Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Having a website is only the first step in online success. The old saying “build it and they will come” doesn’t apply when it comes to a website no matter how amazing the design is. For an idea why, according to the Netcraft Web Survey there are over a billion websites. With so much competition, giving your website the best chance of succeeding online is marathon and not a sprint.

This is where Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) comes in. The goal of this ongoing process is to improve how your website ranks in search engine results pages (SERPs) and gain more targeted traffic. SEO can be broadly be split into two categories: on-page and off-page optimisation.

On-page SEO Optimisation

On-page optimisation is making changes to your own website to improve its ranking in search engines.

On-site Technical Fixes

Performing technical SEO fixes to make sure Googlebot can crawl your website effectively. I use industry standard tools such as Semrush and Screaming Frog to help me locate issues.

Optimising Existing Content

Making sure current content covers as much as it could and there are no topic gaps; Is there another section or heading that could be added? Do existing meta descriptions and titles read well and provide a good click-through rate (CTR)?

Content Writing

As the saying goes, content is king. If you want to rank well for a topic, you will need a page or blog article that covers it. This could include answering questions potential customers may have (you can find them using Answer the Public and Google Autosuggest). This will give you the opportunity to be listed in Google searches where potential customers may be at different stages of the sales funnel.

Internal Linking

Linking keywords to related inner pages to help search engines understand the relationship between pages. Making sure satellite pages link back to a hub page. For example, subpages and blog articles covering specific topics about SEO could link back to a general SEO page.

Keyword Research

Using Google Keyword Planner and Google Autosuggest to find relevant keywords that potential customers are searching for. Starting with initial seed terms, I build up a list of useful search terms to optimise for.

Competitor Research

A good way to improve your own ranking for a keyword is analysing top competitor websites for the term. Look through the page that ranks and compare the content to your own (but never plagarise). If they have content or topics covered that you don't then consider writing similar content for your own page or blog article.

Off-page SEO Optimisation

Off-page optimisation is making changes to other people's websites to improve your own rankings in search engines.

Linking Building

Link building is one of the most important factors in Google's search ranking algorithm. Therefore gaining links from relevant websites is a key part of improving your rankings.

Methods to help achieve this include creating link worthy blog articles, useful tools to help solve an issue your potential customers may be facing, and guest blogging on relevant authoritative industry sites. If you are looking for something unique, you could have an advergame made for your brand and have pages that host it link back to you. For example, if you were a cereal company, you could have a platform game made where the pickups are boxes of your branded cereal.

Local SEO

If your customers will be searching for location specific queries, then Local SEO will be important for you. This is because the Local Pack will often appear above the organic results. Who ranks higher in this box is largely affected by the number of citations (business directories with your company’s consistent address and contact information) and Google My Business reviews.

Citation building using tools such as BrightLocal and Moz Local can help you make sure you are listed on the import business directories and that your details remain the same.

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