What was my Strato project about?
A client had built her own website with the Strato website builder and was barely visible on Google. The cause: every subpage had the same main heading.
Strato, one of Germany’s large web hosts, offers a website builder that makes it easy to get a site online quickly. I saw how well that works from an SEO perspective in a client project. That experience dates back a few years – I first published this article in May 2023 – and the builder has evolved since. You’ll find the SEO settings it offers today in the section Which SEO settings does Strato offer today?
The client had built her website herself with the Strato builder. She had put a lot of time and energy into it and tailored it lovingly to herself and her business. She had picked up SEO ideas from various expert blogs – and eventually came across my work as an SEO consultant in Hamburg.
She asked me for an SEO audit: find the weak spots and fix them straight away. Once the basic settings are right, the Strato builder works fine for SEO.
What SEO problems do website builders have?
A website builder is an online tool for putting together a website by drag and drop, without coding. Besides Strato, providers include IONOS, Wix, Jimdo and Squarespace.
The upside: you get a decent-looking website fast. The problem I’ve run into again and again in builder projects: the platform makes a lot of decisions for you – including ones that matter for SEO. If a setting is missing or has an unfortunate default, the site gets found poorly on Google, or not at all.
Many builders have improved considerably in recent years. Typical limits remain, though:
- Less control over the code: you can only influence headings, structured data or speed as far as the platform allows.
- Page speed: lots of features get loaded on every page.
- Redirects and migration: if you switch platforms later, you have to move content and redirects carefully.
What was the specific problem?
I’d found the biggest issues within about 20 minutes. The most important one: the H1 heading was identical on every subpage.
The H1 is a page’s main heading. It tells visitors, screen readers and Google what the page is about. If a subpage with a completely different focus shows the homepage’s H1, the heading doesn’t match the content:
- Google has a harder time recognising what the page is really about.
- The subpage’s search terms are harder to match to it.
- Visitors arriving from Google don’t immediately see what they were looking for.
Two similar headings on a site are no big deal. But in this case there were seven identical headings – and two more were empty.
How did we fix it?
Together with the client, I called Strato’s support. The first answer was that it couldn’t be done in the builder. Once I’d explained exactly what we needed, we found a way after all. With a workaround, the problem was solved in half an hour. My experience with websites since 1999 paid off here: I knew what to look for.
Which SEO settings does Strato offer today?
On SEO, the builder has caught up considerably. As of October 2026, Strato’s page on its website builder and SEO (in German) lists these features, among others:
| Feature | What you can set |
|---|---|
| Page title | for the whole site and for each subpage, under “Settings → SEO” and in the page settings |
| Meta description | likewise for the whole site and per subpage |
| URL | freely define each page’s address, e.g. /services |
| Image alt text | in the image settings |
| AI support | an AI assistant helps write metadata; higher plans include extra SEO tips |
Strato doesn’t mention a dedicated H1 setting there – the main heading comes from whatever you set as the heading on the page. Strato itself recommends a meaningful H1 on every subpage. That’s exactly what you should check.
How can you check your builder website yourself?
Whether you use Strato, IONOS, Wix or another platform, you can check these points without any coding:
- A unique H1 on every page: each subpage has exactly one main heading that fits its content.
- Unique title and description: no two pages share the same page title.
- Readable URLs: /services instead of /page-3.
- Alt text: every important image describes in words what it shows.
- Mobile view: everything is easy to read and use on a smartphone.
- Speed: test your site with Google PageSpeed Insights.
- Google Search Console: connect your site, submit your sitemap and check that all important pages are indexed.
If you’re not sure how to test this or want an expert to take a look, start with the SEO Compass – enter your address, answer a few short questions and within a few minutes you’ll see where your biggest levers are – or send me a message using the form below.
Website builder, WordPress or a custom site – which is better for SEO?
It depends on what your website needs to do:
| Website builder | WordPress | Custom static site | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Getting started | very fast, no technical knowledge | fast, some learning curve | requires development |
| SEO control | basic | extensive, with an SEO plugin | complete |
| Maintenance | low, the provider handles it | updates for WordPress, theme and plugins | low in operation; changes via development or a CMS |
| Best for | small business and brochure sites | most business websites and blogs | sites with high demands on speed and technical control |
For a small site with a handful of pages, a builder is perfectly fine as long as the basics are right. Once your website grows and becomes your main source of enquiries, more control pays off. Why I think WordPress is a good choice for many businesses is covered in Is WordPress good for SEO? Have your own experience with SEO and website builders? Tell me about it – I’d love to hear from you.
