How to Get Your Website Seen on Google and Social Media
What do people see before they visit your website?
Before anyone clicks through to your site, they see a preview. On Google, it's a title and a short description. On social media, it's a title, description, and image. These previews are often the first impression someone has of your business.
The good news is you can control what they say. It only takes a few minutes, and it can make a real difference to whether people decide to click.
How to write the metadata of your website
When someone searches on Google, your website can appear as a small preview: a title, a short description, and sometimes your site name. This preview is often the very first impression someone has of you, before they even visit your site.
You can control what this preview says. In SimDif, tap the "G" icon at the top of any page to open your Metadata settings. You'll see a few important fields:
Title for Search Engines. This is the headline Google shows in search results. It doesn't have to match your page title exactly. Try to use the kind of words and phrases your visitors would type into Google when looking for what you offer.
Description. The short text that appears below your title in search results. A clear, honest sentence or two about what visitors will find on the page works best.
Name/address of the page. This controls the last part of your page's web address. For your homepage it will say "index," and for other pages keep your addresses short and clear. Simple words that describe the page work well.
Site Name in Google (homepage only). Google now shows a site name alongside your web address in search results. This field lets you suggest what that name should be. Use your brand or business name, and keep it short: five words or fewer. Google doesn't always use your suggestion, but providing one makes it more likely.
As you fill in these fields, the preview at the top of the screen updates to show you how your site might look in Google. Read it as if you were someone searching for a business like yours. Does it clearly describe what people will find?
Let the Optimization Assistant help
If you haven't worked through all the Optimization Assistant's suggestions yet, this is a good time to revisit them. Several of its checks relate directly to the metadata fields described above. Each suggestion you address helps either your visitors or search engines understand your site better.
Where to get your first quality backlink (the SimDif Directory)
If you have a Smart or Pro site, you can add it to the SimDif SEO Directory, a collection of websites organized into over 400 categories. This gives your site a quality link from an established source, which helps Google discover and trust your website.
You can feature your business details, like your address, logo, social media profiles, and opening hours. And in addition to appearing in the Directory, this information also gets built into your site's code in a way that search engines understand, which can help your business appear in more places across Google's results.
Need help writing your metadata for search engines?..
Kai Step-by-Step can suggest search engine titles and meta descriptions for you. Open the egg icon on any page and work through the steps. In steps 4 and 5, Kai will offer a few title and description ideas in different tones, so you can pick the ones that sound most like you.
