How to Use the SEO Center

 
The tools in this section will help you optimize your site and drive traffic from search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.
 
Upon logging into the site manager, select the ‘promote’ option, then select SEO Center.
 
First step is to verify your domain.
 

1) Domain Verification

Verifying your domain is very important since you’re telling Google and Bing that you’re the website’s owner. When they find a problem with your sitemap or any other technical issue that they become aware of, they will communicate directly with you through this channel. So we recommend that you regularly check these tools to assure that everything is OK with your website.  
 
Setup a Google Webmaster Tools (Search Console) account
To set up your Google Webmaster Account:
  1. go to https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/dashboard and set up an account.
  2. Add the URL of the ‘property’ or website and choose verification method HTML. This will provide you with a meta tag like this:  
  3. Copy the meta tag and paste in the Google meta data field in your eDirectory SEO Center
  4. Save this and return to Google Webmaster tools and select ‘verify’.
 
Save this then return to Google Webmaster tools and select ‘verify’.
In Bing Webmaster Tools – choose the verify button, add the site URL and copy and paste the meta tag into the site manager.
 

2) Submit a Sitemap

Sitemaps allows you to provide Google with a list of your site URL’s so it’s easier to google to find your pages.
 
In the SEO Center you will choose the ‘click here to go to sitemap’ option. Copy the URL (after the yourdomain.com) and paste this in Google Search Console by choosing Add/Test Sitemap and hit ‘submit’.
 

3) Home Page Optimization

On-page optimization must be treated as an important piece of your SEO strategy. Setup meta keywords properly and writing your content with SEO in mind is key to obtain good results. eDirectory allows you to configure your meta tags for a great optimization.
 
On the SEO center, choose the button ‘click here to go to site content’ and this will bring to you the area to edit the home page and site content.  Choose home page – options – edit.  Here you will choose a proper keyword-rich, search-engine-friendly title for your site’s home page.  In the meta description, add in a keyword-dense description of your site. This will be displayed in search engine results under the title.  Add in keywords and phrases separated by commas.

In the content section, begin your content with the ‘H tags’ – Heading 1 for the title of the page, Heading 2 for sub titles and paragraph content for the rest of the body content.
 
If you’d like to know more about on-page optimization, check out this article:
http://backlinko.com/on-page-seo
 

4) Category Optimization

Choose the Category Optimization option in the SEO Center. Add or edit a category and here you will see the SEO Center at the bottom of the page. Be sure to add proper keywords and phrases to your page title (include region, industry and category name), set the friendly title to also include keywords, add meta keywords separated by commas and add a keyword-rich meta description of your category page.
 
Apply this to your Deals, Events and Classified and custom pages as well and be sure to include region, city or industry in the titles and keywords for best search engine results.
 
Remember that a great piece of useful content for your users is key for SEO, so use the Content Area to provide valuable information for your readers.
 

5) Localization Optimization

Configure your location settings and optimize your site for local search. The localization optimize module in the SEO center allows the site manager to add keywords, phrases and descriptions for location-based queries.  For instance – adding familiar terms like for “New York” you can change the title and keywords in the location data to include NYC and The Big Apple. This can be achieved by editing the location data and edit state.
 

5) Item Optimization

Add or edit a listing, deal, event, classified, article or blog and here you will see the opportunity to edit the SEO Center at the bottom of the page. Be sure to add proper keywords and phrases to your page title (include region, neighborhood, industry and familiar terms), set the friendly title to also include keywords, add meta keywords separated by commas and add a keyword-rich meta description of your listing page.
 
In addition to the SEO center tools eDirectory offers for website content, site managers can also take advantage of additional SEO created by building on your community and encouraging interaction and content creation within the paid listings, paid content and blogs.

As you move forward with your website, we highly recommend keeping up-to-date on SEO trends, monitor how your visitors are searching for content within your site and continue to fine-tune your on-site SEO as well as settings in your webmaster tools.