What is SEO
SEO (search engine optimisation) is the practice of optimising a website to improve its visibility and ranking in search engines. The ultimate aim of SEO strategy should be to drive organic (no direct cost) traffic.
Search engines like Google use complex algorithms to determine the relevance and quality of websites when users search for specific keywords or phrases. SEO involves various techniques and strategies to align a website with these algorithms and improve its chances of appearing higher in search results.
Google and other search engines crawl webpages, analyse the content, and decide what keyword phrases to file each webpage under.
Here are some tips to kickstart your SEO Strategy –
Set some time aside to figure out your keyword phrases
It’s essential to establish exactly what you want to found on. Many online tools are available to help you undertake keyword research and see how many searches keyword phrases are currently getting. Suppose you know lots about your target audience. In that case, it should be pretty straightforward to predict the sort of things they’ll search on when looking for your product or service.
Current advice suggests that your keyword phrases should have no more than 4 individual words.
I recommend initially having around 12 keyword phrases.
Think about using landing pages
A landing page is essentially a page on your website that can’t be accessed from a menu or link within your website.
Unlike regular web pages that attract traffic from links on other pages, landing pages should be set up to attract traffic from search engines such as Google.
So landing pages can be used in your SEO strategy to attract organic traffic, which can be directed to another webpage or converted on the landing page itself.
Don’t ignore backlinks
Backlinks should be an essential part of SEO strategy. A backlink is a link to one of your web pages from another website (an external source).
When Google crawls your web pages, it establishes what pages link to each of your pages.
Backlinks from high domain authority websites are most beneficial to your SEO strategy.
Get familiar with everything Google
Google tends to prioritise everything that it owns. Embedding Google Maps or YouTube videos is a good thing to do. Using Google Analytics will also help your strategy.
Having a Google Business profile and making it as complete as possible is essential.
If client or customer reviews are part of your overall marketing strategy, then using your Google profile for these could be an option.
Use Yoast
Yoast is an industry-leading plugin for WordPress websites. Working on a simple traffic light system, it’s designed to help website owners optimise their content for search engines.
If your website is WordPress, grab the Yoast plugin’s free version. If you’re not using WordPress, it’s worth checking out the Yoast blog, where you’ll find many helpful SEO tips.
Find out more about Yoast here.
Don’t forget about readability
Google is heavily focused on creating a positive user experience. As well as concentrating on keyword relevance, Google also analyses the readability of your content.
Keeping text easy to read, with short words and sentences, shorter paragraphs, and level 1, 2 and 3 sub-headings, is recommended. Avoiding passive voice and having a high Flesch Reading Ease score is also a good idea.
Update your website as often as you can
When you update your website, you’re kind of asking Google to revisit your site and crawl your new pages. This will have a positive impact on your organic rankings.
The easiest way to update your website is to add a blog. It’s worth mentioning that blog posts, over time, attract more traffic, whereas webpages, over time, attract less traffic.
Use Google Analytics or Monster Insights
As part of your SEO strategy, monitoring and measuring the results is essential. Google Analytics is probably the best way to do this.
Having a good understanding of which keyword phrases are working (and which aren’t) will give you the information to make informed decisions moving forward.
If logging into Google Analytics and sifting through the vast amount of metrics, installing Monster Insights, which can be accessed from your website’s backend, will make life easier.
Find out more about Google Analytics and Monster Insights.
SEO is an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring, analysis, and adjustment. Unfortunately, ranking organically on Google isn’t usually a quick job.
To chat more about your SEO strategy, drop me a line.