SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. Basically, it means to optimise your website, so Google ranks it higher when someone searches for a keyword you want to rank for. The idea is that the higher you rank, the more traffic you get for free. This used to be true to a degree, but keep in mind you will spend money or time to get to the first page and more money and more time to get to number one on the first page. And then even more money to maintain this position. And to make things worse, before any organic results show, you get up to 4 paid Google Ads, followed by Google business listings. This is why we recommend starting with a Google Ads strategy. Once you know what keywords are getting you good traffic and are valuable, you can invest some money to rank organically as well as on the paid listings.
What Actually Is SEO?
SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimisation” and is an increasingly common business practice that revolves around getting your site as high in search engine results as possible. If you’re wondering why appearing high in search engine results is essential, take a moment to think of how you go about buying something you want to buy. You’ll have a vague idea in your head. For the sake of an example, perhaps you want to buy a pair of socks. There are going to be thousands of options out there, and chances are you don’t have any specific pair in mind. Instead, you’ll head to Google and type in “socks”. Google will draw up some results, and you’ll probably click the first few links to decide which you want. When’s the last time you went past the first or second pages of results when you’ve wanted anything? Probably a long time ago, if at all. People like convenience and they’re likely to opt for one of the first options presented to them. For your business, the link to your website and products must be one of the first in that list. This dramatically increases your chances of making a sale and making a profit. SEO helps you to achieve this goal. As does Google Ads. It’s essential for any business, whether you’re a major corporation, a small company, an SME or a start-up.
What Is Local SEO?
Local SEO is a more niche realm of SEO. It focuses on making sure your store appears top in the results of people in your local area. Search engines are smart and know where people are searching from. When the search engines generate results, they’ll show local results above further afield results to these people. This is convenient for them. Local SEO focuses on making sure search engines know what area your Small Business is based in, to show you as a Local business to people based nearby.
Things You Can Do to Boost Your SEO
There are a few things you can do before you get an SEO agency involved. For starters, make sure your website is up to date. That includes mobile responsive. Make sure it loads reasonably fast. Make sure you have a variety of pages with relevant content. You want more than a couple hundred words per page. Then look at your site title and site description. Then look at your page titles and page descriptions. Finally, review the website content on each page. Make sure the keyword you want to rank for is included in those pages. Make sure you have relevant headers (h1,h2,h3)
Now, the most effective way to boost your SEO is to use a reliable and competent business. We have experience in the field, and our professional consultants can recommend an SEO campaign that will generate the best results possible. We generally recommend getting the right foundation for your website first. Then run some Google Ads to know how what keywords you actually want to rank for. Then I would look at engaging a professional SEO company. But there are several steps you can take to boost your SEO yourself. Here are a few to try out!
Page Titles
Page titles will show search engines and potential customers exactly what’s on each page of your site. They’re the clickable link titles that are listed when you search for anything online. They also appear in browser tabs. For the best SEO, try to keep titles between 55 and 60 characters long. Use keywords and describe the page’s content most accurately and concisely. Make sure each page title is unique and not repeated.
Page Descriptions
Page descriptions or “meta descriptions” can contain more detail than the page title, but still, try to keep this snippet less than 155 characters long. While page descriptions don’t directly bring your site up the rankings, they can encourage someone to click through to your page, giving them confidence that you’re providing them with what they need.
These are just the basics of the relatively complex process that’s known as SEO. But hopefully, the above information has helped to give you a little insight into what SEO is, how it works, and what you can do to start working on your own business’ SEO!
