Search engine optimisation, or SEO, is an online marketing technique used by many companies across the globe. There are a lot of misleading resources on the web that could provide you with conflicting information, so I would always recommend a site like Moz or Search Engine Land to find the truth when it comes to certain topics and news stories.
But before you get to that, it might be helpful for you to understand what SEO is in a little bit more detail, and what it actually consists of. Then you’ll be able to see just how it could help your own company.
What is it?
Search engine optimisation is the process of trying to get a higher amount of more relevant visits to your website. This only covers the visits that come from the organic (natural/free) listings on the search engines, which don’t include the paid ads at the top and side. Local SEO increases your online business visibility in a local market and making easy for customers to find information of your business.
How does it work?
When someone searches for something on Google, Yahoo or Bing, an algorithm will kick into place that will dictate which order all of the results are shown. The search engines want to provide users with the most relevant results for their query. If you work in this sector or provide the service that someone has searched for, you’ll want your website to be listed where they’re likely to see it. For many people this means the first page of results, preferably as high up as possible.
How can you make a site rank higher?
This is the question that everyone would love a straight answer to, but the truth is that there are a whole number of components that form a search engine algorithm. They don’t want spammy results to show so they include parameters to ignore these types of sites. Ultimately they are looking for relevance to queries above anything else, and to determine this they look at site structure, content, and who is mentioning that specific web page elsewhere online.
It has long been thought that search engines such as Google think of inbound links to a website as a vote of confidence. They’re usually able to distinguish between natural link referencing and spammy gobbledygook, so just be wary of the techniques you use in the future. It is worth doing quite a lot of research in this area or employing a well-known company to help you out.
There are other methods you can use to help present your website to the search engines in the best light, such as making page titles, headings and image tags more specific and relevant. It is also helpful to have a good social and local presence, as this is thought to be important too.
Why is it useful?
Finally, you’ll want to know why you should invest in SEO. The answer to that is to have a brilliant campaign that can give you an excellent return on investment if done properly. You’ll attract new visitors to your site that could ultimately turn into repeat purchasers!