SEO – What is it?
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process of making sure your website can be found on search engines like Google and Bing.
Why is SEO important?
Google’s most familiar results are the traditional organic results, which consist of links to website pages ranked in an order determined by Google’s algorithms. Search engine algorithms are a set of formulae the search engine uses to determine the relevance of your website to the user’s search query.
How do search engines work?
Search engines use crawlers (also known as spiders) to gather information across the internet to populate their databases. These crawlers use the information found on your website to discover what the website is about, if the website is safe to use, easy to read, and how valid the source of information is.
How do you optimise a website?
It is easier to break down each element into three main sections.
On-page SEO
This is where knowing your business, industry, and customers is key. On-page SEO is ensuring that relevant content and keywords relating to your business is easy to find for the search engine’s crawlers and, importantly, your potential customers. This includes clear page titles, headings, and descriptions.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is the make-up and construction of your website. This includes the code, the links to each page, the loading speed, the mobile friendliness, and general website structure. It is just as important for your website to work smoothly as it is to have relevant content on the page.
Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO is about earning links from trusted sources, like local new sites, to validate your information and increase the search engine’s trust in the validity of your website. This can also include publishing your business in local trusted directories and ensuring all links back to your website are from trusted sources.
