SEO  |   POSTED ON 19.09.2017

The term SEO has many people cringing these days – it seems overwhelming, time consuming, expensive. But, when considered in bite-sized pieces and in light of its importance to your brand, SEO could just turn out to be your new best friend.

What is SEO?

SEO is Search Engine Optimisation and is the broad term given to all of the strategies and practices you can use to improve the ranking your website (and other online content) receives on online searches with search engines like Google, Facebook, YouTube, Yahoo and Bing (yes, Facebook and YouTube are two of the largest search engines on the Internet).

As it is the largest search engine on the web, we’ll be focusing on Google for this blog.

____

The basics of SEO

Every second of every day, Google performs over 57 000 search queries – that’s about 4.46 billion per day – and the number continues to rise. So with that number of searches being performed, chances are that people are searching for services and products your brand provides. Where are they, you ask? Well they’re definitely out there but the problem comes with their search limitations – they’re willingness to search beyond the first few pages of results.

The chance of your business being found online increases with good SEO. Here are some key points to consider if your brand wants better rankings.

____

1. Keywords

When people type a search query into Google, they’re looking for results that match their search as close as possible. If you type ‘florist’ into Google, you want to see results that tell you about florists.

But, where your website is concerned you should have content that matches what people would type into a search engine if they were looking for your brand. So, if you run a florist but your website has no mention of anything resembling flowers or a florist, then search engines won’t show your brand when people look for florists.

Don’t go wild with keyword stuffing though, remember that it’s not enough just to have the right words. The content you produce on your website should also be useful and interesting to your readers. Repeating the word ‘florist’ over and over is seen as irrelevant content and can actually damage your SEO rankings. A well-constructed piece of content on the importance of florists will rank higher because it’s more interesting and therefore, more likely to be read.

Search engines consistently aim and change to give the audience the most relevant and useful results. This means that your content should also be what your audience will find insightful and valuable.

____

2. Technical and User Experience

Search engines favour websites that offer a good experience. Consider how your site is built and how it functions by asking these questions:

• Is the speed of the website quick enough?
• Is the layout and design clear and easy to use?
• Can you find the information you want easily?
• Does your website have links that are broken?
• Are any pop ups showing too quickly, obscure content and are difficult to close?
• Is your website mobile-friendly?

If you have problems navigating through your website, it’s likely that your users are also having a bad experience. Designing and developing a user-friendly website invites people to spend longer on your site and will therefore be ranked higher by Google in a search results page.

____

3. Links

This aspect can be a little more involved but when you have credible websites that are authoritative and trustworthy within your industry linking back to your website and using your content as a resource, your search engine ranking will improve.

____

Get in touch

If you’d like to learn more about SEO or if you’re interested in better SEO for your business, contact the brand agency experts at Liquid Creativity and let’s get your brand’s ranking higher.