You spent weeks designing your Showit site. The layout looks exactly right. The fonts are perfect. The pages feel intentional. And now you are ready to hit publish.
But before you do, there is a quiet problem that catches most Showit users off guard: the platform gives you an enormous amount of creative freedom, and that freedom comes with a tradeoff. Almost nothing is configured for SEO by default. No heading tags on your canvas text. No meta descriptions filled in. No Google Search Console connected. No sitemap submitted. And in some cases, pages may even be set to noindex without you realizing it.
This guide is the Showit SEO settings guide you run through before your site ever goes live. It covers every critical configuration task across 18 checklist items, written for anyone launching a Showit site regardless of industry. Whether you are a coach, consultant, service provider, or creative, this checklist applies to your site.
By the end, you will have a fully optimized Showit site that Google can crawl, understand, and index correctly from day one.
18 Showit SEO tasks to complete before launch, covering meta settings, heading structure, image optimization, Google Search Console setup, WordPress blog configuration, schema markup, and internal linking. Completing all 18 items gives your site the strongest possible foundation before your first visitor arrives.
Why Most Showit Sites Launch Without Proper SEO
Before getting into the checklist, it helps to understand why so many Showit users skip these steps. It is rarely intentional. Three specific patterns cause it repeatedly.
Pattern 1: The design-first mindset. Showit attracts users who care deeply about how their site looks. The builder is visual, drag-and-drop, and optimized for pixel-perfect layouts. When you are deep in canvas editing, adjusting padding and picking fonts, SEO settings feel like a separate task that can wait. They always get pushed to “after launch,” and after launch, they often never happen.
Pattern 2: SEO settings are buried inside the editor. Showit does not have a dedicated SEO dashboard. Page-level settings like meta titles, meta descriptions, and noindex controls live inside each individual page’s settings panel. You have to click into every page separately to configure them. There is no global view, no warnings for missing data, and no prompt reminding you to complete these fields. If you do not know to look, you simply never fill them in.
Pattern 3: The WordPress blog feels like a separate product. Showit uses WordPress to power blog content, and many users treat the two systems as entirely separate. They configure the visual Showit side and then forget that the blog requires its own SEO plugin, its own sitemap submission, its own heading structure, and its own schema configuration. The result is a beautiful visual site sitting on top of an unoptimized blog that Google struggles to interpret correctly.
None of these are mistakes that indicate a lack of technical skill. They are natural products of how Showit is built. This checklist exists precisely because the platform does not walk you through these steps on its own. For a broader look at what Showit can and cannot do for your rankings, see this breakdown of whether Showit is good for SEO.
The Complete 18-Item Showit SEO Checklist
Work through these items in order. The first several cover the most critical technical foundations. Later items handle advanced configuration and testing. Do not skip ahead, as some items depend on earlier ones being complete.
1. Set a Unique Meta Title for Every Page
Your meta title is the clickable blue headline that appears in Google search results. It is one of the strongest on-page SEO signals you can control, and it needs to be unique for every single page on your site. Duplicate meta titles across pages confuse Google and dilute your relevance signals. A strong meta title includes your primary keyword for that page, stays under 60 characters to avoid truncation, and tells the reader exactly what the page is about.
How to do it: In the Showit editor, click on a page in the left sidebar, then open the Page Settings panel. Find the SEO section and fill in the Title field. Do this for every page, including your home page, about page, services pages, contact page, and any landing pages. Do not use the same title twice. A common format is: Primary Keyword | Brand Name.
2. Write a Meta Description for Every Page
Meta descriptions do not directly influence rankings, but they directly influence click-through rates. A compelling meta description is what convinces someone to click your result over the five others on the page. Google sometimes rewrites descriptions, but providing one gives you control over the default messaging and helps Google understand your page’s intent. Keep descriptions between 140 and 155 characters, include a natural mention of your page’s keyword, and write them like ad copy rather than academic summaries.
How to do it: In the same Page Settings panel where you set the meta title, fill in the Description field. Write a sentence or two that describes what a visitor gets from that specific page. Treat each one as a micro-pitch. Pages without descriptions get auto-generated snippets pulled from body content, which are rarely ideal.
3. Assign Heading Tags (H1, H2, H3) to Canvas Text Elements
This is the most commonly skipped step in Showit SEO, and it has significant consequences. By default, all canvas text elements in Showit are styled visually but carry no semantic HTML heading tag. From Google’s perspective, if no heading tags are assigned, your page has no structural hierarchy. Google uses heading tags to understand the topic of each section and to determine the primary subject of the page. Every page should have exactly one H1 that contains or closely relates to the page’s target keyword, and then H2s and H3s for subheadings throughout the page.
How to do it: Click on a text element in the Showit canvas, then look for the HTML Tag option in the text settings on the right side panel. Change it from the default (which renders as a paragraph or div) to H1, H2, or H3 as appropriate. Your page headline gets H1. Section titles get H2. Sub-points under those sections get H3. Do this for every page, not just the home page.
4. Set Clean URL Slugs for All Pages
Every page on your Showit site has a slug, which is the part of the URL after your domain. Showit sometimes auto-generates slugs from page names, and those generated slugs can include numbers, underscores, or odd formatting. Clean URLs are short, readable, and keyword-relevant. A services page URL like yourdomain.com/services/ is better than yourdomain.com/services-page-1/. Clean URLs also prevent future SEO damage from URL changes after launch, which break any backlinks and require 301 redirects to fix.
How to do it: In the Page Settings panel for each page, find the URL Slug or Page Path field and set it to a short, descriptive, lowercase slug. Use hyphens between words. Avoid changing slugs after your site is live unless you set up proper 301 redirects. Lock these in before launch and treat them as permanent.
5. Add Alt Text to Every Image
Alt text serves two purposes: it tells Google what an image contains, contributing to your page’s topical relevance, and it provides accessibility descriptions for visitors using screen readers. Both matter. Images without alt text are invisible to search engines from a semantic standpoint. For content images, write descriptive alt text that naturally includes a relevant keyword where appropriate. For decorative images that add no informational value, use an empty alt attribute rather than skipping it entirely.
How to do it: Click on any image element in the Showit canvas. In the right panel, find the Alt Text field and write a clear, concise description of what the image shows. Aim for 10 to 15 words. Avoid keyword stuffing. If the image is purely decorative, leave the alt text field blank rather than writing something forced. On your WordPress blog, add alt text to every image you upload in the media library.
6. Compress All Images to Under 300KB
Image file size is one of the top contributors to slow page load times, and slow pages rank lower in Google’s search results. Showit sites are often image-heavy by design, which makes this step especially important. The goal is to compress every image below 300KB while keeping visual quality high enough that visitors cannot tell the difference. For hero images and full-width backgrounds, aim for under 500KB. For smaller section images and thumbnails, target under 100KB.
How to do it: Before uploading any image to Showit or your WordPress media library, run it through a compression tool. Squoosh.app is free and browser-based. TinyPNG and ShortPixel also work well. Export images as WebP format where possible, as WebP files are typically 25 to 35 percent smaller than equivalent JPEGs at the same quality. Set images to the actual display dimensions rather than uploading oversized files and scaling them down in the editor.
7. Enable SSL (HTTPS)
SSL is a confirmed Google ranking factor, and browsers flag non-HTTPS sites as “Not Secure,” which destroys trust and drives visitors away immediately. HTTPS also ensures that data passed between your site and visitors is encrypted. The good news is that Showit provides free SSL through all plans. The risk is that it is occasionally not enabled by default on custom domains, and some users publish without checking.
How to do it: In Showit’s site settings, navigate to the domain configuration section. Verify that your custom domain shows an active SSL certificate. If you recently connected a new domain, it may take a few hours for SSL to provision. Test by visiting your site with https:// in the browser address bar. If it loads without a security warning, SSL is active. Also check that http:// automatically redirects to https://, which Showit handles but is worth confirming.
8. Connect Google Search Console
Google Search Console is the most important free SEO tool available for any website. It shows you exactly which pages Google has indexed, which keywords are driving impressions and clicks, any crawl errors or coverage issues, and whether your sitemaps have been processed. Without it, you are flying blind. Connecting it before launch means you will have baseline data from day one rather than starting your measurement weeks after traffic begins.
How to do it: Go to search.google.com/search-console and add your property. Use the Domain property type for the most complete data. Verify ownership using the DNS verification method through your domain registrar, or use the HTML tag method by pasting a verification meta tag into Showit’s site-wide header code injection field under Site Settings. Once verified, you will begin receiving data within 24 to 72 hours.
9. Submit Both Sitemaps (Showit and WordPress)
This step trips up many Showit users because they do not realize there are two separate sitemaps. Showit generates a sitemap for your canvas pages automatically, typically at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. But your WordPress blog runs on a separate subdirectory, usually /blog/, and generates its own sitemap through your installed SEO plugin. If you only submit the Showit sitemap, Google may never properly discover and index your blog posts. Both need to be submitted.
How to do it: In Google Search Console, navigate to the Sitemaps section and submit your Showit sitemap first. Then submit your WordPress blog sitemap, which is typically located at yourdomain.com/blog/sitemap_index.xml when using Rank Math, or yourdomain.com/blog/sitemap.xml with Yoast. Check back after 24 to 48 hours to confirm both sitemaps show a Success status. If there are errors, investigate the specific URLs being flagged.
10. Install Rank Math or Yoast on Your WordPress Blog
Showit’s visual site has its own SEO fields, but your WordPress blog needs a dedicated SEO plugin to manage meta titles, meta descriptions, sitemaps, schema markup, and Open Graph tags for blog posts. Without a plugin, your blog posts have no structured SEO configuration at all. Rank Math is the recommended option for most users because its free tier includes schema markup, advanced redirects, and keyword tracking features that Yoast gates behind a premium plan. Either plugin is a significant improvement over no plugin.
How to do it: Log in to your WordPress dashboard at yourdomain.com/blog/wp-admin/. Go to Plugins, click Add New, and search for either Rank Math SEO or Yoast SEO. Install and activate your chosen plugin. Run through the setup wizard, which will walk you through basic configuration including connecting to Google Search Console and configuring your sitemap. Complete the wizard fully before moving to the next checklist item. For a step-by-step walkthrough, see the complete Showit SEO guide.
11. Set Up XML Sitemap in Your SEO Plugin
Even after installing Rank Math or Yoast, you need to verify that the XML sitemap is actually enabled and generating correctly. Some configurations default to sitemap off, or the sitemap URL may differ from what you expect. A properly configured sitemap ensures Google can find all your blog posts efficiently, especially once you start publishing content regularly. It also allows Google to prioritize which pages to crawl based on your update frequency settings.
How to do it: In Rank Math, go to Rank Math in the WordPress dashboard, then General Settings, then Sitemap. Confirm the sitemap is enabled. In Yoast, go to Yoast SEO, Features, and toggle XML Sitemaps on if it is not already active. Visit the sitemap URL directly in your browser to confirm it renders a valid XML file with your page URLs listed. Then copy that URL and submit it in Google Search Console as described in item 9.
12. Configure Open Graph Images for Social Sharing
Open Graph images are the preview images that appear when someone shares your pages or blog posts on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, or X. Without setting these explicitly, social platforms pull whatever image they find first on the page, which is often a logo, a small icon, or nothing at all. A well-configured Open Graph image should be 1200 by 630 pixels, visually represent the page content, and include your brand or page title where appropriate.
How to do it: For your Showit canvas pages, find the Social Image or Open Graph Image option in each page’s settings panel and upload a dedicated 1200 by 630 pixel image. For WordPress blog posts, your SEO plugin handles this. In Rank Math, look for the Social tab inside the post editor’s Rank Math sidebar and upload a custom image. In Yoast, the social settings are in the Yoast sidebar panel inside each post. Test how your pages appear when shared using Facebook’s Sharing Debugger tool at developers.facebook.com/tools/debug.
13. Add Schema Markup via Header Code Injection
Schema markup is structured data that tells Google exactly what type of content your page contains. For a service page, schema communicates that it is a service offering with a specific provider. For an about page, it can communicate your identity as a person or organization. For blog posts, it marks up the author, publish date, and topic. Schema does not directly boost rankings, but it makes your content eligible for rich results in search, which increases visibility and click-through rates significantly.
How to do it: For your WordPress blog, your SEO plugin handles schema markup automatically for posts. For Showit canvas pages, you need to add schema manually. Generate your JSON-LD schema code using Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper or write it directly for common types like LocalBusiness, Person, or WebSite. Then paste the script tag into Showit’s per-page header code injection field, found inside Page Settings under the Advanced or Code tab. Validate all schema using Google’s Rich Results Test at search.google.com/test/rich-results before going live. For advanced implementation guidance, see this detailed Showit SEO guide.
14. Set Up Google Analytics (GA4)
Google Analytics 4 is how you track actual visitor behavior after your site goes live. Unlike Search Console, which shows you how your site performs in search, GA4 shows you what visitors do once they arrive: which pages they visit, how long they stay, which buttons they click, and where they drop off. This data becomes essential for making informed decisions about which content to create, which pages to improve, and whether your SEO efforts are translating into real traffic growth.
How to do it: Go to analytics.google.com and create a new GA4 property for your domain. Copy the Measurement ID (formatted as G-XXXXXXXXXX). In Showit, go to Site Settings and find the Code Injection or Header Code section. Paste your GA4 tracking snippet there to apply it across all Showit canvas pages. For your WordPress blog, your SEO plugin may include a Google Analytics connection option, or you can use the free Site Kit plugin by Google to handle both analytics and Search Console integration directly from your WordPress dashboard.
15. Add Internal Links Between Pages and Posts
Internal links pass authority between your pages, help Google discover and crawl your full site, and guide visitors deeper into your content. A site with no internal links is a collection of isolated pages. A site with intentional internal linking is a connected network where every page supports every other page. Before launch, review each page and ask whether a visitor on that page would benefit from being directed somewhere else on your site. Then add those links explicitly.
How to do it: In your Showit canvas pages, select any text element and highlight the text you want to link. Use the link tool to set the URL to another page on your site. Aim for at least two to three internal links per key page. On your WordPress blog, include internal links within post body content pointing to related posts and to your main Showit pages. Your services page should link to relevant blog posts. Blog posts should link back to services pages where contextually relevant. Build this as a habit from the first piece of content you publish.
16. Test Mobile Canvas on a Real Device
Showit gives you separate desktop and mobile canvases, which is powerful but also creates a specific risk: a page can look perfect on desktop and be completely broken on mobile if you have not explicitly designed and tested the mobile view. Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning it primarily uses your mobile version to determine rankings. A broken or unoptimized mobile experience directly damages your search performance, regardless of how well everything else is configured.
How to do it: In the Showit editor, switch to the mobile canvas view for every page and go through each element. Check that text is readable without zooming, that buttons are large enough to tap, that images are not cropped awkwardly, and that any animations or interactions work correctly. Then preview on an actual phone, not just a browser resize. The browser simulation and a real device render differently. Use Showit’s preview link to open the page on your phone before publishing. Check both iOS Safari and Android Chrome if possible, as they handle some CSS properties differently.
17. Check for Noindex Settings on Pages You Want Indexed
This is the most dangerous item on the entire list if overlooked. Every page in Showit has a noindex toggle in its settings. When noindex is on, Google sees an instruction to completely ignore that page and remove it from search results. This setting is useful for thank-you pages, password-protected pages, or draft pages you do not want ranked. But it is easy to accidentally leave noindex enabled when duplicating pages or setting up test pages, and launching with noindex on means all your other SEO work on that page is invisible to Google.
How to do it: Go through every page in Showit’s left sidebar. Open Page Settings for each one and locate the Search Engine Visibility or Noindex setting. Confirm it is turned off for every page you want Google to index. Pages that should remain noindex include thank-you pages, confirmation pages, duplicate test pages, and any pages not meant for public search traffic. Do the same review inside your WordPress dashboard for any draft or private posts that may have been published accidentally.
18. Run a PageSpeed Insights Test and Fix Critical Issues
Page speed is a direct Google ranking factor for both desktop and mobile. Core Web Vitals, which include Largest Contentful Paint, Cumulative Layout Shift, and Interaction to Next Paint, are the specific metrics Google measures. Poor scores on these metrics reduce your rankings, increase bounce rates, and undermine all other SEO work you have done. Running a PageSpeed Insights test before launch gives you a baseline and reveals any critical issues that need fixing before your site goes public.
How to do it: Visit pagespeed.web.dev and enter your site’s URL. Review the mobile score first, as it is weighted more heavily by Google. Address any issues flagged as red or orange in the Opportunities and Diagnostics sections. Common fixes include compressing images further (revisit item 6 if needed), reducing render-blocking scripts, minimizing unused CSS, and enabling lazy loading for off-screen images. Showit handles many performance basics for you, but large uncompressed images and excessive third-party scripts remain the most common culprits for poor scores.
After Launch: 6 Ongoing SEO Tasks
Completing the pre-launch checklist is the foundation. But SEO is not a one-time setup. These six tasks run on a monthly cycle and are what separate sites that plateau from sites that continue to grow in organic traffic over time.
Blog content is your primary lever for capturing long-tail search traffic after launch. Aim for at least two to four posts per month, each targeting a specific keyword your audience is searching for. Longer, more thorough posts (1,500 words and above) consistently outperform thin posts in competitive niches. Build a content calendar and treat publishing dates as commitments, not suggestions.
Log in to Google Search Console monthly and review the Coverage or Indexing report. Look for pages that have been excluded, pages returning 404 errors, and any new warnings about crawl issues. Address errors quickly. A growing list of coverage errors signals to Google that your site is poorly maintained, which can affect your overall crawl budget and rankings.
Search Console’s Performance report shows your click-through rate for every page. Any page with a high impression count but low click-through rate (under 2 to 3 percent) is appearing in search but failing to attract clicks. This is usually a meta description problem. Rewrite the description to be more compelling, more specific, or more aligned with what the searcher actually wants. Test new descriptions for 30 days and check whether the click-through rate improves.
Backlinks remain one of the strongest off-page ranking signals. A monthly link-building habit does not need to be aggressive. Consistent effort compounds. Write guest posts for relevant publications, respond to HARO or similar journalist queries in your field, get listed in relevant directories, and build relationships with other site owners who might link to your content. Even two to three quality backlinks per month add up significantly over a year.
Google rewards freshness for informational queries. A post that ranked well six months ago may start losing ground as newer content from competitors appears. Every month, identify your top three to five ranking posts and review them for outdated information, broken links, and missing content. Adding new sections, updating statistics, and improving the depth of an existing post is often faster than writing a new post and produces quicker ranking gains.
Google’s Core Web Vitals report inside Search Console shows you which pages are passing and failing performance thresholds on real user devices. Check this report monthly, especially after adding new design elements, plugins, or media to your site. A new embedded video or a new third-party script can significantly impact load performance. Catching regressions early prevents them from accumulating into a site-wide speed problem.
Common Showit SEO Mistakes This Checklist Prevents
Every item on this checklist exists because real sites have launched with these exact problems. Here are the five most common mistakes and the specific damage each one causes.
When you duplicate a page in Showit to use as a template, the noindex setting from the original page copies over. If the original was a draft or test page with noindex enabled, every duplicated page inherits that setting. Entire service pages and landing pages have launched invisibly to Google because of this single issue. The fix is checking the noindex setting on every page individually, including any that were created by duplication.
Showit renders all canvas text as visually styled elements, but heading tags must be set manually. Most users style their headline text to look like an H1 using font size and weight, but never assign the actual H1 HTML tag. The visual result looks correct to human visitors but is semantically empty to Google. An entire page’s content hierarchy can be invisible without this one setting applied correctly to every text element.
Showit’s auto-generated sitemap only includes canvas pages. Your WordPress blog posts live at a separate URL path and have their own sitemap generated by your SEO plugin. Users who submit only the Showit sitemap and assume their blog posts will be discovered eventually are often waiting months for coverage that never arrives because Google simply does not have a clear path to those URLs.
Showit lets you hide elements on mobile or desktop independently. But hidden elements are still loaded in the HTML and parsed by Google. If you have duplicate content on both canvases (for example, a mobile-only version of a section that contains different text from the desktop version), Google may see conflicting content on the same URL. Keep your messaging consistent across both canvases, or use the same elements and toggle visibility rather than creating entirely separate content blocks.
After your site is indexed, changing a page’s URL slug without setting up a 301 redirect creates a dead link for anyone who has bookmarked, shared, or linked to the old URL. Google treats the new URL as a brand new page with no history, losing any ranking authority the old URL had accumulated. Always lock in your URL slugs before launch. If you must change a slug after launch, implement a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one immediately.
Showit SEO Checklist: Quick Reference
- [ ] 1. Set unique meta title for every page
- [ ] 2. Write meta description for every page
- [ ] 3. Assign H1, H2, H3 tags to canvas text
- [ ] 4. Set clean URL slugs for all pages
- [ ] 5. Add alt text to every image
- [ ] 6. Compress all images to under 300KB
- [ ] 7. Enable SSL (HTTPS)
- [ ] 8. Connect Google Search Console
- [ ] 9. Submit both Showit and WordPress sitemaps
- [ ] 10. Install Rank Math or Yoast on WordPress
- [ ] 11. Enable XML sitemap in SEO plugin
- [ ] 12. Configure Open Graph images
- [ ] 13. Add schema markup via code injection
- [ ] 14. Set up Google Analytics GA4
- [ ] 15. Add internal links between pages and posts
- [ ] 16. Test mobile canvas on real device
- [ ] 17. Check noindex settings on all pages
- [ ] 18. Run PageSpeed Insights and fix critical issues
Frequently Asked Questions
What SEO does Showit have built in?
Showit includes built-in fields for meta titles, meta descriptions, page slugs, and canonical URLs for every page. You can also add custom header code for schema markup and analytics. However, Showit does not automatically assign heading tags to canvas text, so you must set H1, H2, and H3 tags manually in the text settings panel for each element. The platform also generates a Showit-specific sitemap automatically, though your WordPress blog requires a separate SEO plugin for its own sitemap and meta configuration.
How do I check if my Showit site is indexed by Google?
The fastest method is to type site:yourdomain.com directly into the Google search bar. Every page that appears in those results is currently indexed. For a more thorough view, connect Google Search Console and check the Indexing report, which shows exactly which pages are indexed, which are excluded, and the specific reason for each exclusion. This is more accurate than the site: search operator because it reflects Google’s internal index state rather than just what appears in live results.
How do I fix SEO on an existing Showit site?
Use this checklist as a retroactive audit guide rather than just a pre-launch tool. Start by reviewing every page for missing meta titles and descriptions, then check that all canvas text elements have proper heading tags assigned. Compress any large images, verify that no pages have noindex turned on accidentally, submit your sitemap to Google Search Console, and install Rank Math or Yoast on your WordPress blog if you have not already. Prioritize fixes in the order they appear on this checklist, as the first several items carry the most immediate SEO impact.
Does Showit automatically create a sitemap?
Yes, Showit generates a sitemap automatically at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml that includes all your Showit canvas pages. However, your WordPress blog posts are on a separate sitemap, typically found at yourdomain.com/blog/sitemap_index.xml or a similar path depending on your SEO plugin. Both sitemaps need to be submitted to Google Search Console separately for complete coverage of your entire site. Relying only on the auto-generated Showit sitemap leaves your blog posts undiscoverable through this channel.
How do I submit my Showit site to Google?
Go to search.google.com/search-console and add your property using the Domain option for the most complete data. Verify ownership through your domain registrar’s DNS settings or by pasting a verification meta tag into Showit’s site-wide header code injection field. Once verified, navigate to the Sitemaps section and submit your Showit sitemap URL followed by your WordPress blog sitemap URL. You can also use the URL Inspection tool inside Search Console to request indexing for specific pages individually if you want faster coverage for high-priority pages.
What is the most important Showit SEO setting?
The single most important setting to check is the noindex toggle on each page. If noindex is accidentally enabled, Google completely ignores that page regardless of how well-optimized everything else is. A perfectly written meta title and correct heading structure mean nothing if noindex is on. After confirming noindex is off for every page you want ranked, the next highest-impact settings are unique meta titles and correctly assigned H1 heading tags, both of which communicate the primary topic of each page to Google.
How long does Showit SEO take to work?
For a brand-new domain, expect three to six months before consistent organic traffic appears from Google. New domains need time to build authority and trust signals before Google ranks them competitively. If you are relaunching an existing domain with established authority, you may see results within four to eight weeks after completing your optimization. Blog posts targeting long-tail, lower-competition keywords can rank faster, sometimes within six to twelve weeks. The timeline shortens significantly when combined with an active backlink-building effort and consistent content publishing.
Once your SEO settings are live, verify your site is being indexed using Google Search Console — it is free and shows exactly which pages Google can see and any issues it finds.
