This is especially so in small businesses where the brand name is not well recognised and large marketing budgets are not feasible.
The art of SEO lies in understanding how people search for things and how they in turn would search for your businesses products and services.
Why is a high ranking important?
Ranking high in Google is a very valuable asset as it is effectively free advertising, and traffic from Google natural listings is still the most valuable traffic you can get to your website.
Areas to focus on
Here are some key areas to focus on if you are starting out in SEO, or continue to focus on if you want to improve your organic search rankings.
- Don’t block Google from crawling resources on your site
- Have a responsive design that works on mobile and desktop
- Put your keyword phrase at least once in the Page Title
- Put your keyword phrase at least once in the Main Content on the page
- Avoid keyword stuffing (writing the keyword multiple times) in the main content on your page
- Optimise your meta description to have a clickable and useful SERP snippet
- Ensure the keywords you want to rank for are present on your site
- Add value to your pages with images and videos
- Keep important content on the site updated a few times a year
- Use a simple navigation system on your site
- Create pages where the main content of the page is given priority, and remove annoying ads and pop-ups
- Add relevant external links from your site
- Share your content on the major social networks
Meeting the Google Guidelines
What is clear is that companies need to meet Google’s guidelines and recommendations in every area to benefit from search engine rankings and that as Google becomes more and more sophisticated, bending the SEO rules becomes harder.
The best advice is to avoid bending the rules and focus on serving your customers the most useful, relevant and up-to-date content that you can provide.
If you would like to talk to us about how we can help maximise your presence online then please get in touch with us today.
