What is SEO, Search Engine Optimization?
What is SEO Search Engine Optimisation?
You’re probably thinking – ‘Search Engine Optimisation? What even is that.. Is it really necessary for my website? Well, in short, yes. SEO can sound confusing and daunting, however, put more simply it is the process of utilising strategies on and off-page (including keyword targeting, and backlinking) to allow your web pages to rank higher in search results. Let’s put it this way when you are looking something up on google do you sift through all the websites until page 30 or simply click on a website from the first page?
Ranking higher creates the opportunity to gain more organic traffic and clicks to your website. Ultimately creating more potential customers and consumers. If you’re not on the first page of google you run the risk of being unseen! Still not entirely sure or convinced you need SEO?
Let me share 8 helpful tips that will help you gain more knowledge and understanding of what you need to know about SEO.
1. How Does SEO Work?
Search engines such as Google use bots to scan and collect information, going from site to site and putting them together creating an index. The index is like a ginormous library (google) where the librarian (web pages) helps you find exactly what it is you are looking for. From here, search engine algorithms are used to analyse pages in the index taking into account ranking factors and signals to determine the order of pages popping up. The reason Google does this is to give you the best possible search result in relation to the keyword you typed in the search bar. In other words, this algorithm helps you find the best possible answers/information you are looking for.
2. What are Organic Search Results? Are they important?
Organic search results refer to the search result of a search engine that cannot by any means be influenced by paid advertising. You simply cannot pay search engines to gain higher organic search rankings for your website. This is where SEO experts must put in their skills and knowledge to achieve higher rankings for your business organically. SEO success factors are based on user experience, domain authority, page speed, page headings, titles, meta description, and more! These elements are how search bots measure how well a website/web page can give the searcher their answers to their search queries.
3. Meta Description? Do I really need one?
A meta description is an HTML element that provides a brief summary of your webpage. A website/page’s meta description tag is displayed as part of the search piece in a search engine results page (SERP) and will give the user the content they should expect to find within the page/or website and how it relates to the question they are asking. You must ensure you are using keywords, and are to the point to ensure potential consumers know what they should expect once clicking on your page.
Title tags are a major factor in ensuring that search engines understand what your page is about. It is crucial to be relevant, clear, and to the point. Much like Meta Descriptions; title tags help your searcher gain an understanding of the content of your page which helps them depict the most appropriate result for their search query. Read more about title tags in our blog “What Is A Title Tag”.
5. Is Creating Content Important?
This leads us to another crucial factor for search engine optimization. Creating content that is new and relevant to your potential consumers is important. This is a super fun process as you get to share all the amazing things about your business. When creating new content it is important to include relevant keywords for your target audience to find you. Hiring an SEO expert will help you to create the right content with the right keywords to help your website get ranking on Google.
6. What are internal links? And what are they used for?
Internal links are a great way to direct your consumers to another area on your website that you think they would be interested in. Both search engines and web visitors use links to find content on your website. This creates a user-friendly experience and encourages consumers to explore more of your website.
An example: you may write a description of what your company has to offer and below the description you might add a ‘contact us’ button that directs them to your contact page, enticing your potential customer to get in touch.
7. What is on-page SEO?
On-page SEO is the practice of optimising elements on your website to help your rankings on search engines. On-page SEO includes optimising images for fast load speed, writing relevant content, optimising your page headings and your image alt tags. All these things support your title tags and meta descriptions which are also part of your on-page SEO.
8. What is off-page SEO?
Off-page SEO is actions that you take outside of your own website to assist your search engine rankings. Off-page SEO includes social media posting, backlinking, content marketing, reviews, and more.