Build your audience with SEO

First things first, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. Essentially it's about improving how your website tags and displays information so that search engines such as Google can 'read' and rank your site. So that when people search for terms that are relevant to you and what you do, your website will show.

Why is SEO important?

Ensuring that your website and content are tagged with relevant keywords improves the experience of organic visitors (those that don't come through adverts) to your site. Meaning your website appears in relevant searches of those looking for the services and products that you provide. Having a high performing SEO strategy increases the number of people who will find you in this way, and therefore engage with your business, building your audience base.

What are keywords and why should I use them?

Keywords are words or a short phrase that links to your business or the topic of your content. Using keywords that are not suitable for your business or topic will mean that you won't turn up in relevant searches. Search engines will 'see' the miss-match and rank you lower than your competition. Adding random Keywords and tags, because they have a high volume of search hits, but don't match what you do or what is on your site, will generate a high bounce rate, which can cause you to slip into the worm-hole of Google's 2nd or 3rd page, never to be seen again! OK, sorry that was dramatic, but you get the picture. However, if you make sure that you use relevant keywords and tags, your search engine ranking will be higher, ensuring you reach your audience.

How do I implement SEO?

Several platforms will be able to help you plan and identify relevant search topics for your business, as well as agencies that will do everything for you. However, Google's Keyword Planner is free, with the added benefits of linking to other tools in Google's suite of website analytics and ads.

Consider words and phrases that are relevant to your topic. For example, if you are launching an environmentally friendly cleaning product, consider what people would be searching for, where your business would be relevant, ie. "Eco-friendly cleaning". Entering this into Googles' keyword planner gives you the ability to see average monthly searches for this phrase, as well as the competition rate and the average cost of an Ad. It also provides examples to broaden your search and alternatives similar to those you have provided. In this example, choosing "Eco cleaners" has the same level of monthly searches but has a reduced level of competition and therefore cost per Ad. Alternatively, "Eco cleaner" has a higher volume of monthly searches, but this results in higher competition as well as a slightly higher cost per Ad.

Focus on finding phrases that have high search volumes and lower competition rates. These will help you to identify a list of keyword phrases to then use across your site and in any content that you create.

Done all that! Now what?

Now that you have determined the best possible keywords for you, it's time to start writing your content and updating your website. Head over to my previous blog on Planning a great content campaign or get in touch for some more pointers. I will be happy to help!