Search engine optimization (SEO) is the art and science of getting pages to rank higher in search engines such as Google. Because search is one of the main ways in which people discover content online, ranking higher in search engines can lead to an increase in traffic to a website. Read on to learn what SEO settings can be managed in TIME Sites and what needs to be done outside of our platform.
TIME Sites does automatically resize all images on every device mode and serve them in next-gen formats such as avif and webp to help with page load time. We also provide automatically renewing SSL certificates for all domains.
SEO In TIME Sites
Changing Your Website Name
Changing Your Website Name
To change the name of your website, which appears in your browser tab and in search results, you can do so in Website Settings. Currently your Website Name will always be appended to the Page Name with a -. Read this article to learn how to access Website Settings.
Changing Your Page Name
Changing Your Page Name
You can change the Page Name, which appears in your browser tab, search results, and shared links, in either Page Settings or on your Sitemap. Read this article to learn how to change your Page Name.
Changing Your Page Slug (page url)
Changing Your Page Slug (page url)
This allows you to adjust the URL slug for your page, which is a very important part of markup and SEO. The page slug is the remainder of your URL after the root domain: yourdomain.com/this-is-a-page-slug. Page Slugs can be changed in Page Settings, must be in all lowercase, contain no spaces, and do not need to be the same as your page name. Read this article to learn how to change your Page Slug.
Adding a Custom Domain
Adding a Custom Domain
Every site you create on TIME Sites can immediately be published to a TIME Sites subdomain, which ends in *.brandcast.io. But if you want your site to appear at a custom domain (for example, www.mywebsite.com) you will need to set that up. The first step is to add the full domain or subdomain in the Custom Domain Name field in Website Settings:
If your website is actually on a subdomain, like portfolio.mywebsite.com, you would enter the entire subdomain in the Custom Domain Name field.
DO NOT enter the subdomain separately in the Subdomain Field, that is just for your default TIME Sites url. Save changes, and then publish the site so that the domain is in our system. If you are using a subdomain there is a chance it has already been set up by your organization and will work after you publish the site.
If you still need to finish setting up your domain, please reach out to TIME Sites support either through the in-app chat or by emailing support@timesites.com and we will generate the DNS values you will need to finish setting up your domain. This article goes further in depth about setting up a custom domain.
Setting Website and Page Language
Setting Website and Page Language
You can set the Language for your entire site in Website Settings > SEO. Setting the language here will be the default for all pages on your website. If you have a multilingual site, you can set the Language at the page level as well in Page Settings > SEO.
Adding Google Tag Manager
Adding Google Tag Manager
You can add in the <head> code or just the ID for Google Tag Manager in Website Settings. You do not need to include the <body> code. And make sure that you are adding in Google Tag Manger code that starts with the following
NOT Google Tag code that stars with the following
Adding Google Analytics or other 3rd Party Analytics
Adding Google Analytics or other 3rd Party Analytics
If you have Google Analytics code, Google Tag code, Hubspot, Pendo, or any other tracking/analytics platform code, you can add that on your master page(s) in an un-iframed embed. This article goes over it in greater detail.
Changing Your Website Description
Changing Your Website Description
You can change your Website Description in Website Settings > General. Your Website Description is the descriptive blurb that shows when you share your site or see it in search results. Your Website Description will show as the default description for all pages unless you add a Page Description. So if you publish your site after changing your Website Description but see different copy show, check to see you don't have a Page Description set.
Changing Your Page Description
Changing Your Page Description
You can change your Page Description in Page Settings > General. Your Page Description is the descriptive blurb that shows when you share a link to a specific page or see it in search results. When you add a Page Description, it will show instead of the Website Description.
Setting Up Redirects
Setting Up Redirects
You can set up 301 and 302 redirects for your website in the Redirect Manager. We do have a limit of 200 redirects. If you need more please reach out to support@timesites.com. Also please keep in mind that you can only set up redirects for the domain associated with your website.
Using H Tags in Your Text
Using H Tags in Your Text
Headings give both your visitors and search engines important clues about the content’s hierarchy and relevancy. Your main headers should be H1's and subheads should be H2's and H3's. You can apply an H tag to your text by double clicking and directly selecting the text you'd like to edit and then choosing an H Tag that appears in the quick context menu. You can then style what those H Tags look like in Global Styles.
Alt Text on Images
Alt Text on Images
Alt-text has a significant impact on SEO by providing a semantic meaning and description to images which can be read by search engines or be used to later determine the content of the image from page context alone. Alt-text can only be applied to image elements, NOT background images in a container or other element. Read this article to learn how to apply Alt-text to images.
Making Sure Your Website is Responsive
Making Sure Your Website is Responsive
Google switched to mobile-first indexing for all websites starting September 2020, making responsive web design all the more important. While TIME Sites does not automatically make your site responsive, our platform makes it easy for you to make changes at each device level that cascade down. We do automatically resize all images on every device mode and serve them in next-gen formats such as avif and webp to help with page load time. The following articles will show you how you can make your site responsive.
The Responsiveness of Style vs Structural Changes (learn which changes will only affect smaller devices and which ones will affect all devices)
SEO Outside of TIME Sites
Creating and Submitting Your Sitemap
Creating and Submitting Your Sitemap
Currently in TIME Sites you cannot create an XML Sitemap, you will need to create one either manually or with a free third party site. This article goes over the process of creating a sitemap, uploading it to your site, creating a redirect, and submitting the url to search engines. Please make sure you have Index and Follow turned on in Website Settings otherwise you won't be able to generate a sitemap on a third party platform.
Checking for Broken Links
Checking for Broken Links
If you want to check for broken links, that is something you will need to do either manually or using a third party platform like Broken Link Checker, Ahref, Dead Link Checker, and many more that you can find online when you search for "broken link checker".
Checking Page Load Speed
Checking Page Load Speed
A good way to see how your page is performing is checking the Page Load Speed. You can do that with Google PageSpeed Insights and learn how your site is doing on Mobile and Desktop, as well as where you can improve.
Writing Relevant, Engaging Content
Writing Relevant, Engaging Content
It is up to you to write relevant, engaging content on your website. A good rule to follow is Google's E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness), which is part of their Search Quality Rater Guidelines. E-E-A-T is not a direct Google ranking factor, but Google wants to serve results with strong E-E-A-T., so it is an important concept in SEO.