Getting Noticed: why you should know about SEO
When setting out upon your new business venture, one of your primary goals is that it takes off and secondly, that it continues to grow and prosper. Verbal recommendations are of course welcome - but what about your potential online clients? If you want to ensure that you are the top dog in Google rankings, you need to think about how you can get your business noticed.
The best CEOs (and directors) know about SEO. Unless you are a marketing whizz, you might be sat there wondering, what does this mean? SEO, formally known as Search Engine Optimisation, is the act of employing techniques in order to obtain higher ranking in search engine results pages. The main aim of using such techniques is to increase the visibility of your website towards your target audience - the people that are browsing for solutions that your brand or service can offer.
How does it work?
The most crucial objective is to research and identify keywords that people are searching for. Imagine yourself as the website-user and think about how you would go about searching for your business online. What are the key terms that spring to mind? Is there anything that you feel needs to be on your potential customer's radar? Once you have gathered a selection of keywords, you must then embed them organically within your content. The trick is to use keywords carefully, rather than throw them in where they are not needed. Unfortunately, the algorithms of the most popular search engines can now decode websites that have gone overboard with their keyword content. For this tactic to work, you need to find a way of making your content both easily digestible and full of enough keywords.
That's good to know…but why is it important?
→ It helps users find and discover exactly what they are looking for
→ Directs your target audience to your website - you are the solution to their problem (or the provider of a useful, much needed service)
→ Drives traffic and gives your website the attention it deserves
→ Improves user experience, since your content is packed with key terms
Our Top Five Tips for SEO
1) Naming your page titles
Your page titles must be relatively short yet compelling. Title tags are used by search engines to display a page in the search results, so you must ensure that they are relevant and worth noting.
2) Keywords
As mentioned previously, you need to think about how you would search for your business. What are your offerings and what is your mission statement? Both of these elements will help you to decide what keywords you need to embed within your content.
3) ALT tags
Also known as alternative text descriptions, ALT tags are designed to help users locate your page using keywords. Each image and video displayed on your site can have descriptions added to their imprint in order to make them more visible when browsing - clever, right?
4) URL structure
Much like your page titles, you must keep your URLs brief, but still relevant to the page's topic.
5) Sitemaps
It does what it says in the title…maps out your website. You want your potential customers to access your website easily and this can be done through creating a domain page dedicated to providing links to other parts of your website. Sitemaps mean that your potential customers can reach the page they need in significantly less clicks. A win-win!
Finally, one bonus top tip: update your content regularly! If you want your business to stay relevant and appear in search engine results, then you need to check that your content is current and clearly displays what your business has to offer. You are less likely to be discovered if your content is outdated, so keep it new and in line with your brand's objectives.
If you need us you can get in touch with us by emailing [email protected] or give us a call on 01923 260519.