What is SEO?
Search engine optimisation is the process of coordinating the content of your website to what your customers are searching for and structuring it in a way that allows your website to appear in the organic search results for specific keywords. SEO is one of the most important factors in a business succeeding online as no one will buy your products or services if they cannot locate them.
The Importance of Search Engine Marketing
Studies have shown that most people only read the first page of results with some only choosing to click on the top three results. Websites that have been optimised for chosen search terms have a greater chance of being found if they appear on the first page of the search results. The higher the search ranking a business has means greater success online, a high search ranking means more traffic to your website and more chance of some viewers selecting that company for their purchases.
SEO Strategy
Keyword Research
The first step in finding suitable keywords is to research your target audience and consider what they are looking for. Keywords are the words which Internet users will type into their search engines when searching for information or companies. Adding keywords to a site will help it rank higher in the search results and aid customers in finding their wanted product or service. Keywords should be relevant to the words on the website which describe the brand, products, services and location of the business. If you are having trouble coming up with a list of keywords, there are a number of sites online that can be used to search for keywords such as:
- Google Trends
- Google Keyword Tool
Using these sites can help you see keywords that other competitors use and help you to come up with more appropriate keywords and phrases.
Website Optimisation
Once you have researched and chosen your relevant keywords it is now time to implement them into the site. You do this by embedding the keywords into the HTML code of the site.
The most important places for these keywords are as follows:
- Title of your website
- Headings and sub-headings particularly the H1 tag
- Meta description tag
- Meta keyword tag
- Internal and external links to and from your website
- Body text particularly the first 200 words
- Image names
- Alt tags
After implementing your keywords it is important to keep track of the traffic coming to your site and the keywords they have searched for, you can do this by using Google analytics.
Link Building
In order to get better search rankings your website needs to have relevant links to other sites and other sites need to link to the landing pages of your own website. This is termed link building and is perhaps the most vital aspect of SEO strategy.
There are numerous ways to link your website to others and it is beneficial to create a link building plan where you can access exact points on your website where links should be embedded.
Examples of areas where links can be embedded are:
- On your webpages throughout your website
- Information about where your company is located
- Google maps indicating where you are
- Membership organisations
- Blogs that you follow
- Recommendations
- Reviews
The main challenge of link building is getting other websites to link to your company website.
The tactics of getting links from other websites include:
- Making your website easy to link to by including a “link to our website” button
- Adding interesting new content on your site to which other websites would want to link to
- Asking relevant companies to link to your website
- Offer to swap links with other websites
- Submit articles your company has written to industry news sites
- Make it easy for users to link to your website by including “Share this” and “Retweet” buttons
It should be noted that as part of your link building plan it is necessary to update your website links on a regular basis. Keep adding new links to your website by adding regular news items ensuring that you show the source and links to external sites.
Link building is not easy and takes time but it is worth the work required, one should also keep in mind that just like content, the quality of your links is more important than the quantity.
Social Media
Social media optimisation and SEO are similar in that they are both about driving traffic to your website and getting as many people as possible to view your content.
SMO is the process of generating publicity for your website, increasing brand awareness and making it shareable across the social web. SMO can lead to increased traffic to a site because visitors who like the content encourage their friends to visit the website. Furthermore, it also leads to improved SEO as many of the widely used search engines consider linking as a popularity contest, in that incoming links are like votes for the website.
Black Hat SEO
One must be careful when implementing SEO as Google will punish websites by lowering their rank if they find them engaging in what is referred to as black hat SEO.
The following methods are considered bad for SEO:
- Thin or superficial content
- Keyword stuffing
- URL redirection
- Hidden text
- Meta-tag stuffing
Conclusion
SEO is a cost effective way of driving traffic to your website. It is crucial for marketers that want to ensure their company is ranked high in results relevant to their brands, products and services. The SEO process will improve a website’s ranking across all search engines—one process, many results.
Sources
- http://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-seo
- http://visual.ly/seo-infographic-0
- http://www.hallme.com/blog/seo-at-a-glance-infographic/
- http://www.seobook.com/learn-seo/infographics/goldilocks.php
- http://www.boostsuite.com/2012/05/14/5-tips-for-choosing-and-implementing-the-right-target-keywords/
- http://www.alibiproductions.com/articles/13-easy-steps-to-on-site-seo-and-how-to-implement-them/
- http://www.businesscatalyst.com/bc-blog/3-steps-for-implementing-on-page-seo-in-BC
- http://blog.linkbird.com/en/link-building/how-to-create-a-link-building-plan-infographic/
- http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2370863/6-crucial-link-building-strategies-to-drive-quality-traffic
- https://moz.com/blog/the-6-month-link-building-plan-for-an-established-website
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