, you’ll soon see it has a lot of valuable SEO settings. When these tools and settings are maximized, your chances of getting found online by your ideal clients increase exponentially.

Built-in SEO Tools

One of the best things about choosing to build your business or blog website using Showit is that there is no need to have any special coding knowledge. Unlike many popular WordPress themes on the market, where knowing HTML is crucial to get the look you’re wanting, Showit comes complete with numerous features you can customize without having to be (or pay for.) a web developer.

For example, you have the ability to easily change page titles and SEO descriptions (also called meta descriptions). If you’re just starting out with SEO, meta descriptions are basically little snippets of text that appear under your title tag (the blue clickable link in Google search results). Think of them as elevator pitches where you get to convey the most important information in a limited space (ideally, under 150 characters).

A tool such as Google Ad Planner can be helpful for brainstorming relevant keywords related to your business or area of expertise. Or the chrome plugin, Keywords Everywhere, can give you more detailed insight, letting you see helpful keyword phrases while also telling you how many times that phrase is being searched for within a specified timeframe.

Easy WordPress Integration for Blogging

As previously mentioned, it is a popular belief that WordPress is a superior website platform for bloggers, particularly those wanting to get found online through strategic keyword placement. But it is a little known fact that Showit websites integrate seamlessly with WordPress. You have the flexibility of using Showit’s convenient drag-and-drop interface (that comes standard).

You can then supercharge your blog posts’ ability to get seen by search engine crawlers using helpful plugins like Yoast, an SEO tool that analyzes the SEO score of a piece of content and gives you recommendations based on factors such as: readability, title tag length, word count, and use of transition words.

And although WordPress makes its money by charging monthly for their lowest tiers, if you need multiple websites, they give pretty great bundle pricing. This makes building out your online presence as easy as clicking a button.

Automatic SSL Certification

An SSL (secure socket layer) certificate, according to an article on DigiCert.com is, “a digital certificate that authenticates a website’s identity and enables an encrypted connection,” SSLs use what is called, “encryption algorithms to scramble data in transit,” from hackers. This means visitors don’t have to be afraid to hand over their credit card details (if making purchases through your site), and personal information to you because you have that extra level of protection for them.

And while an SSL is good practice generally speaking for site owners to have in place, an added benefit is that search engines are more likely to rank a secure site more favorably than those that are not secured. When a website DOES NOT have an SSL, you’ve probably noticed that a little warning pops up when you go to visit it. Visitors tend to steer clear when this happens because they aren’t able to determine if a site can be trusted with their sensitive information.

And who can blame them. After all, no one wants their identity or personal data to be compromised. With platforms such as WordPress, generally you have to go to a third party in order to add this necessary (and important.) security measure. Showit automatically grants each website built through its platform an SSL, making one less thing for business owners to have to manage.

The Importance of Page Speed

One thing Google REALLY likes is to be able to offer a seamless experience to anyone using their search engine to research, or to find products and services they offer. As Showit website and business owners, this should be reassuring, knowing you only need to learn a few tips to leverage search engine success.

One critical way you can work *with* search engine algorithms to help your site get seen more is to take a close look at how fast it takes for your pages to load fully. Nothing frustrates (and ultimately drives traffic away from your offers.) than when people click a link only to realize that nothing happens. This is usually a good sign that the image files used to make your site appealing are TOO big.

Google penalizes these types of pages because a high bounce rate indicates to them that a visitor’s time is not considered important to you. You can use a tool like PageSpeed Insights (free through your Google Search Console account). PageSpeed Insights analyzes different metrics for every URL you add, and provides tips that web designers can implement to increase load times (if adjustments need to be made). This is a great practice for ANY site on the world wide web, because at the end of the day, making things convenient, simple, and straightforward should be your top priority as a content creator, business owner, or blogger.

What About Showit’s Downsides?

Like any other website platform, Showit has areas that could be improved upon.

The Showit & Google “Crawl” Issue

In a perfect world, search engines (like Google or Yahoo.) “see” your webpages the same way visitors do. Search engines “crawl” webpages, using code to find out how each page should appear in a web browser such as Google Chrome, or Safari, based on specific instructions given to it.

As content creators, this is one more example where SEO doesn’t need to be intimidating. All it really takes is knowing where to make minor adjustments. This way, what YOU see on your backend editor actually matches what visitors (and Google.) see, which ultimately leads to a more pleasurable and enjoyable visitor experience. One of those tweaks involves becoming more aware of how each layer in Showit gets rendered by a browser.

Let me explain: inside Showit’s convenient and beginner-friendly editor, Showit has always suggested site creators start adding elements, “top-to-bottom” because this method leads to a better overall understanding of how things are formatted from a visual point of view. The only problem is that the HTML code used to “read” a page in the backend of a website gets reversed. This is an example where Showit could use some improvements.

According to Davey & Krista, wedding photographers, Showit website designers, and Showit specialists, although this issue does exist with Showit websites, they’ve been assured the company is currently implementing measures to correct it so that what appears for designers on the frontend perfectly matches how HTML renders a page.

Higher Price-Point for Bloggers

Showit tends to cater towards service-based creatives. While they do have plans specifically designed for content creators and bloggers, those options start at $24 a month, which is significantly more than other hosting companies like Bluehost (which generally runs closer to $3/month for 12 months when first starting out) and WordPress (who’s most popular Blogger plan costs $15 per month, or $9 per month if you purchase an entire year of hosting up front).

This is where spending time becoming familiar with ALL of the features and offerings available to you will come in handy, allowing you to decide whether Showit’s user experience is worth paying more, or if a platform such as WordPress or Squarespace (where website and blogging capabilities come standard without having to “upgrade” to access this function), is a better option for your unique budget constraints.

FAQs about is Showit good for SEO

Is Showit Good For Photographers

Showit is incredibly popular among professional photographers and other creatives because of the beautiful templates you can get. Templates allow those new to website creation or SEO best practices, to hit the ground running and not need to have any coding knowledge. However, there is something extremely crucial to be aware of, especially if having a WordPress blog in tandem with your Showit site is something you want.

Each template must be purchased separately if you don’t purchase them as part of an overall website design. It is only the blog categories and blog post designs themselves that carry over between your site and your WordPress blog. So budget accordingly for this as those individual Showit template purchases can start to add up.

Is Showit Beginner Friendly?

Showit shines in this department. Getting set up with your first Showit site takes very little time. It is the most simple platform to drag, drop, and move site elements to exactly how you want them to look in a way other website builder interfaces have yet to equal. You can adjust individual components within a pre-designed website template to ensure your website looks as unique as you are without having to hire a developer (unless, of course, learning to code is simply not for you. Even then, it often only requires hiring them to make minor tweaks). And their customer service department is unparalleled. Should you have any questions, a real person in Arizona is there to assist. And their Showit design partner program will give you ample practice with learning new skills to set you apart from other creatives.

What About Using Showit For Ecommerce

Although not impossible, you’ll probably find other website building and hosting options to be much more user-friendly. Ecommerce SEO can be tricky at times so make sure you focus on all the SEO elements. Unlike sites such as Shopify which comes fully loaded with analytics, abandoned cart recovery options (an essential must-have to make more money in sales), easy coupon and discount code creation and other e-commerce functions Showit really only gives you the ability to link directly to product listings. Depending on the plugins you’re using you also might not be able to easily adjust the checkout process, and instead require your buyers to go through a third-party, again depending on how (and which platform.) you are currently offering products. Not ideal for the average course creator or digital product provider.

How Does Showit’s Pricing Structure Work

Showit offers a few different plans. Their basic plan will cost you $19 a month (when billed annually, which is a really standard pricing practice). However, keep in mind this price point ONLY gets you the ability to design the website you’re wanting. For most small business owners (especially creatives like photographers and coaches), adding a blog is a vital marketing and SEO tactic to increase your search results rankings.

Showit offers two blog options; one for $24 a month, and the other (with more features), for $34 a month, again if you pay annually for the service (which again, most website companies do, including platforms like WordPress and Squarespace, making the set-it and forget it function perfect for time-strapped entrepreneurs). All plans come with a 14 day free trial (again, the industry standard) giving you the ability to try before committing to any contracts.

Leverage Showit Capabilities

So, is Showit good for SEO? With its user-friendly interface, seamless WordPress integration, and robust SEO tools, Showit can be an excellent choice for businesses looking to enhance their online visibility and attract more organic traffic.

By leveraging Showit’s capabilities and following SEO best practices, you can create a visually appealing and search-engine-friendly website that drives results. Is Showit good for SEO? With a bit of strategic planning and effort, the answer can be a resounding yes.

It’s important that business owners and entrepreneurs know the value of setting up great landing pages to drive up conversions. When it comes down to the essentials of online businesses, having an optimized landing page is often right at the top of the priority list. But what exactly is a landing page, and how does it affect the success of a website?

How Landing Pages Work

A landing page is a web page created specifically to drive conversions. They’re a great way to capture the information of visitors to your site in exchange for an eBook, template, video, or any other company offer that you may have available. You can also use the gathered information to schedule a demo, meeting, or over-the-phone consultation to convert these people into paying customers. 

The primary role of a landing page is to collect information through a form on the page. Be careful, however, not to mistake a landing page for any web page that has a web form, as that’s not the case. Take a blog post for example. A blog post might have a form that encourages readers to subscribe, but its primary goal is still to educate rather than convert. 

A landing page’s sole purpose is to convert. The conversion path for landing pages is relatively linear and straightforward. Visitors fill in a form and automatically become warm leads. The leads then receive emails containing more information about the service or product that you’re offering. Some businesses choose to direct their potential customers to a “Thank You” page where they can access even more information.   

In terms of digital marketing, setting up landing pages is not the end goal. Landing pages should be optimized to make sure that you’re getting mileage out of them. Having an impactful landing page strategy in place can often result in a 30-40% lead conversion. 

You don’t want all of your site visitors with different needs and intents wading through your general information-rich home page. If you’re creating dedicated landing pages that closely align with a customer’s individual needs, you’ll have a much greater chance of capturing their information and converting them into customers. With the right landing page, you can attract customers to the specific type of service or product that you’re offering. 

Here are the 5 best practices to follow when it comes to optimizing landing pages in order to increase conversion:

Apply the 5-Second Rule

People have short attention spans. Our brains are hardwired to pay attention to only the things that benefit us. This is also one of the truths that you should incorporate into every marketing strategy: people don’t want to waste too much time and energy comprehending the content. Consumers want information to be quick, ready, and bite-sized.

When it comes to landing pages, you should clearly state what you provide, how your service will benefit the customer, and what they need to do in five seconds or less. If you fail to do so, your chances of converting your leads decrease, and you run the risk of them exiting your landing page instead. 

Keep your visitors focused. Make sure that all of the information they need is above the fold. Your value proposition and CTA must be located right at the top of the page.

Use Short and Creative Videos

Most business owners don’t want anything to do with videos. However, videos can provide an excellent opportunity to connect with your site visitors on a deeper level. This particular medium can be utilized to increase session durations on your website. The more that people interact with you, the likelier you can get them to opt-in or buy what you sell.

Feature a video that has a runtime of 60 seconds at the maximum. In this crucial 60 seconds, you must establish the problem you’re looking to solve and how your customers can benefit from using your solution. Emphasize what would happen if your visitors don’t go with your solution. 

Make sure that the short video tells the story of your customers’ transformation. What happened when they tried out your product? How much happier are they now? The video must end with a clear call to action. We prefer to use the same CTA within the page for uniformity and to avoid confusion.

Social Proof

Testimonials or case studies of real people who have already tried out your products and services lend credibility to your landing page. They signify that what you offer can walk the talk. Just like a good referral, people trust positive reviews. Featuring some could benefit your landing page enormously.

While videos are the best when it comes to forging an emotional connection with your audience, you can also use text-based content. With prior consent, we often include real photos of our customers for authenticity.

Remember the customer transformation we mentioned above? Using testimonials and case studies to drive the point further helps to nudge your potential leads down the conversion funnel. Don’t make your testimonials overly lengthy. Make sure to tell the transformation story in just a few sentences.

Clarify Your Value Proposition

At first glance, your landing page must explain what value your service or product offers to your site visitors right away. If your landing page has too many convoluted messages crammed into it, people will immediately click away and go elsewhere.

Visitors must immediately know what it is you do and what’s in it for them. Conversion happens when the value proposition deeply resonates with your audience. We’ve learned that if you’re not solving a problem your audience faces, they won’t feel the need to buy into your solution.

Address your target market’s needs. Break down the reasons why they should prefer your business over others. Once you determine these aspects, incorporate them into your copy. Strong copy entices your audience into converting as leads. Remember, copy and value proposition go hand in hand when it comes to influencing conversion rates.

Use a Strong Call to Action

A CTA tells your audience what to do and where they need to click, sign up, or leave their email address. Your CTA button must be prominent on your landing page. We’ve proven that visually distinct CTAs generate more success in helping you reach your marketing objectives. 

Use contrasting colors to get the attention of your audience. Most landing pages take the typical route of using an orange CTA button against a generic blue backdrop. We encourage clients to create their landing pages using their brand colors and with a contrasting color for their CTAs. 

We often use commonly understood, action-oriented words to invoke a quick reaction. People don’t want to spend too much time figuring out where to go. Make it easier for them through your copy and design.

The best CTAs use simple, short words to boost conversion in landing pages.

The Bottomline

Landing pages are crucial when it comes to solidifying and supplementing your digital marketing campaigns. You could have a significant amount of site traffic, but this doesn’t automatically mean leads if you don’t optimize the pages for conversions as well. 

Follow the above tips, and you’re on your way to creating a useful landing page that’s going to perform strongly and convert better.