WHAT IS SEO?
Sep 03, 2012
SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, is the process of making your website more visible to search engines, such as Google, Bing, Yahoo and Ask. Web pages are ranked according to what these search engines regard as relevant for users.
But how exactly does this process work? What does it take to optimise your website to increase traffic? Like most things, it’s fairly simple once you know how. The two main factors contributing to a higher search engine rank are 1) the careful placing of keywords in your content and 2) backlinks.
Let’s look at keywords first. When you are thinking about what to put in your website, you should work out what people search for when they are looking for your service or product. This can be done through SEO tools such as Google Adwords, where you can find out what keywords and phrases people use when searching a particular topic.
Good keywords have a high rate of searches, but low competition. For example, people looking for a florist may type “florist in Kent” into Google, but this will give them a high number of results. “Flowers” is also a popular search word, but there are fewer results for this. Therefore, it is more beneficial for a floristry business to include the phrase “flowers in Kent” in their content. Make sure you refine the keyword or phrase as much as possible, adding location, to give a higher chance of people finding your web page.
Another essential contributor to SEO is backlinks. These are links on other websites which are directed back to your page. They show Google that your website is relevant, meaning they will rank you higher in search results. But be careful, these links are rated on quality, rather than quantity, and do not include ones you have paid for. To obtain backlinks, you need to have a web page worth linking to. If your site has unique information which is updated regularly, other websites are more likely to link it.
This combination of keywords and backlinks is the most important thing to know about SEO, however there are other ways to boost your website up Google’s ranks. Your website’s content needs to be original and of good quality for it to be noticed; so make sure there isn’t anything that’s unclear or could have been copied. Search engines also look for fresh content, which is why a blog is important for a webpage. The more times a website is updated, the more interest it is going to receive.
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