Website Stats Dashboard
You can view Stats for any of your sites via the Stats button associated with that site on the main page of your account.
Free users can see their Pageviews and Unique Visitors from the past 30 days. Pro users can see this information as well as their most visited pages, search terms that were used to find their site and the sites which referred the most traffic to their site.
What do all these stats mean?
Pageviews: The number of pages visitors viewed on a given day. One visitor may visit three, ten, twenty, however many pages.
Unique Visitors: The number of individual visitors who came to the site. The unique visitors number should always be smaller than the pageviews number simply because one person can visit multiple pages and thereby generate a number of different pageviews.
Top Pages: The pages with the most visits. The page called "/" is the home page and it should get the most visits usually.
Search Terms: This shows which search terms visitors have entered in Google, Bing and Yahoo to find your site. The more search terms you see, the better ranked your site likely is in on the search engines.
Referring Sites: If a visitor clicked a link on another site to reach your site then they have been "referred" to your own site by this other site. The more in-bound links you have pointing to your site, the better your search rank will likely end up being.
Free users can see their Pageviews and Unique Visitors from the past 30 days. Pro users can see this information as well as their most visited pages, search terms that were used to find their site and the sites which referred the most traffic to their site.
What do all these stats mean?
Pageviews: The number of pages visitors viewed on a given day. One visitor may visit three, ten, twenty, however many pages.
Unique Visitors: The number of individual visitors who came to the site. The unique visitors number should always be smaller than the pageviews number simply because one person can visit multiple pages and thereby generate a number of different pageviews.
Top Pages: The pages with the most visits. The page called "/" is the home page and it should get the most visits usually.
Search Terms: This shows which search terms visitors have entered in Google, Bing and Yahoo to find your site. The more search terms you see, the better ranked your site likely is in on the search engines.
Referring Sites: If a visitor clicked a link on another site to reach your site then they have been "referred" to your own site by this other site. The more in-bound links you have pointing to your site, the better your search rank will likely end up being.
Google Analytics
You are welcome to add Google Analytics to any site to augment the stats that we provide in your account. It's a free tool you can use to analyze your website traffic in more depth.
To add Google Analytics to your site, sign-up for an account and add your site to that account.
Google will provide you with a block of code to add to your site. Copy this code - you'll need to paste to a specific area of our editor. If you have trouble finding this code, take a look at Google's help page.
Log in to Sitezapp and select to Edit your site.
Then go to the Settings tab and select the Search Engine Optimization section. Paste the code into either the Header or Footer area. Google prefers the Header currently, but it really doesn't matter that much.
Save and then Publish your site.
Google will now begin tracking the traffic to your website. Please note that there is a 24 to 48 hour delay between when you add the code to your website and when stats become available in Google Analytics.
To add Google Analytics to your site, sign-up for an account and add your site to that account.
Google will provide you with a block of code to add to your site. Copy this code - you'll need to paste to a specific area of our editor. If you have trouble finding this code, take a look at Google's help page.
Log in to Sitezapp and select to Edit your site.
Then go to the Settings tab and select the Search Engine Optimization section. Paste the code into either the Header or Footer area. Google prefers the Header currently, but it really doesn't matter that much.
Save and then Publish your site.
Google will now begin tracking the traffic to your website. Please note that there is a 24 to 48 hour delay between when you add the code to your website and when stats become available in Google Analytics.
How to Optimize Your Site for Search Engines (SEO)
Now that you’ve built a great site, you’ll want people to be able to easily find and visit your site. One way to do that is to simply give them the address (like www.nameofyourwebsitehere.com or yoursite.sitezapp.com) so they can go there directly.
But, of course, that only works for those people to whom you have a close enough connection to provide the address. Everyone else will find your site on Search Engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. How can you optimize your site to ensure you appear as high as possible in the search engine rankings?
Start with the basics. Read our Description, Titles and Keywords article to learn how / why to add this information throughout the pages of your site.
While you're doing this, keep in mind that keywords are not made out of magic (this is explained further in the Keywords help article linked above). Just because you add a keyword to your site does not mean search engines are going to find you through that keyword. If life were that easy, we’d all be rich and retired to our own private islands by now.
Get a Google Webmaster account. Google is far and away the most important search engine (it’s not even close) and a Webmaster account can give you more control over / insight into how they’re ranking you. We show how to setup an account in our Google Webmaster help article.
Use page names that are relevant to search words and phrases. The name you provide to a page in Sitezapp is the name given to that page both in the site navigation and in the address of that page on your site. Why is this important? Because if a word is in your address it is seen as more relevant to your site by search engines. More relevant means more likely to to show up in search results.
Use keyword phrases in your links. If you link from one page of your site to another, use descriptive text for the link. For example this:
Read our How to Create Links article to learn how to do this on your own site.
Is better than this:
Use Titles to headline content in your site (when appropriate). Search Engines see Titles (which are tagged as H2 -- don't worry about this if you don't know what it means) as generally more important than regular text. You can add Titles to your site via our Title element and via the Title section of any Paragraph element that includes a Title.
But don’t write all your text in a Title. That will make things worse for your site. You can’t trick the search engines like this, so don’t try.
Is your site relevant only to people in a certain area? Highlight that by Creating a Google Map that shows site visitors your location and by referring to the physical location of your business throughout the site where appropriate. Writing “Visit our San Francisco showroom” is better than writing “Come see our showroom.”
Use alt-text for your photos. This doesn’t work in our galleries or slideshows, but you can add alt-text to a regular picture by clicking on it and using the Advanced Option in the toolbar. This should be used to add a short description of the image. View our How to Upload a Picture instructions to see more detail on this option.
Get other sites to link back to your site. The more sites that link to your own site (as a general rule), the more Google trusts your site to be worthwhile. Think of other people linking back to your site as word-of-mouth that tells not just other people to check-out your site, but tells the search engines to do the same.
There is nothing more important to your ranking than other sites linking to you, but there is no get-rich-quick method to get links back to your site. Build interesting content and let people know it exists. Just as building a business takes work and time and effort, building traffic to a website takes work and time and effort.
Link to your own site from any other sites you may have (like a Twitter or Facebook profile). If you have an email newsletter, archive it via your email provider's site so that your own newsletter acts as another site linking to you.
Maintain a Blog. A blog enables you to continually add content to your site. The search engines like to see new content on your site. Read our Create a Blog article to learn how to build a blog with Sitezapp.
Make reasonable goals. If you're a photographer, you are not going to show up at the top of the search results for the word photographer. If you're a florist, you aren't going to show up at the top of the search results for flowers or mother's day.
But if you're a photographer in San Francisco, you can potentially get to the top of the list for San Francisco Headshot Photographers. If you're a florist in London, you can work to get a good search ranking for Valentine's Day Flowers, London. Focus on that. Focus on getting your site to show up in a search for your own name. Try to get the attention of bloggers who may write about your business. Encourage visitors to review your business at places like Wheninmanila.com.
And if you want more tips, do a Google search for SEO Tips. A lot of different people have written a lot of different articles on this topic. This help article is meant to be a good place to start, but it certainly isn't the end-all, be-all of SEO. It never hurts to research other sources of information.
But, of course, that only works for those people to whom you have a close enough connection to provide the address. Everyone else will find your site on Search Engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. How can you optimize your site to ensure you appear as high as possible in the search engine rankings?
Start with the basics. Read our Description, Titles and Keywords article to learn how / why to add this information throughout the pages of your site.
While you're doing this, keep in mind that keywords are not made out of magic (this is explained further in the Keywords help article linked above). Just because you add a keyword to your site does not mean search engines are going to find you through that keyword. If life were that easy, we’d all be rich and retired to our own private islands by now.
Get a Google Webmaster account. Google is far and away the most important search engine (it’s not even close) and a Webmaster account can give you more control over / insight into how they’re ranking you. We show how to setup an account in our Google Webmaster help article.
Use page names that are relevant to search words and phrases. The name you provide to a page in Sitezapp is the name given to that page both in the site navigation and in the address of that page on your site. Why is this important? Because if a word is in your address it is seen as more relevant to your site by search engines. More relevant means more likely to to show up in search results.
Use keyword phrases in your links. If you link from one page of your site to another, use descriptive text for the link. For example this:
Read our How to Create Links article to learn how to do this on your own site.
Is better than this:
Use Titles to headline content in your site (when appropriate). Search Engines see Titles (which are tagged as H2 -- don't worry about this if you don't know what it means) as generally more important than regular text. You can add Titles to your site via our Title element and via the Title section of any Paragraph element that includes a Title.
But don’t write all your text in a Title. That will make things worse for your site. You can’t trick the search engines like this, so don’t try.
Is your site relevant only to people in a certain area? Highlight that by Creating a Google Map that shows site visitors your location and by referring to the physical location of your business throughout the site where appropriate. Writing “Visit our San Francisco showroom” is better than writing “Come see our showroom.”
Use alt-text for your photos. This doesn’t work in our galleries or slideshows, but you can add alt-text to a regular picture by clicking on it and using the Advanced Option in the toolbar. This should be used to add a short description of the image. View our How to Upload a Picture instructions to see more detail on this option.
Get other sites to link back to your site. The more sites that link to your own site (as a general rule), the more Google trusts your site to be worthwhile. Think of other people linking back to your site as word-of-mouth that tells not just other people to check-out your site, but tells the search engines to do the same.
There is nothing more important to your ranking than other sites linking to you, but there is no get-rich-quick method to get links back to your site. Build interesting content and let people know it exists. Just as building a business takes work and time and effort, building traffic to a website takes work and time and effort.
Link to your own site from any other sites you may have (like a Twitter or Facebook profile). If you have an email newsletter, archive it via your email provider's site so that your own newsletter acts as another site linking to you.
Maintain a Blog. A blog enables you to continually add content to your site. The search engines like to see new content on your site. Read our Create a Blog article to learn how to build a blog with Sitezapp.
Make reasonable goals. If you're a photographer, you are not going to show up at the top of the search results for the word photographer. If you're a florist, you aren't going to show up at the top of the search results for flowers or mother's day.
But if you're a photographer in San Francisco, you can potentially get to the top of the list for San Francisco Headshot Photographers. If you're a florist in London, you can work to get a good search ranking for Valentine's Day Flowers, London. Focus on that. Focus on getting your site to show up in a search for your own name. Try to get the attention of bloggers who may write about your business. Encourage visitors to review your business at places like Wheninmanila.com.
And if you want more tips, do a Google search for SEO Tips. A lot of different people have written a lot of different articles on this topic. This help article is meant to be a good place to start, but it certainly isn't the end-all, be-all of SEO. It never hurts to research other sources of information.
The Basics of Search Engine Optimization
Every website has an address that can be used by anyone who wants to visit that site. But how do people who don't know the address of your site find you? Search Engines! Most people use Google to look for sites, and a smaller number of people use Yahoo or Bing. So you want to get your site listed on these search engines so that your site can be found by the wide audience of potential visitors.
So what are the first things you should do to make your site easy to find on search engines?
Use the SEO Tools in Your Sitezapp Account
Every Sitezapp site has a place for you to enter Keywords and a Description for your site. These can be found under Settings > Search Engine Optimization.
Both of these fields help search engines to categorize your site. And the Description is what will actually be displayed as the description for your site in your search engine listings.
The Description should be two to three sentences long and provide a fairly detailed description of what your site is about. Are you a florist in Denver? Then write something like:
Flowers and Such is a professional florist in Denver, CO with 25 years experience making birthdays a little brighter and anniversaries a little rosier. We have roses, lilies, orchids, tulips and every other flower under the sun.
That example Description lets visitors know exactly what the business is about, where it's located (which helps locals see this in their searches), lists some flowers people may be searching for and shows a little personality to boot.
The Keywords should be fairly targeted and also be the kind of words you use on your site. If your Keywords don't match your site content then they are practically useless. The imaginary florist we've written about above might want a list of Keywords like Flowers, Florist, Denver, Colorado, Birthdays, Anniversaries, Weddings, Apologize, Roses, Lilies, Orchids, Tulips. You may want to use around 20 or 30 words here that match your content and the types of searches people may do to find that content.
Note that Keywords are ultimately only helpful with search engines if they are words you actually use throughout your site (especially in Title areas). Otherwise Google (and other search engines) will just think you're trying to game the system by using Keywords that are irrelevant to your site and will just ignore them.
Each page of your site also has a place for Keywords and a Description. These can be found under Pages > Advanced Settings.
These work the same way as the Site Keywords / Description except they should be specific to the content of the page to which they're connected.
So what are the first things you should do to make your site easy to find on search engines?
Use the SEO Tools in Your Sitezapp Account
Every Sitezapp site has a place for you to enter Keywords and a Description for your site. These can be found under Settings > Search Engine Optimization.
Both of these fields help search engines to categorize your site. And the Description is what will actually be displayed as the description for your site in your search engine listings.
The Description should be two to three sentences long and provide a fairly detailed description of what your site is about. Are you a florist in Denver? Then write something like:
Flowers and Such is a professional florist in Denver, CO with 25 years experience making birthdays a little brighter and anniversaries a little rosier. We have roses, lilies, orchids, tulips and every other flower under the sun.
That example Description lets visitors know exactly what the business is about, where it's located (which helps locals see this in their searches), lists some flowers people may be searching for and shows a little personality to boot.
The Keywords should be fairly targeted and also be the kind of words you use on your site. If your Keywords don't match your site content then they are practically useless. The imaginary florist we've written about above might want a list of Keywords like Flowers, Florist, Denver, Colorado, Birthdays, Anniversaries, Weddings, Apologize, Roses, Lilies, Orchids, Tulips. You may want to use around 20 or 30 words here that match your content and the types of searches people may do to find that content.
Note that Keywords are ultimately only helpful with search engines if they are words you actually use throughout your site (especially in Title areas). Otherwise Google (and other search engines) will just think you're trying to game the system by using Keywords that are irrelevant to your site and will just ignore them.
Each page of your site also has a place for Keywords and a Description. These can be found under Pages > Advanced Settings.
These work the same way as the Site Keywords / Description except they should be specific to the content of the page to which they're connected.
Verify Your Site with Google
Verifying your site with Google Webmaster Tools gives you access to reports about your site's visibility and ensures that your site is indexed by Google on a faster / more regular basis. It isn't necessary, but it's a smart way to help your search ranking. You can find Google Webmaster Tools here:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
Follow the link above and then log in (if you already have a Google account of some kind) or create a Google account (if you don't already have one). Any sort of Google account -- like a Gmail or Google Apps email address -- will allow you to log in.
Use the Add a Site button to add your site to the Webmaster account. You can come back to this page later and add even more sites to this same account if needed.
Click "Add a Site" opens a dialog box where you'll need to enter the address of your site. If you own your own domain name, enter it as www.yourdomain.com (like www.tomsterrifictravels.com; the "www" is a necessary part of the submission); if you're using a free Sitezaoo subdomain enter it as yoursubdomain.sitezapp.com (like tomstravels.sitezapp.com; do not include "www").
Clicking continue will open the Verify Ownership section. You have to verify yourself as the owner since Google doesn't want a random person to represent your site.
It's important here that you select Alternate Methods and choose the HTML tag option.
Copy the line of HTML code that Google provides to you.
Then leave this page open and go to your Sitezapp account. Within our Site Creator go to Settings > SEO and paste the line of code you copied from Google into the Header box. Be sure to Save and Publish your site. If there's already code in the header, plave this code above or below it.
When you've done this, go back to Google Webmaster Tools and click the Verify button.
If you see an error, make absolutely sure you've Published your site, give it a couple of minutes, and then try again. You should now see a congratulations message.
Clicking the "Continue" link will bring you to the Site Dashboard. Now you should submit your sitemap. We automatically created a sitemap for you: it's at http://example.sitezapp.com/sitemap.xml or http://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml in the case that you're published to your own domain name.
Either way, you just need to enter sitemap.xml into the box Google provides you when you submit.
All done!
Google Webmaster Tools has a lot of cool features to play around with after you're verified. These features can help you see how well your site is ranked You never have to use them (verification is the only significantly important thing to do here), but they're there if you want to check them out. Google provides an FAQ that covers all the features:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1050724?hl=en
http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
Follow the link above and then log in (if you already have a Google account of some kind) or create a Google account (if you don't already have one). Any sort of Google account -- like a Gmail or Google Apps email address -- will allow you to log in.
Use the Add a Site button to add your site to the Webmaster account. You can come back to this page later and add even more sites to this same account if needed.
Click "Add a Site" opens a dialog box where you'll need to enter the address of your site. If you own your own domain name, enter it as www.yourdomain.com (like www.tomsterrifictravels.com; the "www" is a necessary part of the submission); if you're using a free Sitezaoo subdomain enter it as yoursubdomain.sitezapp.com (like tomstravels.sitezapp.com; do not include "www").
Clicking continue will open the Verify Ownership section. You have to verify yourself as the owner since Google doesn't want a random person to represent your site.
It's important here that you select Alternate Methods and choose the HTML tag option.
Copy the line of HTML code that Google provides to you.
Then leave this page open and go to your Sitezapp account. Within our Site Creator go to Settings > SEO and paste the line of code you copied from Google into the Header box. Be sure to Save and Publish your site. If there's already code in the header, plave this code above or below it.
When you've done this, go back to Google Webmaster Tools and click the Verify button.
If you see an error, make absolutely sure you've Published your site, give it a couple of minutes, and then try again. You should now see a congratulations message.
Clicking the "Continue" link will bring you to the Site Dashboard. Now you should submit your sitemap. We automatically created a sitemap for you: it's at http://example.sitezapp.com/sitemap.xml or http://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml in the case that you're published to your own domain name.
Either way, you just need to enter sitemap.xml into the box Google provides you when you submit.
All done!
Google Webmaster Tools has a lot of cool features to play around with after you're verified. These features can help you see how well your site is ranked You never have to use them (verification is the only significantly important thing to do here), but they're there if you want to check them out. Google provides an FAQ that covers all the features:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1050724?hl=en