Search Engine Optimisation in the 21st Century

With so much content available on the internet – and thousands more pages being created every day – it can be tough for your website to stand out. More than two million searches are conducted daily on Google alone!

So how can you ensure your business ranks on the first page?

The answer is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

What is SEO?

SEO is the practice of constant little updates that are made on a website to ensure its design, content and links appeal to Google’s ever-changing algorithm (with over 200 factors that collectively determine your website’s fate) so it wants to rank your site higher in search results.

How SEO works

The majority of online journeys start with a search engine – about 75% of those occur on Google and more than half of all clicks go to the first five results.

For a chance to grab one of those spots, you need to refine both on-page SEO and Off-page SEO factors.

On-page SEO

On-page SEO elements include headlines, content and page structure.

Content

Google always tries to give the searcher the best experience by directing them to the most relevant content. These are just some of the factors Google considers great content:

  • Quality information that adds value
  • Relevant keyword research to determine headlines and content
  • Use of keywords that are strategic and natural, not just inserting it as many times as you can. The focus needs to be on the reader’s experience
  • Fresh content. Updating your website regularly, by adding blog posts, for example, improves Google’s analysis of your site.
  • Direct answers through clearly written content so Google can identify it as relevant to a specific question a person might have.

Keyword selection

Keywords determine what your content is about, what you call your brand or how you describe it, and how you build inks.

Keyword research is a continuous activity of adjusting and testing. It’s not just enough to consider whether a keyword is relevant to your business, not too competitive (which will make it more expensive) and will drive traffic to your site. In fact, the most important consideration is your customers’ search intent – identifying what they are looking for, rather than what they are typing in the search bar. Are they actively buying, or just comparing products?

HTML

You don’t need to be a professional coder to ensure you get this part right. Three elements to optimize are:

  1. Title tags – your pages’ headlines
  2. Meta descriptions – the excerpt displayed on your Google search result
  3. Subheads – these help to structure your content and counts toward your SEO score

Architecture

Fast loading times, safe connections and mobile-friendly design are details of your site’s architecture that impacts on a user’s experience.

If the build of your site is easy for Google to crawl through indexing it, your results will be better. You should also ensure that your site is secure through the application of an SSL certificate, which offers encryption of sensitive personal information, such as credit card details. If Google determines your site as unsecure, it will actively warn people with an explicit notification. As a result you might lose customers before they even get to your site.

Off-page SEO

Off-page SEO are factors you can’t completely control, but you should try to make a positive impact when possible.

  • Cultivate quality backlinks. When authoritative websites, like government and educational institutions link back to your site, Google considers your content to be more trustworthy.
  • Decrease the bounce rate. This is a measure of how many people briefly view only one page of your site. You can work on bringing this down by improving loading times, providing relevant content, and ensuring your website is easy to use – both in terms of navigation and mobile use.
  • It also helps if your site’s domain has been around for a while. Domain age only matters a little, but if you can find an affordable expired domain, why not go for the little wins?
  • Build your brand’s identity online for improved trust ranking. Ensure your brand is recognisable and work on getting those quality backlinks.
  • Be subtle about how you include inks in your content by using anchor text, that is, linking text of the natural sentence to the intended destination.

Conclusion

The question isn’t whether you need an SEO specialist with all the know-how and insider knowledge working on your site. It’s why you haven’t asked us to help you yet. Let’s chat!