More and more businesses are opting for website builders over the traditional platforms or services. As the sites running on website builders are growing in numbers, so is the need for properly utilizing such platforms for better search engine optimization. I have some clients who are using professional website builders to run their site, so I thought why not write a tutorial that will help the business owners with effective search engine optimization on such platforms.

1. Wix

Over 47,500,000+ people are currently using Wix due to the ease of the platform and the ability to create a website without any coding skills. If your website runs on Wix, make sure you follow the below guidelines to perfectly optimize your website:

  • The very first step you need to do before starting the SEO, is to point your newly registered domain to your Wix website. To assign it, click on domains located under my domains and click on manage. Go to domain summary > domain connect to and click change. Now, select your Wix site where you wish to point the domain and click save.
  • Wix offers a great search engine optimization wizard and monitoring tool that provides a step by step guide to improve the search engine visibility of your Wix site. This tool can be accessed here. With the help of this tool, you can find some extra keyphrases along with some suggestions as to where to add those keywords in the site to get the maximum benefit.
  • In order to add meta tags on all the individual pages of your site, click on Pages tab and then on Gallery. You will see the SEO page settings form. Here, you can enter the title, description and keywords of your choice. Have a look at the below screenshot.

Wix

  • You can also add header codes to your site in order to verify it on Google Webmasters tools and Bing Webmasters tools. To do that, go to ‘Settings’ > ‘SEO (Google)’ > ‘Advanced SEO Settings’ and paste the code. Now, click on ‘Apply’. Remember, you cannot add title tags this way, this method should only be used to add verification related codes.
  • It is super easy to optimize images, just go to the image gallery and click on organize images. Now, click on the image you wish to update and add the title and alt tags.

grid-gallery-settings

  • Any website created these days might underperform without the addition of social buttons. You can add social buttons to your site by clicking the add button (the plus sign) located on left side of the editor and then clicking on social. Now simply click to include the social buttons on your site.

For a detailed comprehensive guide related to all the important SEO aspects of Wix, please visit.

2. IMCreator

With an outstanding collection of templates and easy domain connectivity, IM creator is growing in popularity as one of the best website builders. Over 5,055,566 websites are currently running on this platform, so there is ample scope of proper SEO.

Here are some super simple steps to make your IMCreator site, SEO friendly:

  • At the time of creating your site, you will be prompted to choose an existing domain or buy a new domain. You can choose accordingly and proceed as per the instructions. You will need to change the DNS A record. Add an empty (@) A record with the value 174.129.25.170 and add a ‘www’ CNAME with the value of www.im-router.com (include the www). Click save and wait for 24 hours. Now, on the main IMCreator dashboard click on Publish.
  • IMCreator offers you the flexibility to add HTML directly in your webpages. In order to add HTML code, click “Add an Element” located on the upper grey bar and now click on HTML element. A sample HTML code will appear. Click Edit HTML and paste the code that you want to insert.
  • The Embed HTML Element is the best way to add any external 3rd party widgets like the social sharing buttons.

3. Weebly

Millions of people are currently using Weebly as their site platform. Weebly offers extensive mobile and ecommerce support along with easy domain integration and feature for blogging. In order to make your Weebly site SEO friendly, follow the below guidelines:

  •  To add a custom domain, click on Settings > Change Site Address and enter the domain address you have purchased. Now, click on continue. You will be given an ip address, take that ip address and create an A account with your domain registrar. This A account must point to the ip address provided by Weebly.
  • To add the Google Analytics code, meta keywords and site description, move to the settings tab and click on SEO.

weebly

  • To add individual meta tags on all the pages of your Weebly site, go to the pages tab and click on the advanced settings. Now add the respective title and descriptions.

edit-site-settings

  • To add alt tags on the images, click on images > advanced settings. You will see a field of adding alternate text.
  • One of the best features of using Weebly is that the entire website comes with a built-in mobile ready version. To enable the mobile version, click on settings > mobile setting and tick the check box that says “display the mobile optimized version of the website”.

More help related to SEO can be found here.

4. Yola

With over 9 million users, Yola is clearly one of the popular website builders available today. Here are some of the basics that you need, to get yourself adapted for better search visibility of your Yola site:

  • For pointing a domain to your Yola website, you need to create two A records which point to Yola’s IP address: 184.72.229.176.
  • Similar to IMCreator, Yola too offers great flexibility for adding custom HTML code directly on the template. In order to add HTML, click on Widgets > Popular and drag the HTML code widget onto the page. Now, you may write or paste the desired HTML code and click save.
  • To add social buttons like Facebook like and Google Plus ones, move to the widget area and click on social. You will see separate widgets for popular social sharing websites. Just drag and drop the widget of your choice.
  • Yola also offers mobile site publishing for its silver and gold subscribers. In order to activate your mobile site, which can be crucial for effectively targeting mobile audiences, go to Site > Publishing > Mobile and click on “Enable” next to the Mobile Publishing settings box.
  • Adding Google Analytics and Webmasters code is necessary for identifying the traffic and ROI of the website. Click on Site > Tracking > Google Analytics and paste the provided code for verifying GA. Similarly, go to Site > Tracking > Google Webmaster and paste the GWT code to verify the site on GA.

google-analytics

  • To add Meta tags on separate pages of your site, go to Page > Page Properties > Metadata and add the appropriate descriptions. Yola offers an additional attribute for Page Heading which can be very useful from SEO point of view if used properly.

page-metadata

5. Webs

One of the most amazing platforms that has created over 55 million websites, Webs offers beautiful and robust templates which can be customized as per your needs. It offers good support for SEO, social media integration, choice of mobile site, stunning photo and video galleries, support for ecommerce and advanced web analytics. However, one of the biggest issues with Webs is that it still does not support 301 redirects. Here are some SEO tips that will help you to make your Webs site gain a better search visibility.

  • Webs offers an amazing SEO booster tool that works with everything related to SEO. It finds keywords that are a best match for your business and offers clear instructions as to where to position these keyphrases for better search visibility. However, this tool can be accessed by PRO subscribers only.

webs

  • To add Google Analytics code, Click on the “Control Panel >”Website Settings” and then click on the link to “Manage Your Sidebar“. Add a custom module and click on the HTML icon. Now, you can paste your GA code here. Click save and you are done.
  • To add custom Meta tags, click on the page you’d like to edit and now click on the options tab. Click on rename page and edit the Meta tags. But guys, please note, this is a Premium-only feature.
  • Webs offers around 6 different types of mobile designs. You can customize them as per your needs and target the mobile audiences in an effective manner.
  • Webs also offers an advanced web analytics dashboard which can be accessed via “Manage Pages” area. Just click on “Site Stats” and check the traffic data. This is an inbuilt feature and does not offer extra functionality and editing.

Hope you enjoyed this guide for boosting up the SEO on the world’s top website building platforms. If you have any extra tips and tricks then please share them in the comments below.