Top 7 practices for excelling in Webflow SEO settings for websites

Want to show up in top 10 SERP results when people are searching for your services?

Want to increase visibility for your target keywords?

Want to elevate your SEO strategy to perfection?

We got you.

We're here to help you master the best practices for Webflow SEO.

Learn how to optimize your Webflow website for top results in 2025 with these on-page SEO steps (and using SemRush).

Get ready, because this ultimate Webflow SEO guide is about to begin.

Highlights

• Webflow keeps your website's code clean and makes it easy to manage your SEO content, while Semrush helps you beat competitors with its robust SEO tools.
• Webflow lets you update, add, and manage content in a simplified user interface.
• The "Traffic Diff." column at SemRush is such a nice tool to look at when searching for your competitor's organic keywords.

7 Techniques to optimize your Webflow website for organic keywords

Webflow’s meta tags forms are easy to use. And Webflow makes it straightforward to add your optimized content.

However, to include keywords in appropriate places to appear in the organic (unpaid) results, you need an additional tool, like Semrush’s Magic Keyword tool.

You must understand the search volume, keyword difficulty, competitive density and how to use and naturally incorporate keywords in content.

And more.

1. Identify your competitors

To start researching organic keywords, you must first analyze your competitors.

Competitor research is the number one strategy for staying one step ahead of the SEO game. Luckily, there are some tools that can help you conduct competitive analysis. Especially in terms of finding organic keywords.

Semrush is the best SEO tool.

You can collect your competitors’ keyword data and see some remarkable results in a short time span.

Use Semrush’s Organic Research tool to choose your competitors' lost or declined organic keywords.

Access the tool, input your competitor's domain (e.g., we checked our Webflow agency rival), and hit "Search".

You’ll get the results for “Top Keywords”.

For smoother navigation during the search process, navigate to the “Position Changes” tab in the Organic Search tool.

This is where you’ll see the competitor’s pages with the most estimated traffic change over a period (showcased in + or - difference).

In this example, we’re searching for a new blog topic. And the “Traffic Diff.” column is place #1 for us to look at.

We can see how our competitors lost organic rankings and start planning how to craft high-quality content to outrank them.

So, “top website builders” is the primary keyword worth considering for the next content creation cycle.

Such a nice tool…

Now, let’s see what is search intent and why it’s important for the keyword strategy.

2. Understand the reason behind search intent

Search intent, or user intent, explains “why” someone types a certain question into a search engine.

It shows what the user wants to do with their search, like finding an answer, a website (i.e., a specific page), buying something, or learning about some topic.

Now, we’ll provide some examples to simplify understanding of search intent.

• Informational intent: When users want to learn something new, they’ll probably start their search with “how”, “why”, “what”. For example, “how to create a logo design”.
• Navigational intent: When users want to find a specific page, such as “Webflow pricing”.
• Commercial intent: When users want to do research before buying something, for example “best website builders”.
• Transactional intent: When users want to complete a specific action (i.e., a purchase or subscription), for example:

Understanding the reason behind search intent is important when creating both web and blog pages.

When creating web pages, your focus should be on keywords with Commercial and Transactional intent since they lead to more leads and conversions. And Informational or mixed intent is better suited for blog posts.

Here's a snippet of our top organic keywords that align with these intents:

You'll notice that Navigational and Commercial intents match our web pages, while Informational and Commercial (mixed intent) aligns with our blog post.

Please note that our website and blog are quite new; we launched the new version in February 2024.

But understanding the reason behind search intent is not always easy. We’ll explain this on a bit complicated example as we go.

3. Create keyword clusters to help search engines understand your content structure

Keyword clustering refers to the complex process of grouping (i.e., clustering) keywords that are similar or have the potential for internal linking.

You must first plan your strategy, do extensive research, and build a keyword list.

For this process, use Semrush’s Keyword Strategy Builder. When you enter your main keyword (related to your business, of course), you will get some keyword results.

Once you’ve selected your keywords, you must send them to Keyword Manager. This tool will help you cluster your keywords automatically.

Let’s say you want to rank for the “Webflow development” keyword.

Here is the process of keyword clustering.

This is what a cluster graphic looks like in SemRush:

So, your pillar page could be a “Webflow development services”

It’s the cornerstone of your topic cluster.

You should think about adding internal links from the pillar page to its cluster pages.

And your cluster pages could be gathered around these keywords: top webflow agency, hire website designer, etc.

Those could all be your blog posts internally linked together.

The bottom line is that once you've completed keyword clustering, you unlock the potential for a robust linking structure. This can lead to higher rankings.

In addition, check out the SemRush’s blog for more information about keyword clustering.

5. Optimize meta tags (title tag and meta description)

Meta tags refer to title tags and meta descriptions that are added in the <head> section of HTML element.

Here's an example of what a meta tag looks like in Webflow code:

Image showing a cluster graphic example in SemRush, illustrating interconnected data

In search results, it looks like this:

Meta description provides a short description of the page it refers to. And title tag serves as an HTML element that helps Google to determine how effective your content can meet user’s needs.

Setting up these tags in Webflow is easy.

Here is what they look like in the Webflow Editor (this example refers to the blog post).

Therefore, when you open your desired blog post, you can simply write and/or rewrite meta tags and click “Save”.

The same thing applies to web pages.

You have to click on “Pages”.

Click on 'Settings' to access the meta tags for a particular page.

Meta tags fields in the Webflow editor for a specific webpage.

And you’ll get almost the same fields as those in blog posts:

The best practices to optimize your meta tags and title tags for both web and blog pages are the following:

• Implement the target keywords that are click-worthy and match the search query
• Don’t repeat your target keywords on your meta tags
• Keep your title tag length up to 60 characters
• Keep your meta tag length up to 120 characters

If you followed our steps accordingly, SemRush’s On Page SEO checker will show this:

SemRush's On-Page SEO Checker displaying best SEO practice results for a Nube Webflow site.

6. Create custom URL (internal and external) structures

Webflow automatically creates URL slugs, but we wouldn’t say they are user-friendly. We would recommend writing custom URLs.

A good URL slug is never too long or complex.

We’ll explain with an example.

Suppose you want to create a new blog post.

Here is an example of Webflow’s automatic slugs:

And here is an example of the custom slug:

A copywriter provided a custom slug in Webflow.

So, using a page's target keyword in a URL slug makes sense in the following way:

• Bad custom URL slug: /7-techniques-to-optimize-your-Webflow-website-for-organic-keywords
• Good automatic URL slug: /optimize-Webflow-website-for-organic-keywords

However, using a page's target keyword in a URL is not intended to manipulate search engines. Instead, writing a custom slug will more likely provide clear information about the content from the user's point of view.

Remember that internal linking by using keyword-rich anchor text is bad. Anchors that use the exact URL of the destination or anchors that use keywords are a red flag in Google’s eyes.

The occasional anchor that matches the URL exactly may contribute to positive SEO. But if you start doing this too much, you’re setting yourself up for penalization.

And adding internal and external links in Webflow is a breeze as well.

Just select the text you want to add and click on the “Link” icon do add the link.

Instructions to select text and add a link by clicking the 'Link' icon.

The same goes for web pages and blogs.

Make sure all those links help your users navigate your site, showing useful content.

Adding and managing internal links in Webflow is easy. From your Pages or CMS collections (e.g., blogs), you simply highlight the desired text and click on the “Link” icon to add the link.

Also, Webflow lets you create folders and organize your pages accordingly. Folders are excellent for organizing pages that fall under the same category.

For example, if your site contains a service page, you could create a folder called “Services” and include separate pages for your services within that folder.

For more information about linking in Webflow settings, check out our Webflow review.

7. Optimize alt texts for SEO images

Alt text (alternative text or image caption) describes an image on a page to help search engines understand what the image shows.

And Webflow has a dedicated field for adding alt text.

Here’s an example:

Webflow provides a dedicated field for adding alt text.

You just need to select “Custom description” and write your alt text.

Select 'Custom Description' and input your alt text.

Webflow provides a dedicated field for adding alt text.

If you optimize your images well, you can drive traffic to your site.

For instance, the search engine results page (SERP) for “king flower” will first show images.

When searching for 'king flower,' the search engine results page (SERP) prioritizes images.And you’ll see that Gardenia net is doing a great job with creating clear alt text for this flower image:

Here is an example of clear alt text for this flower image.

The best practices for optimizing your alt text are as follows:

• Keep it clear, descriptive and up to 125 characters.
• Include a target or semantic keyword.

It’s that simple.

7. Optimize header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.)

Headings and subheadings, such as such as <h1> or <h2> are the best—let’s call them “scrolling tools”—for encouraging readers to stay on the page and continue reading the content.

As HTML elements, they not only inform readers about the sections of your content but also how well your content is structured for scannability.

They are crucial due to their significance and placement within the content. Visitors use them to navigate and understand your content better.

And optimizing header tags with Webflow is a piece of cake. You don’t have to use code.

Instead, you simply select what header tag you want (H1, H2, H3, H4 etc.).

One of the best practices for structuring headings is to do extensive research for the top ranking content references.

Let’s check, for example, the “Webflow blog” keyword.

Here are the top URLs rankings for that keyword:

Open the top-ranking pages and check out their heading structures to get an idea of how to craft yours.

The next step is to include relevant keywords (and avoid keyword stuffing).

Here are the good and bad examples of H1 for blog post:

• Good Heading structure: 5 Webflow SEO Priorities That’ll Skyrocket Your Blog’s Performance
• Bad Heading structure: Webflow Blog: Learn Everything About Webflow Blog

The bottom line is that you should never repeat the main keywords x2 in titles (H1) or other headings (H2, H3, etc.). No matter if it’s a blog post or web page.

Instead, include vital information about a section of text, and encourage readers to keep scrolling.

Now that we've mentioned blog posts, let's transition over to that section.

Conclusion

Use this comprehensive guide to excel at Webflow SEO settings.

Semrush equips you with all the tools to dominate your competitors in search. And Webflow simplifies maintaining a 100% healthy, clean-code website. So, Webflow and SEO work well together and care for your business.

Also, remember to always watch for on-page SEO trends to take your business to a new level.