Ok that’s a hypothetical question and not one I dealt with in real life but I wanted to quickly cover the subject of SEO. You might be pulled in every which direction when deciding to invest in your business, afterall. There’s alot of information out there but I’m covering how it relates to my Showit website services as I highly recommend them for SEO. I hope is this post helps dissolve your fears of investing in a website template with this important component of getting found at the top of your mind. 

Showit is very SEO-friendly 

First and foremost: There’s on-page SEO. Every Showit Website template in my shop is properly optimized page by page to get the most benefit out of search engine optimization. This practice needs to be done regardless if you’re using keywords intentionally on your website because search engines need to crawl the information on each page, and understand what it’s all about, to properly index it. This is most commonly called ‘On-page SEO and when properly set-up, this will increase your chances of being found online. 

Best of all, you as a creative have control of this through Showit’s easy-to-use interface. With each website purchase, I include a series of 8 private video tutorials and one of them is dedicated to Page and Image SEO, so rest-assured you have step-by-step instructions so you can maximize search engine results on this platform with no additional costs!

This is so important because I don’t believe you should have to outsource your SEO and pay additional costs if the mechanics aren’t set up correctly from the outset! 

I completed the branding for a home stager who then utilized a marketing agency for the creation of her website. I didn’t at the time offer web design services, but quickly saw the need to as I touched base with her a year later. She mentioned her biggest frustration was she didn’t have access to her site, so couldn’t make the changes she needed without consulting them first. 

When your really busy with your full-time job, you need a trusted web partner on your side, no matter if you’re a photographer, wedding planner, interior designer or even home stager. 

The reason I recommend Showit for many service-based businesses is because as a Graphic Designer there’s just so much more flexibility in how I can design (no more cookie cutter websites) , plus its drag and drop so it makes it easy for clients to take over the reigns and edit to their unique needs if needed, without needing to know a line of code!  (Full disclosure: I run an e-commerce shop with more many listings so Squarespace works best for me, but wouldn’t switch otherwise! If you run an e-commerce business with alot of inventory I wouldn’t recommend Showit)

Related: How I Design a Showit Website for an Optimal User Experience 

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How to monitor your efforts 

As a business owner, I use a keyword planner tool that gives me live updates in my inbox for essential keywords and how their rankings are shaping up. This is something you could consider if you want to strategize and/or see the real effects of your efforts (and there’s a free trial of this software available), so you know you’re making the right strides in this effort. 

If you purchase a website from me I’d be happy to send you a link to this service! For obvious reasons I don’t want to share publicly. 

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Blog Better!

I would suggest relevant blogging to further boost your SEO! You’ll be able to blog better knowing which keywords you’d like to focus on and share your much appreciated knowledge in your area of expertise! Create a keyword-rich blog title and utilize consistent use of those words you wish to rank for throughout the blog post. It won’t be forced or stuffed; but happen organically from aiming to create high-quality, helpful content for your potential clients or customers. You might also find yourself using keywords without realizing it when creating relevant posts that will benefit the audience you want to attract. 

For example: 

• A calligrapher that wants to attract brides might share about their creative process, various ink and paper options. when to order wedding invitations, Pantone Wedding Color Trends, etc. 

• A wedding photographer looking to attract more dream clients should create a platform for couples to get wedding-related information, which can help them plan their wedding more easily. Topics you can cover might include  Important questions to ask a wedding photographer before you hire them,  Why you need to get your wedding photos printed professionally, the Perfect Wedding Day Timeline, the best time to book a wedding photographer, etc. Additionally, be sure to include a list of vendors when sharing your portfolio for resource inspiration! You might decide to reach out to these vendors and ask if they could return the favor, thereby increasing your number of inbound links and SEO as a result. (Inbound links are links on another site that point back to your website). 

Related: 30 Non-Fluff Blog Post Ideas for Newborn Photographers

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There’s no immediate way to rank on the first page of Google, but with careful attention paid to on-site SEO from the start, along with strategic blogging efforts,  you’re closer to achieving that coveted rank.  I hope this post helps allay your concerns of this topic which may often seem overwhelming for the new business owner.