Trying to find an SEO company to help you with your website can be daunting but before we dive into what to look for let's first work out:
A simplified definition is: a method of giving a search engine information about you (your website content) so it can discover and understand who you are and who to connect to you. The basic purpose and function of SEO is to drive more organic targeted traffic to your site that converts into sales.
SEO is also about understanding how consumers are using search engines so that your website is presented to them when they search for your business type. It also helps to understand how search engines work, how they interact with your website and what they are looking for when they position websites.
Why is SEO important?
The more relevant your website content is, the higher it will be ranked in search engines, and the more likely to be displayed to your online customer. How many websites are there that are similar to yours? How do you ensure that your website has the best chance of being seen online?
How to improve your search ranking
There are a few fundamental steps to take which you can do with your website. These tips will help you to: Understand who your customers are,know what keywords are and how to use them and keep your page content fresh.
Understand who your customers are
How do your potential customers search for you? Your online presence is the first point of contact for many, do you know who you are trying to attract? Where are they in the buying cycle?
- Awareness – they are aware of a need/problem, they are broader in search, they haven't yet made up their mind.
- Consideration – they are looking for a solution to meet their needs, they generally have more information and are using a more pin pointed approach.
- Purchase – they have made a decision and ready to complete a transaction.
Know what keywords are and how to use them
It's useful to remember that search engines apply rankings to websites by matching the relevance of the website to the search term used. Keywords play a ‘key’ factor in SEO, they are the words or phrases entered by a customer into a search engine when they are performing a search.
This is a crucial and quite simple step, you need to match the keywords used on your website with the words used by your potential customers when they search for you. By adding popular keywords or phrases to your website, (what your customers are using in search) the search engines pick these out and benefit your ranking. These words can be used in obvious places such as page titles and in content but have you thought about the name of the image file you’re using. Name all your images with a relevant keyword included.
Keep your page content fresh
Regularly include new content on your website or update existing, like revisiting blogs for example and adding some relevant information very 6 months. Removing old and redundant content is just as valuable too. Search engines will be encouraged to scan your site more often and the faster they find your new/updated content the more likely it will increase your rankings.
But wait there is another type of SEO
Yes, apart from all of the above, there is another form of SEO called Technical SEO. After you have put the above tips into practice, you would be wise to invest in an expert as this is a more complex undertaking. Technical SEO is essentially any work done aside from the content, which provides a strong base for that content to be built on. Making a website faster, easier to crawl and understandable for search engines are the backbone of technical optimisation.
