Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process by which you make your site rank higher in search engine results, especially Google, when people are looking for your site.
While there are no hard and fast rules for improving search engine results - and the rules do change from time to time - the SEO tab on the Site Appearance page may help you improve your site's visibility.
The first section of this page is based on the well-established rule that the more sites that link to yours, the higher your ranking will be.
It advises you to get other sites - especially sites from other organizations in your community - to link to your site. This could be your charter organization, or your scouting district. It could also be your troop's Facebook page.
In all cases you should link to the URL that is displayed on this page.
The second section of this page allows you to upload a Google Site Verification File to your troop's subdirectory. This is a critical step in getting Google to recognize your site.
The third section allows you to save your Google Analytics Tracking ID. When we see a Tracking ID for your troop we will add the Google Analytics script to every page of your site, with your Tracking ID inserted in the appropriate spot. This should make your site even more visible to Google.
The original version of Google Analytics was called "Universal Analytics". This version is no longer supported by Google after July 1, 2023.
The new version of Google Analytics is called "Google Analytics 4". This requires a new Google Tag, which you must generate from the Google Analytics website.
IMPORTANT! You cannot upgrade to Google Analytics 4 just by changing the selection on the Google Analytics Version drop down list. You must first log on to your Google Analytics account and issue a new Google Tag for your site. Then return to this page in TroopWebHost to copy this new tag value into the Google Analytics Tracking ID field. Then, and only then, should you select "Google Analytics 4" from the drop down list.
The last section allows you to provide a Meta Description for your site. This may be picked up by some search engines as the description they display for your site. Just enter the value you want placed in the "content" attribute; the system will generate the rest of the meta tag for you.