Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to the techniques that help your website appear in search engine results without paying for placement. In Springly, you can work on three levers: technical optimization (handled automatically by the platform), content structure, and your website's authority. This article covers each of these levers, as well as the limits of SEO on Springly.
- What is SEO?
- How does Springly automatically optimize my technical SEO?
- How do I structure my content for SEO?
- How do I improve my website's authority and influence its ranking?
- What are the limits of SEO on Springly?
What is SEO?
Search engine optimization, or SEO, refers to the set of techniques that help a website appear in search engine results (Google, etc.) without paying for that placement — as opposed to paid search (SEA), which involves purchasing ad space on those same search engines. For paid search, see the article Google Ad Grants for nonprofits.
How does Springly automatically optimize my technical SEO?
Technical optimization includes a set of best practices that Springly already handles for you:
Clean HTML code, generated automatically
When you build your website on Springly, the code is automatically generated following coding best practices — making it easier for search engine crawlers to read and index your pages.
How do I customize my website URL?
You can update your website URL as described below:
- Go to: Website > Settings & Theme > Domain Name
- Click "Click to edit" in the Domain Name section: you can choose a domain name without the .assoconnect.com extension (see Using your own domain name) or simply change the prefix before ".assoconnect.com".
Expected result: the new address appears in the Domain Name field and your website is accessible at that URL.
These changes can have a significant impact if you have already started sharing your website. All links pointing to your site (social media, partners, etc.) will need to be updated to avoid broken page errors.
Why publish pages and articles on relevant topics and keywords?
A few best practices:
- Publishing content regularly improves your search ranking — consider writing simple posts about your nonprofit's activities, news, and updates;
- Never copy and paste content from other sources: this negatively affects your search ranking;
- Articles can also help bring your home page (or any other page) to life by displaying fresh images and content that update automatically as you publish.
To learn more about SEO optimization for articles, see Optimizing the SEO of your articles.
You can add your articles to a custom page using the Articles block. This requires having created at least one article page.
How should I structure my content for SEO?
Content refers to all the text on your website. This text should be clear so that visitors can easily find the information they're looking for. It should also include headings and subheadings to organize your content.
Structuring your text
- Text type: When you create a text block, you can choose the text type: heading, subheading, or normal. Multiple types can appear within the same text block. Don't hesitate to structure your text to make it easier for search engine crawlers to read — this helps improve your site's ranking.
- Font size: font size is not a ranking factor. It will, however, affect the user experience on your website.
- Text & images: For content to be readable by search engine crawlers, your text should not be embedded in images. Crawlers cannot interpret text within an image. It's not forbidden, but SEO best practices favor text outside of images.
How do I add alternative text (ALT) to my images?
- Go to the editing view of a custom page by following this path: Website > Menus and pages > ... > Edit (the custom page of your choice);
- Drag a text block onto the editing area (or use an existing text block);
- Use the image function in the text tool — an advanced image upload tool will appear;
- Upload your image, then fill in the Alternative Text field;
- Confirm to insert the image into the text block.
Important note: the image block also lets you insert images into a custom page, but it does not allow you to add alternative text (ALT). If you're looking to optimize your SEO, it's best to use a text block and insert the image within it.
ALT text should not be too long or too short — it should be descriptive enough to convey what the image contains. A tip: keep it under 80 characters (including punctuation).
Important note: the image block also lets you insert images into a custom page. However, it does not allow you to add ALT text. If you're looking to optimize your SEO, it's best to use a text block and insert the image within it.
How can I improve my website's authority and boost its search ranking?
Social media
Social media is an effective way to drive awareness of your website and build quality signals for search engines. If you have social media accounts, always include a link to your website on each of them.
The more traffic your social media accounts generate, the more likely visitors are to click through to your website — which increases your site's traffic and, in turn, its search ranking.
External links to your website
These are links to your website found on other sites. They have a positive impact on your search ranking. Such links can come from partner websites, nonprofits that mention you, or one of your members (as part of their involvement with your organization), for example.
If you change or update your domain name, it will automatically affect your search ranking, as any external links pointing to your site will no longer be valid. Be sure to ask sites that link to you to update their links (a broken external link also penalizes the site that contains it).
What are the SEO limitations on Springly?
Some SEO optimizations are not available on Springly:
Adding META tags in the HTML code
Most tags are automatically generated by the software and cannot be modified. Only two tags are editable: meta-title and meta-description (see this article to learn more).
Adding H1 tags
You cannot add H1 tags (title format), except in article titles. However, you can create H2 and H3 tags.
Removing IDs from page URLs
Springly URLs contain numbers that correspond to page identifiers.
In the following example, it is not possible to remove the number 856640 from the URL "https://www.assodemo-culture.org/page/856640-actualites":
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