I’ve shared various tips on how to improve your SEO in the past but as more and more people make the switch to online in their business and marketing efforts, I realise not everyone understands SEO.
What Is SEO?
Firstly, SEO stands for “search engine optimisation” and is a practice we follow to optimise our websites and content to increase our rankings on search engines – the big daddy being Google. However, it’s not only about improving your rankings. SEO is about understanding what users are searching for online and what answers they need to see i.e. your content. It’s also about improving the user experience (UX) on your website to deliver accurate search results and improve your site speed to lower page loading times.
Why Is SEO So Important?
Without optimising your website, search engines are going to crawl it and see no value and therefore, won’t rank it well enough to get it on page one on search engine results pages (SERPs) for all to see – or page two, three or ten.
Although it’s harder to do the work than saying out loud what needs to be done, it really can be as simply as compressing your images to improve your page speed, focusing on specific keywords to rank for, as well as increasing the word count on landing pages so search engines have more content to crawl. Content is very much still King in the SEO world but it’s no longer the only thing search engines see as important.
Can It Drive Traffic To My Website?
Absolutely! Some might think SEO is just something you do because you’re told you should but don’t necessarily understand what benefits you’ll get in return. By optimising your content, and ensuring you’re maintaining this too, you’ll continuously begin to drive organic traffic to your site.
It’s not like paid advertising where you need continuous funds to send traffic to your site. SEO is one of the only online marketing tactics which will continue to deliver over time – but you have to be wiling to but the work in to achieve this.
What Types Of Search Engine Optimisation Are There?
Although there is lots that can be done to optimise your site, there are two types of SEO you may come across – one you should avoid and if hiring a professional to do the work for you, ensure they don’t favour this approach.
White Hat SEO
This refers to SEO techniques and best practices which abide by search engine rules and focuses on providing more value to users searching online.
Black Hat SEO
This refers to techniques and best practices which attempt to fool search engines. However, tread carefully with this one as you’re at risk of your site getting penalised or removed from search results. If this does happen, it can take months, even years, to recover from this without having to start from scratch with a new domain.
Take a look at my other posts on how to improve your SEO.
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