Search engines rank sites to help people find the best and most relevant sites. Search engines take time to examine and index your site, and thus it takes time for SEO to increase or for links listed to change. They know what the "tricks" are. Keep in mind it depends on various factors including content, descriptions, link-backs, host, URL, and more!
Note: When you switch to and from websites (content or URL), your SEO may be refreshed as well, so you may have to work on these elements again.
1. Write a descriptive title
The title of your site is what shows up in the tab at the top of your browser, address bar, search engine results, and social shares. This is like the front door of your page. Make it attractive!
For example, "Johnny's Bakery - Freshly Baked every day in San Francisco" is much better than "Johnny's Shop."
Visit Changing Site/Page Title and read more from Google: Create descriptive page titles.
2. Add site and page meta descriptions
Add a description to your site and every page. The meta description (meta tags) is the snippet that summarizes the site's content on the search engine results page - and adding it to your site is very important for improving your site's search engine ranking.
However, be careful not to include keywords just for the sake of increasing your ranking, as many search engines demote this behavior (keyword stuffing) and rank you lower.
Good description: "Johnny's Bakery is a gourmet bakery and confectionery based in the Mission in San Francisco. We started in 1965 and we've been offering delightful bread, cakes, pies, and cookies to happy customers ever since!"
3. Add keywords to your headings
Headings are the big text boxes that are located throughout your site. Titles are important for SEO because search engines give additional weight to heading text. So, it's better to add descriptive text in the headings.
For instance, "About Johnny's Bakery" is better than "About" as a heading for your "About" section.
To learn more, visit Adding Heading Tags (H1, H2...) and Adding Keywords (Search Phrases) for SEO.
4. Produce high-quality content
Content is king. Do keyword research and write content that is recent, valuable, helpful, and relevant for the visitors. The higher the quality of content, the higher the website will be ranked by search engines.
Adding a blog to your site is a great way to help search engines see your site as active and good for your business. Updating your blog regularly with relevant and high-quality content can benefit your SEO, gain visitors, and build your brand. Learn more.
5. Add descriptions to all images
Since search engines don't understand images, they look for image descriptions. An image description will help search engines index your image, which helps index your site. Also, try to keep your image sizes under 200KB. The best size for website images (desktop and laptop) is around 50KB. This will improve performance and experience!
6. Connect a domain to your Strikingly site
Connecting yourname.com or yourcompany.com strengthens your brand and helps potential visitors find your site. Visit Connecting a Domain to Your Strikingly Site. If you want to use a Strikingly Free URL, your https://xxx.mystrikingly.com URL has good SEO and loads quickly as well!
7. Actively share your site on other websites
A huge part of search engine ranking comes from backlinks and traffic. That means the more sites that link to your site, and the higher the quality of those sites, the better your search engine ranking will be.
Start posting your site on blogs, forums, and social media! Create a Google Plus profile, if relevant. Include your URL in your LinkedIn profile, email signature, and other networks. Find the places where people are interested in what you do and share!
8. Verify your site with Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free service that helps your site find on Google quicker! To learn more, visit Verifying Google Search Console and Submitting Sitemap.
9. Use Strikingly built-in analytics
Check which pages get you traffic, where your visitors are coming from, and more. Visit Using Your Strikingly Built-in Analytics.
10. Read more tips online
In case you need assistance, shoot us a line at support@strikingly.com or chat with us.