What can an SEO consultancy customise and control in VIA?

Owned by Elliott
Last updated: Aug 24, 2023
9 min read

If you’ve hired an SEO company to control elements of your website’s SEO, it’s important that they understand what they can control and edit within your VIA software. The following guide outlines what can be controlled and edited specifically in regards to SEO.

If your third party hasn’t received training on how to use VIA, we strongly recommend they receive some in order to maximise what they can achieve. This can either be given by your VIA Support users, or by us if you’d prefer.

Full explanations of how to edit each element is outlined in detail in this article, but a quick guide to what can be edited is specified below:

What can be edited/customised in VIA?

  • Add alt tags to images

  • Allocate H1, H2, H3 and H4 headers

  • Customise Window Titles and Meta Descriptions

  • Add new blogs articles, including adding links and call to actions to your blog articles

  • Edit website page URLs

  • Editing the Menu structure and subsequently the sitemap

  • Editing the Footer structure and content

  • Create and build brand new website pages

  • Add 301 redirects

  • Social media posting and linking (requires Social Media Manager)

Adding Alt tags to images

Whenever you upload an image or file to the media uploader in VIA, you can allocate an alt tag to the image. Simply click the rectangle field under the media preview, and type in the alt tag you want to use. Simply hit enter to save.

Images associated with a property details or search results page

If the customer uses VIA as their property CRM system, they can allocate alt tags to images in the same way. Simply go to the property record in VIA and add your alt tag to the media (Click the top tab entitled CRM or Property Editor > Property > search for the property > right click, edit or double click > scroll to the Media section)

If the customer uses a third party CRM system and the property data is imported, unfortunately alt tags cannot be applied to these images. The data is imported from a third party and alt tags aren’t supported/sent to us. However, all images will automatically be given an alt tag of “image.”

Editing Window Titles and Meta Descriptions

The window titles and meta description can be added for every page of the website alongside the normal page content.

  • To edit a page, go to Website > Pages

  • Search for the page URL you want to edit (you only need search for the specific page URL, not the entire website address. eg: meet-the-team or about-us)

  • Right click the relevant page from the list and click edit or double click

  • Scroll to the window title and meta description fields to edit

  • The window title field is capped at 60 characters, the meta description field is capped at 160 in line with Google’s recommendations

Not every page of the website will be listed in the Pages section. This is because some pages of the website are controlled by areas of VIA which have multiple functions necessary for a property website. For example, whilst area guide pages are individual pages, they are controlled within the areas section which also controls elements of the property search and dynamic linking. Similarly, office pages are controlled in the office section which is linked to the import of property data into the website.

If you are trying to edit an area guide page’s window title and/or meta description (which will have the URL /area-guide/name-of-area eg: /area-guide/Cambridge), this is controlled in the Areas section of VIA.

  • Go to the top tab (called Offices & Areas, Property Editor, or CRM) > Areas

  • Search for the area you want to edit (or click search to view all)

  • Right click the relevant area from the list and click edit or double click

  • Scroll to the window title and meta description fields to edit

  • The window title field is capped at 60 characters, the meta description field is capped at 160 in line with Google’s recommendations

If you are trying to edit a blog article’s window title and/or meta description (which will have the URL /blog/name-of-article) , this is controlled in the Blog section of VIA

  • To edit a blog, go to Website > Blogs

  • Search for the blog you want to edit (or click search to view all)

  • Right click the relevant blog article from the list and click edit or double click

  • Scroll to the window title and meta description fields to edit

  • The window title field is capped at 60 characters, the meta description field is capped at 160 in line with Google’s recommendations

If you are trying to edit an office page’s window title and/or meta description (which will have the URL /area-guide/name-of-area eg: /area-guide/Cambridge), this is controlled in the Areas section of VIA.

  • Go to the top tab (called Offices & Areas, Property Editor, or CRM) > Offices

  • Search for the office you want to edit (or click search to view all)

  • Right click the relevant office from the list and click edit or double click

  • Scroll to the window title and meta description fields to edit

  • The window title field is capped at 60 characters, the meta description field is capped at 160 in line with Google’s recommendations

If you are trying to edit a property details page or a search results page’s window title and/or meta description unfortunately this isn’t possible, however, it is also not necessary. The property data of the website is usually imported from a third party CRM. As such, the window titles and meta descriptions are automatically generated using the property data directly to specifically target keyword search terms such as property for sale in X. This is both to help programmatically target the most relevant keywords (property for sale in X, houses for sale in X etc), but also to avoid you having to individually manage the window titles of hundreds possibly thousands of constantly updating properties, as well as as an almost infinite amount of property search combinations.

Editing H1, H2 and H3 headers

VIA allows you to customise the H tags of your website content for each website page.

However, depending on the page you want to edit, where you would edit this data can vary. VIA is a website building platform, so there are multiple ways to build pages and allocate this information, so you’ll need to know what type of page you are editing in order to correctly allocate the H1, H2, etc. information.

To edit simple page designs:

If you notice no information is present in the page fields, it’s likely the page was built using items. VIA is a website building software. Items are modules that can be added to a page to allow you to build more complicated page designs. You can learn more about items and building more complicated pages in the guides below:

Pages, items and links; what they are and how you can use them to build/edit your Website

Creating a new website page (advanced)

To edit an item to amend/edit the H1 header:

You can find and edit items in two ways:

  • You can search specifically for the item itself. Go to Website > Items > use the search bar to search for the item

  • Double click the appropriate item from the list or right click and select edit

  • You can then scroll to the Title, Subtitle, and Content fields, and use the text editor options to reallocate the relevant H tags. Make sure you are only allocating one H1 to any given page

Or, you can see the items that have been directly added to a page through the page itself.

  • Simply go to Website > Pages and search for the page you want to edit

  • Double click the appropriate item or right click and select edit

  • Scroll to the items field at the bottom. Click into the appropriate item you want to edit

  • If the page has been build using item containers, you will need to scroll to the items field of the item itself to see all of the sub items that have been added. Click the appropriate item you want to edit

  • You can then scroll to the Title, Subtitle, and Content fields, and use the text editor options to reallocate the relevant H tags. Make sure you are only allocating one H1 to any given page

If you are trying to edit an area guide page’s H1 header (which will have the URL /area-guide/name-of-area eg: /area-guide/Cambridge), this is controlled in the Areas section of VIA.

  • Go to the top tab (called Offices & Areas, Property Editor, or CRM) > Areas

  • Search for the area you want to edit (or click search to view all)

  • Right click the relevant area from the list and click edit or double click

  • Scroll to the Name field to edit

  • The text you add to the Name field will be the H1 on the website page. However, it will also be followed by the wording “area guide” so the full H1 will be the name field followed by area guide. eg: Cambridge area guide

  • The H2 can be specified by adding text to the Subtitle field. The main body of content can be applied to the Description section. You can also use the text editor to allocate H tags within this field as well (using the Paragraph format option)

If you are trying to edit a blog article’s H1 header (which will have the URL /blog/name-of-article) , this is controlled in the Blog section of VIA

  • To edit a blog, go to Website > Blogs

  • Search for the blog you want to edit (or click search to view all)

  • Right click the relevant blog article from the list and click edit or double click

  • Scroll to the Title field to edit

  • You can assign H2, H3 and H4 title tags in the Description field using the text editor (Paragraph format option)

If you are trying to edit an office page’s H1 header (which will have the URL /area-guide/name-of-area eg: /area-guide/Cambridge), this is controlled in the Areas section of VIA.

  • Go to the top tab (called Offices & Areas, Property Editor, or CRM) > Offices

  • Search for the office you want to edit (or click search to view all)

  • Right click the relevant office from the list and click edit or double click

  • Scroll to the Title field to edit the H1 header

  • The H2 can be specified by adding text to the Subtitle field. The main body of content can be applied to the Description section. You can also use the text editor to allocate H tags within this field as well (using the Paragraph format option)

If you are trying to edit a property details page or a search results H1 header unfortunately this isn’t possible, however, it is also not necessary. The property data of the website is usually imported from a third party CRM. As such, the H1 and H2 titles are automatically generated using the property data directly to specifically target keyword search terms such as property for sale in X. This is both to help programmatically target the most relevant keywords (property for sale in X, houses for sale in X etc), but also to avoid you having to individually manage the H1s of hundreds possibly thousands of constantly updating properties, as well as as an almost infinite amount of property search combinations.

Editing website page URL structures

To edit your website page URL:

  • To edit a page URL, go to Website > Pages

  • Search for the page URL you want to edit (you only need search for the specific page URL, not the entire website address. eg: meet-the-team or about-us)

  • Right click the relevant page from the list and click edit or double click

  • The top field will be called Page URL. Edit this field to change the URL

IMPORTANT

If you edit any page URL, it’s vital you also update the menu, footer, and any other link which might link to that page. Otherwise you will create 404 errors on the website which will be detrimental to SEO

Creating/editing your website menu using the Links tab

In addition, you should also setup a 301 redirect to ensure any old Google listing or bookmarked reference to the old page is automatically forwarded to the new version. Here is a guide to setting up 301 redirects

301 Redirects; what they are, what they do, and how to set one up

Editing the website menu and footer

The following guide outlines how the menu/footer works and a provides comprehensive guide to editing/restructuring it

Creating/editing your website menu using the Links tab

How to add a page link to your menu or footer

Creating and building brand new pages

The following guides outlines how to build both simple and more complicated pages

Creating a new Website page

Creating a new website page (advanced)

How to add a page link to your menu or footer

301 Redirects

Please read the following guide to understand how to setup or edit 301 redirects

301 Redirects; what they are, what they do, and how to set one up