There is a lot of mystery around what SEO actually is. It stands for Search Engine Optimisation and it’s about making your site more visible in the eyes of Google.
Google wants to provide a positive experience to its users and if the Google algorithm believes that your website can provide the information that someone is searching for, it will serve it up higher in the search engine rankings.
SEO is not something that magically elevates your website to the top of the Google rankings. It takes consistent effort to increase your websites ranking and then continued effort to keep it there.
SEO basically comes down to three things:
- Creating awesome, helpful content consistently
- On-site factors, i.e., the mechanics of how your site is put together
- Off-site factors, i.e., external factors such as links from other websites back to your website
Creating Awesome Content
Content can be in the form of blogs/ articles on your site that are on relevant topics that would interest your readers or the actual copy that you have on your website describing your products and services. It is important to continually update and add to the content on your site so that Google sees that your business is a ‘going concern’ and that you are continually adding value.
On-site Factors
There are many different on-site SEO factors that Google looks for in ranking a website.
Below is a summary guide of factors that should be addressed for your website. For every item checked off, it potentially puts you a little further ahead of the competition.
- Correct heading structure by the use of H1, H2 and H3 tags
- Descriptive headings for each page
- Meta title and description of the page or post
- Permalinks are setup & configured correctly
- No broken links exist
- Robots.txt file exists
- XML sitemap file exists & submitted to Google Webmaster tools
- The number of HTTP requests are kept to a minimum (this results in a faster loading site)
- Google Analytics is setup and installed on the website. Google Analytics helps you understand your customers and what they do on your website. In addition to providing detailed data on changes in website performance, emerging trends and other opportunities, Google Analytics is a great tool for other tasks. With the ability to generate reports on your market, advertising, purchasing, conversions, user-flow, it’s possible to really know your customer.
- ALT Test exists for all images on the website. As Google can’t (currently) read images, it is important to have Alt Text (Alternate Text) on each of your images so that Google knows what the image is
- Page caching is enabled
- Good coding techniques are used such as no use of inline styles and old HTML tags
- Technical aspects such as minifying javascript & CSS code to make the page load fast
- The site loads quickly. This is generally the result of using a good quality host and minimising the size of the files on the website
- Site is responsive and displays well on all browsers and devices including mobiles
- Social signals such as sharing widgets and links to social media profiles
- Breadcrumbs exist on the site
Off-site Factors
Off-site factors refer to links from other websites linking to your website. These links to your website should be relevant to the topic of your site and be from reputable websites. It is important (in the eyes of Google) that your site is associated with other quality websites and is considered to be in a reputable ‘neighbourhood’.
Links may be in the form of other websites linking to specific content on your website or it can be a citation on a site such as a relevant directory site.
Summary
A combination of consistent quality content, on-site SEO factors and off-site SEO factors should be addressed in gaining maximum search engine optimisation.
A good web designer should be able to assist you in each of these areas.
Click on the links below for resources to improve your SEO:
Click here for a free online analysis tool to help assess your websites SEO. SEO Site Check Up will help analyse SEO issues, track changes, understand competitor’s profiles and produce reports that are easy to understand.
In addition, check your page speed with the Google Page Speed Insight Tool. Page Speed Insights analyses web page content and makes suggestions about how the speed of your website can be improved.
