SEO tips

So, you have had a website built... you have worked alongside a development team who have created a great looking website that answers your brief and budget. You may feel like your work is done, however you will now have to work on making the world aware that your website exists.

At its most basic, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) means finding ways to increase your site’s appearance in web visitors’ search results (Google). This generally means more traffic to your site.

How does Google achieve this?

Basically, what Google does is it crawls the web. Google sends out what’s affectionately known as a ‘spider’ to ‘crawl’ the web, going from link to link creating a ‘web', and cataloging, or ‘indexing’ what it sees. While intense SEO can involve complex site restructuring with a company (or consultant) that specialises in this area, there are a few simple steps you can take yourself to increase your search engine ranking. 

So, what are your options to constantly promote your website while not spending all your time or money on it?

All it requires is a little effort, and some re-thinking of how you approach content on your site.

KEYWORDS


Ok, you’ve brainstormed and come up with a list of keywords to use.  Another way to improve your keyword usage is to seek out related keywords. You can find these easily by doing a keyword search and checking the searches related to your keyword listed at the bottom of the page.

You should also include short phrases that are highly specific to what you offer. There are also keyword tools available such as Google’s Keyword Planner (but you will have to signup to Adwords first). Any business will find more than enough relevant keywords using the right keyword tools. Also check what keywords your competition ranks for.
"Optimize each web page for a different target keyword.”

CONTENT


Research has shown that the content length of the top search results averages around 2,000 words. Increasing the length of key posts on your site can help you up the ranking ladder. But don’t add words just for the sake of padding out a piece. Quality wins over quantity every time. Longer pieces of text still need to provide value to the reader.

LINKS


Websites linking to each other is really what the ‘web' is all about. Links are the connecting elements of what most people call the internet. External backlinks are a kind of approval of your website. The more links pointing to your site the better. Most websites have none or too few backlinks which is a big part of why they get little or no search engine traffic.