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SEO Basics for Your Web Village Site

Search engine optimisation (SEO) means making it easy for search engines to understand your site and help people find what they are looking for. It so happens that this is the same as writing a website that allows visitors to find the information they are looking for easilly. Most of it comes down to two things: clear, useful pages written for people, and a few technical basics done right.

Web Village handles most of the technical basics for you. This guide follows the headings of Google's own SEO Starter Guide and shows where each piece lives in Web Village, so you can spend your time on the part only you can do: the content.

First, the things you don't see

Lets start by taking a look at what Web Village does automatically to help search engines find your site, and keep it up to date: 

  • A sitemap at /sitemap.xml is automatically created and lists every public page, and is kept up to date as you add and remove pages. You can also specify that a page should not be indexed with the page's "Show in Sitemap" setting. This tells search engines, which pages should be indexed. 
  • Pages are plain, simple HTML. Seach engines, like people, see like to see simple, easy-to=read pages, with nothing hidden behind scripts, or complicated HTML.
  • New sites are hidden from search engines, so a not-finished site isn't indexed. When you launch, simply untick "Block search engines (noindex)" in Site Settings. This is one of the things in the Going Live Checklist to make sure you remember to set it correctly. We also add your site to Web Village's list of published sites, so right away there is a link to your site.

For a closer look, add your site to Google Search Console. It shows which pages are indexed, what people searched to find you, and any problems Google may have run into.

Organise your site well

Organizing your site well, is what makes an effective website. It also happens that a well-organized website helps search engines find your website. A few habits still help visitors and search engines alike:

  • Use descriptive web addresses. Web Village builds each address from the page name, so a page called "Volunteer Opportunities" lives at /volunteer-opportunities. Words in the address can show in search engine results, and they tell people what to expect before they click.
  • Group related pages. Put pages under a parent that names the topic, such as programmes under /programs. Web Village shows the path as breadcrumbs at the top of each page.
  • Don't keep two copies of the same page. Duplicates aren't penalised, but they split attention and confuse visitors. Update one page instead of making a second.
  • Rename and move pages freely. When a page's address changes, Web Village remembers the old address and redirects visitors and search engines to the new one, so links and search rankings carry over. You can see and manage these in the page's URLs tab.

Make your site interesting and useful

Original content probably matters more than everything else in this guide put together both for visitors and for search engines. A few ways to get there:

  • Write for people first. Explain clearly what you do, who it's for, and how to take part. Keep pages current: an out-of-date events page tells visitors and search engines alike that nobody's home.
  • Use your readers' words. Someone new might search "help for newcomers to Kingston" while your staff say "settlement services". Use both. Google matches many variations, so you don't need to repeat a phrase over and over.
  • Post regularly. A blog or news section gives people a reason to come back, and every post is another page that can be found.
  • Link with meaningful words. Link text like "see our volunteer roles" tells readers and Google where a link goes; "click here" doesn't. Link to related pages on your own site, and to trustworthy sources elsewhere.
  • Keep ads and pop-ups out of the way. Anything that covers the content or makes the page hard to use works against you.