Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Best practices for high search visibility are an integral part of our design and coding process when building a website. In this article we'll cover some of the things you can do to help your site perform well in search rankings.
The SEO Benefits of Ekklesia 360
Here are some of the SEO benefits that already come standard with sites built with Ekklesia 360:
- Clean, search-friendly URLs
Your page URLs look like www.site.com/your-page, instead of www.site.com/page-129873.aspx. - Seamless syndication
If you are using the Ekklesia 360® product, your sermon information can be automatically published to sermoncloud.com and churchcloud.com. In short, your content can exist in multiple places at once, referencing back to your site. - Automatic sitemaps
A sitemap.xml file is automatically generated for your site that is ready to submit to Google Webmaster Tools. - User-editable htaccess redirects
Should you need to move your pages, Ekklesia 360 allows you to enter custom redirects to ensure well-ranked content is seamlessly redirected to its current destination.
Basic SEO Recommendations
Here are some things you can put into practice when building a website with the CMS to ensure high visibility in search rankings.
- Add Descriptions, Keywords, and helpful Titles
The Description and Keywords fields are powerful search engine influencers. The Description is a sentence-based item, while Keywords are a list of key terms associated with the page. Titles should also be clean, relevant and including your main keyword for the content. To verify that all three elements exist in your site code, right-click on your website and select "View Source". The <title>, <meta name="description"> and <meta name="keywords"> tags should exist near the top of the HTML document (if they do not exist, contact Support). - Use additional versions of names and keywords
If you typically spell a name or keyword a certain way, such as, "Walk4theCure", consider adding other keywords which a user would likely enter into a search bar, such as: "walk for the cure". - Curate an organized navigation structure
Monitor your items in the Navigation module and work toward a clear and useable structure. Avoid adding the same page to multiple navigation branches. - Use target keywords in page content
Pages with only a photo or a video do not have much information for search engines. Be sure to add text that is focused on the main keywords. - Add Descriptions to images
When inserting images into page content, add a caption into the Description field. Not only are images without a Description considered invalid HTML, but they are another opportunity to boost your keyword power. - Utilize social media
Social media will multiply your audience and drive traffic to your site, which in turn will increase search engine visibility.
Mobile-Friendly Designs
Some search engines like Google will favor mobile-friendly website designs in search results. To check if your site is mobile-friendly, see Google's Mobile-Friendly Test. If your site isn't mobile-friendly currently, we recommend moving to a new responsive site design.
Helpful Resources
Here are some excellent resources:
Google - Search Engine Optimization
Google - Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide [PDF]