Search engine optimisation (SEO) involves a wide range of activities including link building, forum and article posting, blog posting, image optimisation, website responsiveness, website load speeds, content management, meta descriptions, title tags, site headings and the use of keywords on web pages etc.
Now improving the content of your website and adding meta tags requires you to have a basic knowledge of keywords and how to use them effectively, then these can be added to your website content as part of your on-page SEO. Keywords play a very important role and should be considered carefully before adding content, so you could consider the use of keywords to be the foundation of any SEO strategy.
Importance of keywords for SEO explained:
Keywords are important for SEO because they reflect the search terms used that your targeted audience may be using to find your products and/or services. Few people would know of your business, domain name or the products and/or services you are providing if it was not for the use of search terms. Search terms allow people to find your website based on the search results without having to have heard of you before.
Establishing a link between those searching and those that are selling is vital for the growth of the internet but how do businesses get found exactly?
The answer to this is keywords. Have you ever used a search engine such as Google? Then you might be aware that to find relevant pages for your needs you need to enter a search term. For example, if you are looking for SEO companies in Poole then you may type ‘Best SEO company in Poole’ into the search engine.
Search terms like this, used whilst searching for a product or service on the search engines are otherwise referred to as keywords. Search engines match these terms with relevant content found on websites and the content they consider to be most relevant to the search is displayed in the search results, otherwise known as SERPs or search engine rank position. The keywords on your web page and the relevance of the content within it determines your SERP and for that reason it should be considered carefully as part of your marketing strategy.
Keyword research:
As keywords are very important, research is paramount. If you have little or no experience in using keyword research services, then you may end up targeting the wrong keywords and missing out on delivering traffic to your website.
Although the thought of keyword research may seem quite daunting to most, it is not such a complicated thing to do if you have a clear understanding of what it is you are trying to achieve. It will include researching and finding specific search phrases and/or words that you consider your audience will be using, in order to search for information related to your products and services. You must also pay attention to the relative local and global search volumes and keyword competition. Keyword research is not a single step process and involves a series of activities that are linked together. It is important to research the correct keywords for your business niche in order to bring your website to the forefront of search results on Google and the other major search engines such as Bing and Yahoo.
It's back with a vengeance, the 2018 SEO Flatrate 'Christmas Tree Bonanza'!
It's Christmas all over again and we have been asked time and again by our customers if and when we will be holding another Christmas Tree Bonanza in December 2018.
After last year's successful Christmas tree bonanza, we had 70+ applicants all looking to win the main prize and to cash in on a free £70 SEO Flatrate Search Engine Optimisation service for their online business. Last years prize was won by the Dorset based Airport Transfer Company "Elite Travel Services".
For all those who have never heard of the SEO Flatrate Christmas Tree Bonanza, it is now time for you to pull your socks up and pay attention, it's school time all over again.
If you know of anyone with an online business looking to get noticed on the Search Engines this will make a fantastic Christmas present!
So what is The SEO Flatrate Christmas Tree Bonanza you ask?
Well, it is all a bit of fun and games, we have all heard of "Where's Wally" right? Well instead of hunting down Wally, this time you are hunting for the SEO Flatrate Christmas tree Bonanzas.
So where have we hidden the christmas trees and can anyone take part??
Simple, we have taken the time to hide two SEO Flatrate Christmas trees somewhere within the content of our website thats two not one!. We won't tell you where they are, then that would be cheating right?
The winner is the first person or company, to tell us exactly where the two Christmas trees are hidden on our website. We do need both christmas tree locations and not just one and there is no prize for coming second place unfortunately. The winner takes it all here at the Christmas Tree Bonanza!!
Anyone can take part, you don't need to be a customer the rules are simple and very rewarding for anyone who needs Search Engine Optimisation for their website, blog or video.
What is SEO?
Please take a look at some of our other blogs or simply click here to find out more about how SEO can help you grow your business and drive more potential customers to your website.
How do I notify you when I have found them?
Simply contact us, letting us know who you are and where the Christmas trees are hidden, we will reply and let you know that we have your application.
The winner will be announced on our social media accounts on the 2nd of January 2019.
So without further ado, let the 2018 SEO Flatrate Christmas Tree Bonanza games begin!
And may the odds be ever in your favour :-).
There may be a bonus prize for guessing that film and a further bonus point for finding the ABBA song hidden within this blog.
Designing a website with your brand in mind is challenging at the best of times, on-page SEO is time-consuming, but if followed out correctly you will get the intended results on the search engines. Did you know that carrying out search engine optimisation (SEO) is of little or no use if your website is not set up correctly to allow the search engines to find and identify your content as relevant?
One question you need to be asking yourself is: “Is my website SEO ready?”
We have listed 6 additional questions below that you need to be asking yourself and your website designer when creating or updating a website for your business.
1. Is your website domain name user-friendly: be sure to have an SEO-friendly URL that has a keyword or keyword phrase within it, make sure the URL makes sense and describes what the webpage is all about. This is both good for the search engines to identify its purpose and to rank it accordingly, but this is also beneficial for its users who are searching for the products or services.
Keep it simple, easy to read, and if possible, make it easy to remember.
Suggestions:
a) Experiment with Keyword-only URL’s these have proven to be easier to rank. Search engines are constantly updating their algorithms, so remember what applies today, may not necessarily apply in the future. (December 2018).
b) Avoid using non-readable or default assigned URL’s, if the URL makes no sense to a human being, it simply won’t perform as well as if it was in a readable format.
2. Make sure the keywords used are appropriate to the cause: You will need to use the keywords that can be related to your product, service or brand, this allows the search engines to categorise you correctly and to rank you accordingly.
3. Make sure you use unique content: Always create and upload unique content to
your website, do not copy and paste content from other websites or internet sources. Information taken or gathered from third parties and that has not been written or researched by yourself will not pass as your own. The Search engines have a content checking algorithm in place, that can very quickly identify if you have written the blog or content yourself or if you have copied it from someone else. The best ranking websites rely on unique content only, so if you want to outrank your competitors please bear this in mind.
4. Make sure your website is responsive: A responsive website should function well on all screen sizes and on all modern mobile devices that the end user (your customer) may be using when they visit the website. Long gone are the days when websites only needed to run on a PC or desktop computer, with the number of smartphones, tablet computers, smart watches and mobile devices now out numbering the use of PCs, websites now need to be designed to ensure the user experience is maintained; no matter which device the website is viewed upon. This process is called “Responsiveness”. Having a responsive website to improve the user experience has become so important to the end user, that the search engines will no longer rank your website high in the results, if the end-user experience is not of the same high quality across all devices.
5. Does your website have an XML Sitemap: An XML sitemap guides search engine spiders otherwise known as bots, to understand your website structure and its content easier when it is crawled. Failing to add a sitemap to your website may result in your content being overlooked or missed when the spiders crawl your content. The larger the website the more likely it will become that some of your content may be missed and therefore will not be indexed by search engines. For this reason, websites that do not have a sitemap tend to rank lower in the search engines.
6. Heading and Meta Tags: Make sure you use your headings and Meta description tags to emphasise the importance of the content on your website. This makes it easier for the search engines to understand which information is of value to your users and will highlight an important message to the search engines for them to show in their results page. When we search content on the search engine’s we are provided with a wide range of results for us to choose from. These results are gathered using the information highlighted upon websites using the heading and meta description tags and will be ranked accordingly based on the Search Engine algorithm. Heading tags do not just have an impact on usability but affect your SEO too, websites failing to correctly make use the headings and meta descriptions will find they are less likely to appear in the search results for a given keyword or key phrase.
Finally:
Once the above has been completed, you are now at least on the right path to successfully promoting your website on the search engines. On-page SEO in combination with the correct number of high-quality backlinks and online marketing services otherwise known as off-page SEO or SEO for short, can in time improve your Search Engine Rank Position (SERP). SEO is a trust-building process for the search engines, only the best content and the most trusted websites will rank at the top of the results page. The Search Engines are constantly evolving and improving their algorithms to ensure that only the very best unique and resource rich content is shown to its users to choose from. Remember, the Search Engines are directories, there purpose is not to rank websites, but to provide answers to questions posed by their users. If your content is of a higher quality to that of your competitors and if it meets the criteria of the Search Engines’, then your website should show in the results page higher than content that is of less relevance to the search query. Remember content relevance is decided by the search Engine, so it is important to realise that just because you deem something to be of higher importance it does not necessarily follow that the Search Engine will agree with your findings and rank other content higher.
