Effective SEO for Carrd

Your guide to ranking your Carrd site in search engines.

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Get your Carrd site SEO audit. Follow a few simple steps with easy to follow instructions. Improve your rank.

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  • Carrd-specific instructions

Carrd SEO - Best Practices

Search engine optimization is important for any website – sites made with Carrd are no different. While it is easy to build a site in Carrd, it is not as straightforward to make your Carrd SEO-friendly. Follow our guide and implement the best practices. This will ensure optimal crawling and ranking.

While this guide offers specific advice for Carrd SEO the underlying SEO techniques and tips are universal. They are so fundamental that you can use the SEO Audit for any website and still get decent results.

Carrd On-Site SEO Guide

Our guide is pretty straightforward. We list the factors that play a role in on-site SEO. Along with the rule we show you how to implement it in Carrd.

If you want to get serious about SEO on your site, use our free Carrd SEO site audit – it will show you exactly what you should work on.

Meta title

The title tag is critical to both SEO and user experience. It should provide a concise explanation of the content of the web page. The title tag is displayed in two key places: the browser and search engine results pages (SERPs). The title should be between 40 and 60 characters long. It should be relevant to the content of the page and should include the main keyword for the page.

Screenshot of how to edit Meta title in Carrd

In Carrd go to Site settings and enter the title, make it between 40 and 60 characters long.

Meta description

The meta description should be between 50 and 160 characters. A description of 160 characters will use all the space in a search result page, longer descriptions will be truncated. The meta description should be relevant and useful to your visitors. It should be very clear about what visitors can expect on the page. It should make visitors click on your link in search results.

Screenshot of how to edit Meta description in Carrd

In Carrd go to Site settings and enter the description, between 50 and 160 characters long.

Heading H1

The H1 tag is the most important heading tag and should be used exactly once per page. It should contain the main keyword for the page and should be relevant to the content of the page.

Screenshot of how to edit Heading H1 in Carrd

Add a headline if you don't have one already. Select the text element by clicking the headline. Above the text field where you edit text select "Site Title" by clicking the "Text" menu. This will make the this element an H1 tag in the published site. Make sure you have exactly one element set to Site Title.

Headings Structure H1/H2/H3

Carrd let's you define Site Title (H1), Main Heading (H2) and Subheading (H3). These headings should be structured logically H1 > H2 > H3.

Screenshot of how to edit Headings Structure H1/H2/H3 in Carrd

In Carrd editor adjust the text types to make sure they are using the right headline type. A 'Subheading' (H3) headline should always be below a 'Main Headline' (H2) headline, never directly below the 'Site Title' (H1). A Main Headline (H2) should always be below the Site Title (H1). To change a text type, click the text element, then click the 'Text' menu above the field where you enter the actual text and select the appropriate type.

Text section length

The length of text sections between headings should be proportional to the length of the text. The recommended maximum length is 300 words. This helps readers stay engaged and allows them to skim content before reading. Having too long text sections can negatively impact SEO.

Screenshot of how to edit Text section length in Carrd

Break longer text sections into smaller paragraphs or introduce more headings.

Headings to text ratio

The number of headings should be proportional to the length of the text content on your site. The recommended ratio is one heading for every 300-350 words of text. This helps readers stay engaged and allows them to skim content before actually reading. Having too few or too many headings can negatively impact SEO.

Screenshot of how to edit Headings to text ratio in Carrd

Add or remove headings to achieve the optimal ratio of one heading for every 300-350 words of text. Note that all text elements that are set to 'Site Title', 'Main Heading', and 'Subheading' are considered headings – regardless of font size and other formatting.

Image alt texts

Providing alt texts for images has benefits for accessibility and SEO. An alt text contains a textual representation of an image. This helps your visitors using screen readers. They can't see the images so the alt text lets them understand what is displayed. At the same time the alt text helps with SEO, it helps search engines better understand your website's images.

Screenshot of how to edit Image alt texts in Carrd

In Carrd editor select your image. Then in the sidebar use the 'Alt Text' field to populate the alt attribute. Make sure the alt text describes the content of the image.

Content readability

We calculate the Flesch Reading Ease Score to assess text readability. It takes into account two factors: the average number of words per sentence and the average number of syllables per word. The score should be between 60 and 70 for optimal readability. The lower the score the harder it is to read your content.

You can improve the readability score by simplifying language or shortening sentences.

Content Length

The content length should be at least 300 words. This is what search engines expect to see on a page. The more content you have, the more keywords you can target and the more information you can provide to your visitors. But remember, quality is more important than quantity. So, make sure your content is relevant and useful to your visitors.

Screenshot of how to edit Content Length in Carrd

Add more text content to the page. Make sure the content useful to your visitors. Use (but don't overuse) the keywords you want to appear for in search engines.

Paragraph Length Check

Paragraphs should not be too long. The optimal length of a paragraph is 150 words. Anything above 200 words can negatively impact readability and user engagement. Both hurts your SEO.

Screenshot of how to edit Paragraph Length Check in Carrd

Reduce the length of paragraphs exceeding 150 words to improve readability and keep users engaged.

Descriptive Link Texts

Descriptive link texts are important for both, SEO and accessibility. They help search engines understand the content of the linked page. Using a descriptive link text also tells users what content to expect when following the link. This is especially helpful for visitors using screen readers. Avoid "click here" and "read more" where possible.

Screenshot of how to edit Descriptive Link Texts in Carrd

Revise the link texts and make them descriptive. Make sure the link text makes sense when read out of context.

Where to start?

New to SEO and Carrd?

Carrd pro Mark Bowley has put together a usefule resource with his Carrd SEO Mini Guide, you might want to check it out.

Mark's book covers a lot of ground, from content creation and Carrd specific settings all the way to page speed and analytics. It is a good primer on many important SEO factors.

SEO audit your Carrd site

Already have a site built? We recommend you run our Carrd SEO audit.

When you do the audit, you will receive an SEO report. The report card will show you an overall score and a breakdown of the checks the audit did. The breakdown will show you which SEO tests passed, which tests failed, and which tests gave mixed results. With every test we also provide a detailed description of how to fix the discovered issues in Carrd editor. Easy.

SEO Resources

Want to smart up on SEO? Here's a bunch of useful tools and resources for if you are starting out.

  • Google Search console – An indispensible tool. It tells you what search terms your site is ranking for and how people find you. You'll also see andwhether people that see your site in search results actually choose to click. If you want only one tool, use this. It's simple and has the most important data. Go to Google Search Console
  • Bing Webmaster tools – Pretty much the same as Google Search Console – but for Bing searches and results. Since more than 80% of searches happen on Google it is not as important to have and check. But it can be useful, too. Open Bing Webmaster Tools
  • Title and Description Preview – Let's you compose your meta description and title with a live preview. These two are so important for your site – it is worth spending some time to get them just right.