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What is SEO?
Or should I say how do I get my website on page 1 of Google?
SEO stands for search engine optimisation. SEO is all about making sure that your website is getting both quality and quantity traffic from organic searches. An organic search is not a paid search.
If you’re a florist and someone goes to Google and types in “Florists in my area” and you’re website appears in the search results, this is an organic search.
There are many companies out there who can do SEO for you. But in fairness it’s not rocket science. If you have an understanding of who your customer is and what they want – you’re already halfway there.
Content is King
People tend to avoid writing content for their website. However this is one of the easiest ways of improving your website ranking. Having a news section or blog on your website gives you the opportunity to post up interesting and informative posts for your site visitors. The posts don’t need to be very long and you don’t have to write Pulitzer prize wining material.
When writing posts think about your customers and what questions they ask you. Use your blog to answer these questions.
Product reviews are always good. If you can get guest writers for your blog that’s a good way to keep your site lively. Talk about relevant events that you have attended that your customers may be interested in.
Overall keep the content relevant and up to date. There are few things worse than a blog that hasn’t been updated in 2 years. Site visitors will be left wondering if you’re still in business!
If you need help writing articles we do provide a service that will craft original, engaging content for you.
Social Media Counts
Whenever you write a new post share it on your social media channels and ask your site visitors to share your content. Social media can help drive traffic to your site. The more visitors you get the more important Google will think your site is.
Insert Links
When writing your posts take the opportunity to link to important relevant websites. For example if you’re a landscape gardener and you’re writing a post about the Chelsea Flower show link to the Royal Horticultural Society’s page on the flower show. It’s simple! But make sure the links are natural and relevant.
Don’t forget internal links too. Link to relevant pages on your own website. This makes it easy for your site visitors to find information and will keep them on your site longer. Again this is an indication to Google that your site is full of rich interesting content and therefore deserves to be ranked higher.
Keywords
When writing content for your website take time to work out relevant keywords for your website. Be careful though, don’t randomly add keywords throughout your website. This is called keyword stuffing – thankfully it’s not so common anymore.
Google is wise to keyword stuffing so make sure your keywords and keyword phrases are used naturally throughout your content.
Mobile friendly
A lot of your site visitors will be visiting your website from mobile devices. Make sure your website is mobile friendly. Google will penalise sites that are not mobile friendly. Look at your website on different screen sizes and make sure your content, images, menus etc are all displaying properly.
Is the user experience on mobile devices just as good as on a desktop? Do your users have to squint at your text?
If the user experience isn’t great you should speak to a web agency for advice.
Optimise your Images
There is nothing worse than landing on a website and watching a huge image load. This is one sure way to lose site visitors. Optimising your images means decreasing their file size. This will speed up your page loading time. Google likes sites that load quicky. You can use Photoshop or Gimp to optimise your images.
Also don’t forget to add meaningful titles to your images. Screen readers and search bots will read everything on a web page including image titles. So for accessibility and SEO make sure your images are relevant to your content.
Meta Titles and Meta Descriptions
Don’t forget to add your meta titles and meta descriptions. Title tags and meta descriptions descriptions tell search engines and users what your site is about. They describe the content on each page of your website and explain how it relates to a user’s search query. When used properly, they can act as a “hook” in the search engine results. If your not sure how to use meta tiles and meta descriptions get some advice.
Overview
The Internet is huge. Don’t think that your website is going to magically appear on the first page of Google. You need to put the work in. Refresh your content regularly and make sure you’re providing quality content that your site visitors will find relevant and useful.
If you need help with content or advice on SEO get in touch.