A Comprehensive Guide to SEO:
If you are looking into SEO then you probably will have come across hundreds of blogs briefly explaining complicated key terms and how to ‘do’ SEO, but not explaining how it can help your business or what SEO is.
As Digital Marketing and SEO experts, we have helped our clients launch their fantastic websites in the online world and made it our priority to see their traffic and sales increase. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is an essential part of any modern digital marketing strategy. Search Engine Optimisation helps to improve website rankings on search engine result pages (SERPs) and can be a powerful tool to drive more visitors to your website, which in turn can help you grow your business.
We have created this comprehensive guide to explain the basics of SEO, how it works and why it should be an important part of your business’s digital marketing strategy.
- How does SEO work?
- The importance of SEO for businesses
- 3 Reasons your business needs to ‘do’ SEO
- What makes a good SEO strategy?
- Measuring SEO success
- Can I do SEO Myself?
What is SEO and how does it work?
At its most basic level, Search Engine Optimisation is about creating content that search engines like Google find valuable, which in turn will allow them to rank you higher for certain keywords. By combining an array of different tactics, from changing the way you write your content to increasing your website’s internet presence, your business can gain exposure through just organically obtaining keywords.
The ultimate goal of Search Engine Optimisation is to bring more visitors to your website through organic search engine results. But, many new website owners don’t know where to start when it comes to optimising for search. Or what it really means for their business.
The importance of SEO for businesses
Any business that wants to succeed in the digital world must have a strong SEO strategy. It doesn’t matter if you sell your products online, or if you have a brick-and-mortar store. It’s is relevant for companies of any size and in any industry. It’s essential for acquiring new and retaining existing customers.
Without a strong SEO strategy, it can be much harder for your business to get noticed. You could even be losing out on potential customers who are searching for your product or service but don’t notice your website because it isn’t showing up in the search results.
3 Reasons your business needs to ‘do’ SEO
Still not convinced that your business should be taking SEO seriously? Below we have outlined the top three reasons why your business should:
- Credibility – As your site ranks higher on the Search Engine Results Page, users (potential customers) will perceive your business as more trustworthy.
- Helps reach more customers – The higher the page rank, the more people that are going to see your website and could make a purchase from your business.
- Improves your website – SEO strategies are not just to appease Google, but they will also improve your current site. Google wants to promote websites that are reputable, reliable and usable!
What makes a good Search Engine strategy?
A good search strategy is based on a few key things working together:
- Keyword research – The first thing you need to do is research keywords that your customers are searching for. There are great online tools that help you do this, such as SEMrush. This will help you to understand what your audience is looking for, as well as discover which keywords have the highest search volume.
- On-Page optimisation – On-Page optimisation refers to changes you can make to your website’s content and structure. However, no matter how optimised your on-page content is, if no one is visiting your website, then it won’t matter how well you’ve optimised your content. Once you’ve chosen your keywords, you can create content that is optimised for those terms. Avoid keyword stuffing, which is when a website has way too many keywords, as it can actually get your site penalised by search engines.
- Off-Page optimisation – Off-Page optimisation refers to your website’s internet presence outside of its own domain. The most effective strategies also focus on off-page optimisation. This includes building links to your website, as well as creating content that other people want to link to.
Technical SEO
With more than half of all internet users now accessing the web via smartphones or tablets, it is important to keep in mind that Google’s Mobile-Friendly algorithm has a greater impact than Desktop Search Engine Optimisation (SEOM). In fact, over 50% of all internet users rely on mobile devices when they want to make a purchase. With this in mind, it’s important to make sure that your website is optimised for mobile devices.
You should make sure your website’s:
- Content is readable- Making sure that your content is easily readable on smaller screens is super important.
- Optimising your images – Make sure your images are not too big so they can load quickly and easily on mobile devices.
- Utilising AMPs – Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMPs) are a relatively new feature from Google that makes it easier for smartphones to access your content. AMPs load in a third of the time that it takes for a normal website to load, which is especially helpful when your visitors are in a rush.
Measuring Search Engine Success
The best way to measure your success is to set goals for your website as it’s important to understand what you want to achieve with SEO.
Do you want more visitors? Do you want to increase the amount of time that visitors spend on your site? Or do you want to increase your lead conversion rates?
Once you know what you want to achieve, it’s easier to track your progress and will help you to make any necessary adjustments to your SEO strategy going forwards. There are a few different metrics that you can use to measure your success. You can track your website’s traffic from a variety of different sources, including Google Analytics, Ahrefs or SEMrush.
Can I do SEO Myself?
Technically speaking, anyone can ‘do’ Search Engine Optimisation, but getting steady results and improving your traffic by doing it yourself is another question.
We see the businesses every day claiming that they have been doing SEO for years and not seeing any results, so what’s going on? Getting the maximum results takes a lot of work, time and dedication.
In fact, people make careers out of being SEO specialists. Running your business also takes time, meaning you won’t get the most out of doing both at the same time, so it’s best to leave it up to the professionals to help you. Make sure to check out our SEO and Digital Marketing Services today.
You might be reading this guide and thinking that SEO is easy, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to learn more about SEO, we have some other useful blogs linked below.
