Search engine optimisation (SEO) is about trying to get your website high up in the search results returned by engines like Google and Bing. Typically, the higher up in the search results you appear, the more visits (‘traffic’) you’ll get. One way of doing this is by paying, for example using Google’s AdWords. But there’s also a lot you can do to help your rankings in free searches – or as they’re also known, organic searches.
Search engines use software called ‘spiders’ or ‘crawlers’, which travel all over the web in a systematic way, looking for words and phrases that are relevant to what someone’s typed into the search box.
Make sure that your website has keywords and phrases that are likely to be used by your customers. So, if you’re a personal trainer, you’re likely to want to include words and phrases such as ‘fit’, ‘fitness’, ‘get fit’, ’health’, ‘healthy’, ‘wellbeing’, ‘performance’, etc.
Google AdWords is a useful tool for identifying relevant keywords. Its real purpose is to help find keywords if you’re advertising on Google, but it can also help you when writing website content. Having worked out what keywords and phrases to use, include them in the content of your website. But make sure that you do this in a sensible way – don’t cram your copy so full of keywords that it affects the readability. Your keywords should also be included in the metadata of your website – the unseen data that lies behind the web pages. You can either learn how to do this yourself or get a web designer to do it for you.
Another factor that affects your sites ranking in search lists, is how well your site displays on different types of devices. If you’re getting an agency to create your website, tell them you want it to have a responsive design – this means that the website will display well on computers, tablets and mobiles. If you’re planning on using a DIY website builder, check that it has this capability.
The freshness of your content also affects your listing position. This shouldn’t be a problem if you’re regularly updating information about your products or services. But if you’re not, try to think of other ways you can refresh your site, for example by posting a monthly blog or updating it with links to other websites that would be of interest to your customers.
Search engine rankings are also affected by how many links a website has from and to other trustworthy sites – the more your site has, the higher it’s ranking, and the better chance it has of appearing high in a search listing.
Avoid the temptation to stuff your site full of irrelevant links, or to use so called ‘link farms’ – Google frowns on this. Instead, try to get links to your site on trade and other professional bodies’ websites. Ensure you link to your site from your own social media pages, such as on Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn. And list your site on reputable directories such as Trust a Trader.
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