Do you know your SEO?
When looking for something, what is the first thing you do? Google it of course? It's a well-known fact that consumers rely heavily on Google to find what they wish to purchase to learn about. To stand out from the crowd it's important that you know how to increase your business' profile and online visibility. How you do this? By ensuring your SEO is at optimal standards so your business will stand out online.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. This process is designed to make sure your business is noticeable online with the thousands of other websites and easily visible to attract new and old customers alike. Basically, you want to place your business at the front of a huge online filing cabinet! SEO is designed to analyse the content and functionality of your website and thereby places it in an appropriate order based on that.
So what can you do to ensure your SEO is good working order?
Well first – as a business owner – you want to make you're your business will be noticed. Read the following key points to ensure the key elements are in place to allow your website a first page ranking.
1) Prove to Google that your website is credible and fully functioning. Make it easy for Google to understand what your website is about by having clear keywords threaded throughout the site. Using the appropriate keywords that will bring in customer's is essential.
2) Make sure your content is up to date and related to what you are trying to sell or promote online. You want to match the phrase a typical person might type when searching for your particular item, service or product. Quality content will ensure that you are embedding the keywords in the appropriate locations within your website to ensure optimal ranking.
3) Consider the search intent. This is the reason someone is looking up a keyword on Google. What is their purpose? Are they looking for information on how to do something? Are they trying to find a specific website? Or are they planning to make an online purchase? Depending on their goal, different search results will be more relevant than others. To ensure your SEO is working at its best consider the navigation and reasoning for the online search. E.g. Is it for information, navigation, transaction, review etc?
4) Make sure your keywords are placed in locations on your webpage as each one is a ranking factor. You need to consider the text or copy of your webpage and the keywords used. Think about the title pages, these are the blue text that show on Google's search results and in the tab of your web browser. It should have the keywords you are using within the title. Having a meta description is also helpful as it gives a brief introduction to your web page. This shows up beneath the blue title tag on Google's search results and should be interesting and engaging.
5) Think about the main headline on your webpage, the URL and starting a blog to ensure your SEO is at it's best. You want to reassure your visitors that they will find what they are looking for on each page and that their query matches your content. These factors will all enhance your SEO and make a big difference to the amount of people viewing your website and clicking on it.
6) Think about the “off-page SEO” . An off-page SEO strategy also involves getting other websites to link to yours. In marketing, these links are called “backlinks” and they contribute to the ranking factor of your website. They are important as they act as evidence that your website is trustworthy and legitimate. To get editorial backlinks, think about ensuring great content, have a guest blogger that links to your website, ask other websites to link their content to yours…. all these elements add to improving your exposure online.
Finally, use an easy-to-use reporting tool that can monitor your website traffic. When you create and publish a website it's important to know what days and times your website receives the most visitors, whether your visitors are new or returning, which traffic sources bring you the most visitors, where your visitors are located and the length of stay on your site.
Knowing how to make the most out your SEO is paramount for ensuring your website is easily seen online. If you want further assistance with making your web presence stand out online, contact the team at Central Coast Web Design. We know all things SEO and are happy assist in helping your website be the best it can be.