December 9, 2025 • 13 mins
“What’s the best website platform for SEO?”
It’s a question I hear constantly—and today, I want to bust the myth.
Most modern website platforms already support good SEO.
So if you’re spending hours comparing tools hoping one will magically get you to page one... you’re focusing on the wrong thing.
In this episode, I’m breaking down what actually matters for SEO —and why your content and structure are doing more heavy lifting than your tech stack.
I’ll also share the common mistake I see website owners make that undoes their SEO efforts—regardless of what platform they’re using.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carrie Saunders (01:24):
So, what's the best platform for SEO or search
engine optimization?
It's a question I hear a lot.
And today I want to bust thismyth.
It's something I talk about onsocial media a lot when people
ask this question.
Most modern website platformsalready support good search
engine optimization.
So if you're spending hourscomparing tools, hoping one will
(01:47):
magically get you to page one onGoogle, you're focusing on the
wrong thing.
In this episode, I'm breakingdown what actually matters for
SEO and why your content andstructure are more likely to do
the heavy lifting than your techstack.
I'll also share the commonmistake I see website owners
make that undoes their SEOefforts, regardless of what
(02:07):
platform they're using.
So let's dive in.
Struggling to turn websitetraffic into real sales, you're
not alone and you don't have tofigure it out all yourself.
Welcome to Smarter OnlineBusiness, the podcast for course
creators, coaches, ande-commerce entrepreneurs who
want their websites to convertvisitors into buyers without the
tech overwhelm.
I'm your host, Carrie Saunders,a website strategist and
(02:30):
conversion expert with over 20years of experience.
Each episode delivers simple,proven strategies to help you
generate more revenue and makeyour website your smartest sales
tool.
So let's talk first about thereal role of software in search
engine optimization.
SEO is no longer platformdependent like it was 10 years
(02:50):
ago or so.
Most modern platforms likeWordPress, Shopify, Go High
Level, Kajabi, Squarespace,ShowIt are technically SEO
friendly.
The platform is just acontainer.
It's what you put into it thatactually really matters.
So the platforms in generalshould be supporting the
(03:11):
following things.
And I have not seen one inmodern days that doesn't support
this.
You need to be able to havecustom page titles and
descriptions and metadescriptions, that is.
You need to have clean URLs thatyou can put in.
So ones without some weirdnumbers or weird stuff at the
end.
You can just put words basicallyat the end.
You need to be able to have alttext for your images.
(03:33):
You need to be able to havemobile responsiveness, and you
need to have fast page speedsand good security.
So if your software checks theseboxes, then you're good with
what you have as far as searchengine optimization goes.
So then what actually doesmatter for SEO?
What moves that needle?
What gets you higher in Googleand other search engines?
(03:54):
We need to have clear keywordaligned page titles and H1s.
Now, so what's that?
What does that mean?
Let's break that down.
So keyword aligned page titles.
So when I say that, I mean whatare the words that your
customers are using to find yourservices?
What words do they use when theydescribe their pain points or
(04:16):
their needs?
And so we want to have those asthe page titles.
And the H1s or heading ones,those are that's the bold
heading that you would have atthe top.
And you need to use yoursoftware to select heading one
for that.
So you need to reiterate ormaybe restate that page title,
uh, maybe in a slightlydifferent manner than what you
(04:36):
have in your page title.
You can also have it still bethe same.
So those need to really focus onone key topic, and focusing on
one key topic per page is very,very key.
And then we want to have helpfulstructured content that answers
these questions within the bodyof that page.
So what pain point are youanswering?
What service are you providingthat helps them?
(04:59):
And then we want to haveinternal links between related
pages.
So say you have a page about aservice you have, um, and you
have a blog post talking abouthow you helped a client with
that.
We'll go link to that on thatservice page, or and vice versa.
So having those internallinkings helps the search
engines see the structurewebsite for one, and also helps
(05:22):
link to other pages that havesimilar keywords that help
reinforce that main point there.
And then we want to havedescriptive names on the images
as well as the alt text.
The alt text stands foralternative text, so it's the
text that describes what yourimage is.
So if your image is a bannerimage that talks about what your
(05:43):
service title is, use that, yourservice title as your alt text.
If you have an image of maybeit's a stock image of a person
frustrated on a computer, let'ssay that should be your alt text
for that one.
Or because you do want to use itin a way that's also ADA
compliant or AmericanDisabilities Act compliant, you
(06:04):
need to describe the image aswell.
But we can put your keywords inat the same time.
And then we need to haveconsistency across our pages.
We need to have this consistentstructure where we're focusing
on one main topic and thensupporting the topic.
It's like we're talking to anEnglish teacher or somebody in
uh your school system, you know,back when you're in school and
you wrote papers for yourteachers.
(06:26):
We need to have a one topic perpage on your website, just like
you'd have one topic per umreport that you might write.
And we want to have some depthover time, some more pages, have
a uh not a shallow website.
So a shallow website would bemaybe four or five pages.
Now, if you're just starting outfour or five pages, it's great.
But that's one of the reasonswhy I encourage each of us to
(06:49):
have a blog, even if you onlyhave it published once a month,
that starts building more depthinto your website, more
interesting things for Google,Bing, and the major search
engines to find.
And it makes you look likeyou're updating your site
constantly and care about thecontent on your site.
So it shows Google and Bing andthe other search engines that
(07:09):
you care about your website andyou find it important and they
pay a little bit more attention.
So, what's the big mistake I seea lot?
Thinking that changing platformswill fix your search engine
optimization, and it won'tunless you also fix the content
and structure that the searchengines are indexing.
So that's the stuff within thewebsite.
So let's talk about some quickwins for SEO without switching
(07:33):
platforms.
Let's say you're happy with yourplatform, but you're just
worried about the search engineoptimization about it.
What can you do to improve itbecause you feel like you're
stuck?
First, do a quick headlineaudit.
What is that main topic perpage?
Are you using keywordsnaturally?
Are you speaking your customers'language?
Are you speaking the things thatthey search?
(07:54):
Uh, you may have to do someresearch on this to make sure
that you are, whether it'stalking to clients, whether it's
um doing research in like forumsor like Reddit or other things
like that, Facebook groups.
You may need to do someresearch.
You may need to find where yourpeople are and see what words
they're using.
And you want to make sure everypage has a unique meta title and
(08:16):
description.
Now, the meta title is more usedin search engine optimizations
than the meta description is.
So first focus on that and makesure it you know matches your
keywords and your subject.
And then what's that metadescription for?
I get that question a lot.
So the meta description is moreof like a short preview blurb
(08:37):
that somebody would see whenthey search your subject and
find your search result on uhthe search results page.
So it's a the little bit of chattext that's underneath the page
title.
So you want that to be engagingand drawing them in.
You definitely want to reiteratesome of those keywords, but
really anymore, it's toreinforce what you're going to
help them with on that page, notnecessarily for search engines
(09:00):
to pay attention to.
They don't pay attention to thatfield quite as much as they used
to, but they do take it intoaccount a little bit, but more
so as humans take that intoaccount and skim that little bit
of text and see what it is aboutto make sure they're going to be
clicking on the page they expectto.
And then we want to have alttext on your images, describing
(09:21):
what they are on every singleimage.
You should have this on everysingle image, even if it's a
blank image that's just kind ofcreating a filler space, which
is kind of an old way to createsome space on your website, but
some people still do this.
So even if it's a blank one,describe what it is.
And then I want you to reviewyour home page.
(09:42):
Clear on who you help and whatyou offer and why they should
stay.
Is that very clear?
So none of this requires any newsoftware, just better use of
what you already have.
And if you feel like and say,Oh, Carrie, I haven't done any
of this to my website at allyet, then I challenge you after
listening to this episode, pickyour home page and let's say one
(10:05):
or two more pages, andconcentrate on those.
And those other two pages, maybethat's your main service
offering or your main productyou want to sell, and focus on a
couple.
And then each month, focus onone or two more pages and work
towards you know getting yourwhole website much better for
search engine optimization andmuch better on your content.
(10:27):
And you'll start seeing a goodsnowball effect.
The more you improve, the moreyou're gonna get recognized by
the major search engines, andyou're gonna see some great
improvement.
So if you've been holding offand improving your site because
you thought you needed bettersoftware for search engine
optimization, let this episodebe your green light.
What you need isn't necessarilya new platform if it fills your
(10:50):
other needs.
You need a strategy that makesthe most of the one you're on,
and that's exactly what we talkabout in the converting website
course.
You'll learn how to structureyour pages, write better
content, and build a site thatattracts the right people and
converts them.
You can learn more atSmarterOnline Business.com
forward slash TCW, or you canhop into our free Facebook group
(11:13):
for SEO tips and support.
And that's SmarterOnlineBusiness.com forward slash
Facebook.
And both of those links are inour show notes.
So let's talk about that lasttip.
I want you to audit your SEOsignals.
So here's a five-minute audityou can do today, and these will
be in our show notes in caseyou're driving or you know
(11:33):
working out or something.
I don't want you to miss these.
So I want you to first Googleyour business name.
What shows?
What name shows up?
Do you show up on top?
Another great thing to do isalso to go to duckduckgo.com and
also search your business namethere because Google's a bit
biased on based upon previoussearches you've done.
(11:53):
So you want to see what Googlethinks when you search, but you
also want to see what anon-biased search engine is
thinks whenever you search yourname.
So also go to duckduckgo.com.
And then do you have clearrelevant titles in that search?
So when you search your businessname and your pages come up, do
you have clear relevant titlesthere?
(12:16):
And are your main pages linkedtogether?
Check a few of them.
Are you linking some of yourmain pages together?
And do your images have alttext?
That's if you mouse over it, youshould see some words that pop
up.
If you're not sure whether youhave it on there, you can also
look in the back end on yourpage or on your blog post to
make sure you have alt text.
(12:36):
And these small things buildlong-term momentum, and they are
often overlooked, but they'rereally easy to do.
And once you get in the habit ofmaking sure you have one topic
per page, making sure you have aheadline that supports it and
supporting paragraphs underneathand images that support it, you
will get in the habit of doing amuch better job of naturally
(12:57):
doing search engine optimizationon every single page, and then
you can take it to the nextlevel whenever you're ready.
That's all we have for thisweek's episode of the Smarter
Online Business Podcast.
I hope this was super helpfuland build some confidence in you
and getting your search engineoptimization better and helping
you know that you don't have tochange softwares in case that's
(13:18):
the only thing you're reallyworried about, is your search
engine optimization.
And if you're not already on ournewsletter, go on over to
SmarterOnline Business.comforward slash newsletter, where
you'll get tips like this inyour inbox once a week, where we
love to help our clients and ournewsletter subscribers take that
next step forward with theirwebsite and have it work more
(13:39):
for them rather than againstthem.
And we'll see you next week.
So, what's the best platform for SEO or search
engine optimization?
It's a question I hear a lot.
And today I want to bust thismyth.
It's something I talk about onsocial media a lot when people
ask this question.
Most modern website platformsalready support good search
engine optimization.
So if you're spending hourscomparing tools, hoping one will
(01:47):
magically get you to page one onGoogle, you're focusing on the
wrong thing.
In this episode, I'm breakingdown what actually matters for
SEO and why your content andstructure are more likely to do
the heavy lifting than your techstack.
I'll also share the commonmistake I see website owners
make that undoes their SEOefforts, regardless of what
(02:07):
platform they're using.
So let's dive in.
Struggling to turn websitetraffic into real sales, you're
not alone and you don't have tofigure it out all yourself.
Welcome to Smarter OnlineBusiness, the podcast for course
creators, coaches, ande-commerce entrepreneurs who
want their websites to convertvisitors into buyers without the
tech overwhelm.
I'm your host, Carrie Saunders,a website strategist and
(02:30):
conversion expert with over 20years of experience.
Each episode delivers simple,proven strategies to help you
generate more revenue and makeyour website your smartest sales
tool.
So let's talk first about thereal role of software in search
engine optimization.
SEO is no longer platformdependent like it was 10 years
(02:50):
ago or so.
Most modern platforms likeWordPress, Shopify, Go High
Level, Kajabi, Squarespace,ShowIt are technically SEO
friendly.
The platform is just acontainer.
It's what you put into it thatactually really matters.
So the platforms in generalshould be supporting the
(03:11):
following things.
And I have not seen one inmodern days that doesn't support
this.
You need to be able to havecustom page titles and
descriptions and metadescriptions, that is.
You need to have clean URLs thatyou can put in.
So ones without some weirdnumbers or weird stuff at the
end.
You can just put words basicallyat the end.
You need to be able to have alttext for your images.
(03:33):
You need to be able to havemobile responsiveness, and you
need to have fast page speedsand good security.
So if your software checks theseboxes, then you're good with
what you have as far as searchengine optimization goes.
So then what actually doesmatter for SEO?
What moves that needle?
What gets you higher in Googleand other search engines?
(03:54):
We need to have clear keywordaligned page titles and H1s.
Now, so what's that?
What does that mean?
Let's break that down.
So keyword aligned page titles.
So when I say that, I mean whatare the words that your
customers are using to find yourservices?
What words do they use when theydescribe their pain points or
(04:16):
their needs?
And so we want to have those asthe page titles.
And the H1s or heading ones,those are that's the bold
heading that you would have atthe top.
And you need to use yoursoftware to select heading one
for that.
So you need to reiterate ormaybe restate that page title,
uh, maybe in a slightlydifferent manner than what you
(04:36):
have in your page title.
You can also have it still bethe same.
So those need to really focus onone key topic, and focusing on
one key topic per page is very,very key.
And then we want to have helpfulstructured content that answers
these questions within the bodyof that page.
So what pain point are youanswering?
What service are you providingthat helps them?
(04:59):
And then we want to haveinternal links between related
pages.
So say you have a page about aservice you have, um, and you
have a blog post talking abouthow you helped a client with
that.
We'll go link to that on thatservice page, or and vice versa.
So having those internallinkings helps the search
engines see the structurewebsite for one, and also helps
(05:22):
link to other pages that havesimilar keywords that help
reinforce that main point there.
And then we want to havedescriptive names on the images
as well as the alt text.
The alt text stands foralternative text, so it's the
text that describes what yourimage is.
So if your image is a bannerimage that talks about what your
(05:43):
service title is, use that, yourservice title as your alt text.
If you have an image of maybeit's a stock image of a person
frustrated on a computer, let'ssay that should be your alt text
for that one.
Or because you do want to use itin a way that's also ADA
compliant or AmericanDisabilities Act compliant, you
(06:04):
need to describe the image aswell.
But we can put your keywords inat the same time.
And then we need to haveconsistency across our pages.
We need to have this consistentstructure where we're focusing
on one main topic and thensupporting the topic.
It's like we're talking to anEnglish teacher or somebody in
uh your school system, you know,back when you're in school and
you wrote papers for yourteachers.
(06:26):
We need to have a one topic perpage on your website, just like
you'd have one topic per umreport that you might write.
And we want to have some depthover time, some more pages, have
a uh not a shallow website.
So a shallow website would bemaybe four or five pages.
Now, if you're just starting outfour or five pages, it's great.
But that's one of the reasonswhy I encourage each of us to
(06:49):
have a blog, even if you onlyhave it published once a month,
that starts building more depthinto your website, more
interesting things for Google,Bing, and the major search
engines to find.
And it makes you look likeyou're updating your site
constantly and care about thecontent on your site.
So it shows Google and Bing andthe other search engines that
(07:09):
you care about your website andyou find it important and they
pay a little bit more attention.
So, what's the big mistake I seea lot?
Thinking that changing platformswill fix your search engine
optimization, and it won'tunless you also fix the content
and structure that the searchengines are indexing.
So that's the stuff within thewebsite.
So let's talk about some quickwins for SEO without switching
(07:33):
platforms.
Let's say you're happy with yourplatform, but you're just
worried about the search engineoptimization about it.
What can you do to improve itbecause you feel like you're
stuck?
First, do a quick headlineaudit.
What is that main topic perpage?
Are you using keywordsnaturally?
Are you speaking your customers'language?
Are you speaking the things thatthey search?
(07:54):
Uh, you may have to do someresearch on this to make sure
that you are, whether it'stalking to clients, whether it's
um doing research in like forumsor like Reddit or other things
like that, Facebook groups.
You may need to do someresearch.
You may need to find where yourpeople are and see what words
they're using.
And you want to make sure everypage has a unique meta title and
(08:16):
description.
Now, the meta title is more usedin search engine optimizations
than the meta description is.
So first focus on that and makesure it you know matches your
keywords and your subject.
And then what's that metadescription for?
I get that question a lot.
So the meta description is moreof like a short preview blurb
(08:37):
that somebody would see whenthey search your subject and
find your search result on uhthe search results page.
So it's a the little bit of chattext that's underneath the page
title.
So you want that to be engagingand drawing them in.
You definitely want to reiteratesome of those keywords, but
really anymore, it's toreinforce what you're going to
help them with on that page, notnecessarily for search engines
(09:00):
to pay attention to.
They don't pay attention to thatfield quite as much as they used
to, but they do take it intoaccount a little bit, but more
so as humans take that intoaccount and skim that little bit
of text and see what it is aboutto make sure they're going to be
clicking on the page they expectto.
And then we want to have alttext on your images, describing
(09:21):
what they are on every singleimage.
You should have this on everysingle image, even if it's a
blank image that's just kind ofcreating a filler space, which
is kind of an old way to createsome space on your website, but
some people still do this.
So even if it's a blank one,describe what it is.
And then I want you to reviewyour home page.
(09:42):
Clear on who you help and whatyou offer and why they should
stay.
Is that very clear?
So none of this requires any newsoftware, just better use of
what you already have.
And if you feel like and say,Oh, Carrie, I haven't done any
of this to my website at allyet, then I challenge you after
listening to this episode, pickyour home page and let's say one
(10:05):
or two more pages, andconcentrate on those.
And those other two pages, maybethat's your main service
offering or your main productyou want to sell, and focus on a
couple.
And then each month, focus onone or two more pages and work
towards you know getting yourwhole website much better for
search engine optimization andmuch better on your content.
(10:27):
And you'll start seeing a goodsnowball effect.
The more you improve, the moreyou're gonna get recognized by
the major search engines, andyou're gonna see some great
improvement.
So if you've been holding offand improving your site because
you thought you needed bettersoftware for search engine
optimization, let this episodebe your green light.
What you need isn't necessarilya new platform if it fills your
(10:50):
other needs.
You need a strategy that makesthe most of the one you're on,
and that's exactly what we talkabout in the converting website
course.
You'll learn how to structureyour pages, write better
content, and build a site thatattracts the right people and
converts them.
You can learn more atSmarterOnline Business.com
forward slash TCW, or you canhop into our free Facebook group
(11:13):
for SEO tips and support.
And that's SmarterOnlineBusiness.com forward slash
Facebook.
And both of those links are inour show notes.
So let's talk about that lasttip.
I want you to audit your SEOsignals.
So here's a five-minute audityou can do today, and these will
be in our show notes in caseyou're driving or you know
(11:33):
working out or something.
I don't want you to miss these.
So I want you to first Googleyour business name.
What shows?
What name shows up?
Do you show up on top?
Another great thing to do isalso to go to duckduckgo.com and
also search your business namethere because Google's a bit
biased on based upon previoussearches you've done.
(11:53):
So you want to see what Googlethinks when you search, but you
also want to see what anon-biased search engine is
thinks whenever you search yourname.
So also go to duckduckgo.com.
And then do you have clearrelevant titles in that search?
So when you search your businessname and your pages come up, do
you have clear relevant titlesthere?
(12:16):
And are your main pages linkedtogether?
Check a few of them.
Are you linking some of yourmain pages together?
And do your images have alttext?
That's if you mouse over it, youshould see some words that pop
up.
If you're not sure whether youhave it on there, you can also
look in the back end on yourpage or on your blog post to
make sure you have alt text.
(12:36):
And these small things buildlong-term momentum, and they are
often overlooked, but they'rereally easy to do.
And once you get in the habit ofmaking sure you have one topic
per page, making sure you have aheadline that supports it and
supporting paragraphs underneathand images that support it, you
will get in the habit of doing amuch better job of naturally
(12:57):
doing search engine optimizationon every single page, and then
you can take it to the nextlevel whenever you're ready.
That's all we have for thisweek's episode of the Smarter
Online Business Podcast.
I hope this was super helpfuland build some confidence in you
and getting your search engineoptimization better and helping
you know that you don't have tochange softwares in case that's
(13:18):
the only thing you're reallyworried about, is your search
engine optimization.
And if you're not already on ournewsletter, go on over to
SmarterOnline Business.comforward slash newsletter, where
you'll get tips like this inyour inbox once a week, where we
love to help our clients and ournewsletter subscribers take that
next step forward with theirwebsite and have it work more
(13:39):
for them rather than againstthem.
And we'll see you next week.
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