SEO: What is it and how can it help your business?

SEO What Is It And Why Is It Important

You may have heard of SEO and know it is important in regards to your website and online presence, but do you really know what it is and why it’s an integral part of your website strategy? Here, I’ll give you a not so technical rundown so you can be better informed when it comes to getting the most out of your digital investment.

 

WHAT IS SEO?

 

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. In short, this is optimising your website’s content so it can be found when users search for terms or “keywords” in search engines such as Google and Bing. These search engines use bots to crawl web pages, and using a complex algorithm, index and rank your site accordingly based on its relevance.

 

HOW CAN SEO HELP MY BUSINESS?

 

SEO is a numbers game. The more visitors to your site, the more conversions. Good SEO can get your business recognised as an industry leader, hence building trust with your target market.

 

For example, when holidaying in Byron Bay you wake up with a bad back and have no idea where to find a good masseuse. What’s the first thing you do? Pick up your phone, go to Google and type in “best masseuse Byron Bay”. A list of businesses come up and most likely, you will click on one of them from the first few results.

 

Their websites have been optimised for the keywords “best masseuse Byron Bay” and they probably have a lot of happy client testimonials, great content, and backlinks to their sites.

 

 

Approximately 75% of searchers begin their search on Google, and the first five results get 67% of all clicks.

 

 

That’s pretty damning evidence of the power of SEO right there.

 

HOW CAN YOU ACHIEVE GOOD SEO RESULTS?

 

“Right I’m in!” I hear you say. It’s important to note that SEO is not a short term quick fix. It is a long term strategy with many different factors and ways in which to improve. It is, however, imperative that your website has the basics of SEO built in on page in order for Google to index your site.

 

On page SEO refers to practices such as:

 

  • Naming images, meta tags, title tags, and descriptions;
  • Maintaining optimum website speed and security;
  • Including keywords in website copy;
  • Designing for mobile responsiveness;
  • Ensuring a clear and easy user experience (UX).

All website packages provided by Lucky Cat Studio include on page SEO.

 

Off page SEO refers to the “long game” when trying to achieve high and consistent search rankings. If you are looking for off page SEO, you may want to engage the services of a professional SEO specialist who can help you improve your domain authority by:

 

  • Generating consistent new and informative content such as blog posts;
  • Building back links to your website through your network and other strong ranking websites;
  • Ongoing keyword research and adapting website content to include these.

Google My Business (GMB) is another great way to improve your local SEO. This will get you found on map results when a user types in a location (such as the Byron Bay example, above). If this is set up correctly, it will go a long way to capturing your local target audience.

 

Lucky Cat Studio offers GMB set up as an extra added service to their website builds.

 

COMMON SEO MISTAKES

 

The main mistake I see when launching a website is that lot of web designers and DIYers are not aware that a website sitemap needs to be submitted to Google and Bing. If this is not done, it can slow down the Google indexing process or worse still, your website pages may not appear in search results.

 

Other things that displease the Google Gods include spammy links, stuffing too many keywords into your copy, fake testimonials, duplicate content, badly written content, and hiding or disguising keywords on your webpages.

 

The Google algorithm is now so clever, that it understands all these naughty tricks that are used to try and fool it. The key is to write for humans, not robots!

 

As you can see, SEO is such an important part of your online strategy. Its endless power and marketing capabilities have the potential to help your business thrive. Do remember though, that SEO is a marathon not a sprint, and can take time to see results.

 

If you are not sure if your website has been built to SEO best practice, feel free to get in touch for a quick audit and a chat about how I can help improve your business rankings with our SEO services.

 

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