Maybe you've heard the phrase SEO being thrown around like it's magic, well you're not far from the truth. Read on to discover what it is and why it's so important.
So what is SEO?
Well to begin with the acronym SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, which is the process of improving the quality and quantity of free organic and natural search results in search engines such as Google. By doing so you can improve the position of your website in search results, meaning more people will see your website.
What are good SEO practices?
SEO as a whole can be broken down into the 4 pillars of SEO
Technical SEO - How well your website can be crawled and indexed
Content - Is your content relevant to the user?
On-site SEO - How optimised your content is
Off-site SEO - Commonly referred to as authority, where does your site stack up?
Technical SEO
Although the word "Technical" can seem a bit scary, in reality, technical SEO is all about making your website optimised for search engines to read your content.
This is about ensuring your site can be easily crawled, is mobile optimised, is fast and stable, and that your site's content is structured in a way that is easily read.
Most websites managed through WordPress or Wix etc. have built-in resources and settings to help you ensure technical SEO is observed. However, for larger or bespoke websites this is much more important to be mindful of in the development stage.
Content
Content is king.
Content really is the magic when it comes to SEO, the website is essentially just the book the incantations are written in. That being said it is often overlooked as just a way of telling customers what your business does, this is called service content. But content needs to be more than that, it's the opportunity to build credibility with your customers through testimonials and reviews and is a chance to give your customers content rich in information to put yourself as an expert and market leader in what you do.
On-site SEO
Tying in with content and technical SEO, on-site SEO is made up of a variety of elements across your entire site including:
Keywords - You would need to research keywords searched by your potential customers when searching for your product and incorporate them into your content
Page titles - Naturally the best place for your keywords are in your page titles. Make sure they are properly structured with the correct tags (H1, H2, etc.)
Concise descriptive URLs - Keeping your URLs concise and descriptive are good from a technical and user point of view.
Meta descriptions - Use these like a sales pitch to tell your customer that your website is what they need.
Off-site SEO
Off-site SEO is essentially made up of link building, social media, and local SEO, amongst other things. The sole purpose is generating traffic to your site and building credibility.
This area can be harder to achieve than other areas of SEO but is definitely a valuable weapon in your SEO arsenal. Further information on how to achieve great off-site SEO will be posted in later blogs but sites such as Yoast have some fantastic information for you to get started.
SEO objectives
Ultimately the key to good SEO will always start with a good SEO strategy with clear objectives e.g.
"Improve site organic traffic by 20%"
After you have a clear objective, form a strategy using the pillars we have covered above and you will be able to successfully improve your site's SEO and reach your objective.
Ask the experts
If you need any help or further advice on SEO then feel free to contact us for a free no-obligation 1-hour consultation and quote.