Help customers find your services

SEO means search engine optimization. Start with the words customers use, rather than internal service names.

1. Write down five questions from recent calls or quotes.
2. Match each question to a service the business sells.
3. Choose the best existing page for each topic before creating another page.

For a painter: What does interior painting include? How long does a room take? Who moves the furniture? What affects the quote?

• Google SEO starter guide

Give each distinct service enough detail to support a decision. Avoid pages that only swap a city name.

1. Explain the work, the customer it suits, and what the price includes.
2. Add the process, typical constraints, and real examples from completed work.
3. State the areas actually served. Use local project details when available.
4. Answer the main objections, then offer a clear contact action.
5. Link relevant pages with descriptive text such as See exterior painting services.

Do not invent projects, reviews, credentials, or locations. A short accurate page is more useful than a long page of repeated claims.

• Google guidance on helpful content

On a hosted plan, open My site, select the website, then open SEO. The page selector controls which page changes.

1. Select a page. Set Search title to its service, useful location, and business name.
2. Write a Search description that explains the page and its next step.
3. Keep Hide this page from search results off for pages intended for Google.
4. Select Save page details. Publish the site to apply the draft changes.
5. Open the live page and check the browser title and page content.

Example title: Interior Painting in Austin | Clark Painting. Example description: See our preparation process and recent interior projects. Request a quote for your Austin home.

• Open My site
• How Google creates title links

For No hosting purchases, edit site-content.json in the source folder. Keep a backup before editing JSON.

The current export uses each page's title as its browser title and config.description as its search description.

1. Set each page's title and config.description to match its content.
2. Set config.seo.siteUrl to the final website address.
3. Preview the site, rebuild it, and deploy the new output.
4. Ask a developer to add and verify canonical metadata, robots rules, and an XML sitemap for the chosen host.

A canonical URL tells search engines which address to prefer. The export does not carry the dashboard's SEO controls or sitemap routes.

• Publish changes to downloaded code

Changing an address can break links from search, emails, and old ads. Keep stable addresses when possible.

1. List old addresses before replacing a website.
2. On a hosted plan, use SEO → Keep old links working to map each old path to its relevant replacement.
3. Save site settings and publish. Test the old addresses on the live domain.
4. For a self-hosted site, configure permanent redirects at the host and test them.

Do not send every missing page to the homepage. Use a relevant replacement, or let a removed page return a proper not-found response.

• Google site move guidance

Use Search Console to compare search clicks, impressions, and useful queries over similar periods. Also compare qualified enquiries.

Search results can take time to change. A sitemap, a plugin, or structured data cannot guarantee a top position.

1. Look for pages with relevant impressions but few clicks. Check whether the title matches the searcher's need.
2. Look for pages with visitors but few enquiries. Check the offer and contact path.
3. Keep a dated note of edits, then compare results after enough traffic accumulates.

• Set up Search Console