SEO You On The Other Side
SEO or search engine optimisation is the strategy of writing content that is designed to be easier to find through search engines such as Google so that it reaches a target audience. This blog will discuss everything you need to know to understand SEO and to audit your content to make sure it is reaching your audience.
Where to start?
Good words, not keywords
SEO begins and ends with good copywriting. All your content should be well-written and engaging. Your copy could contain hundreds of keywords with related optimised images and never reach your audience. Search engines will recognise content that has been stuffed with keywords to manipulate its algorithms and lower your ranking making it harder to find. Readers know when they are being manipulated. They will either recognise your strategy and loathe your website for its attempts to manipulate them or if they do not understand SEO they will notice the ungrammatical and stilted writing. Search engines will see that visitors quickly leave your website. This quick exit is known as bounce rate. A high bounce rate will damage the SEO of your website.
The focus is to sound natural not to hit technical targets. First, create a quality advert or content that is useful to your audience, then and only then, should you consider engineering it for SEO. Writing good copy is a necessity for any SEO checklist.
Know your audience
‘Know your audience’ is the best keyword you will ever use. You need to understand what your product is and who your audience is before you can engineer your page for SEO. This links to the above point about quality writing. If your content is reaching the wrong audience or does not adequately describe the benefits of your product visitors will bounce from your site.
Your content should first seek to satisfy a need your audience has; either by providing information or a product. You cannot satisfy this need and offer customers value until you understand their needs. The next step is to deliver this content in a manner that resonates with your audience.
Key words
Keywords are single words or phrases that people type into search engines to find content. The keywords you pick and the order you place them in your content is one of the most important aspects of your SEO strategy. Keywords aren’t just ways of making your content easier to find but they should act as descriptions summarising your content.
Below is a description of keywords and how to distribute them in your content:
Primary keyword
Your primary keyword is the keyword you most want to reach. It is the word that is most sought out by your audience when they look for products and services. This should be placed in the headlines of your website and the meta-description of your page. This keyword can be repeated in the content but avoid spamming it throughout as this will make your content hard to read.
Secondary keywords
These are keywords that don’t rank as highly as your primary keyword but are still sought after phrases.These need to be placed in the headlines of your content and the meta-description of your site. As with your primary keyword please place them wisely throughout your content.
Tertiary Keywords
These are keywords that are not directly linked with your content but may be part of your greater SEO strategy. Tertiary keywords could be keywords your business wants to reach not just for this specific piece of content. For example an electrical good store could be writing a review of a new sound system. Keywords relating to sound systems like ‘smart sound’ will dominate the article but may contain tertiary keywords relating to other product lines or offers such as ‘quality electricals’.
How do you find keywords?
Google’s auto-fill box is a quick way to find new keywords.
The easiest way to locate keywords is through Google’s autofill box. This simple trick reveals the phrases that people are using to locate your services. The advantage of this is that you can use this quick trick on mobile devices when you are creating content on the go.
Google ads and Google analytics are useful tools for finding keywords. The tools are intended to be used to plan advertising campaigns but can be used even if you are not paying for adverts. The trick is to test a variety of phrases and see which search phrases cost the most per click. The most expensive phrase will be your new keyword. However, be careful with choosing an overly competitive keyword. Your content will become lost in Google’s traffic and will not have the reach you want.
One of the best ways to find new search phrases your audience are using is to visit forums relating to the content. Reddit, Youtube and Twitter comments contain millions of discussions about products and services. Take note of any repeated queries that could become keywords. Not only will these give you keyword ideas but will help you to understand your customers’ needs better.
Keywords Everywhere is an extension for your website. Everytime you search for something it gives you a list of keywords and search phrases that people have used to reach this content. Firstly, this gives you a list of keywords you can use on your own projects. Secondly, it puts you in the frame of mind of how to create your own keywords so that you don’t have to rely on software.
Dead links
A dead link is an external link you have placed in your content that has since expired. Search engines will lower your rating depending on the quality of your links. Make a habit of regularly checking the links in your content to make sure they haven’t changed. A timely link could turn from an advantage for your content into a weakness. Google will direct people away from content that contains many deadlinks as they think your website has been abandoned or is poorly constructed.
Headlines and titles
Search engines rate keywords in titles and headers more than the content of the website itself. Make sure you have a primary keyword in your main titles and subsequent headers. A good rule of thumb is to make sure your primary keyword in your headline and the secondary keywords you most want to reach in subsequent headers.
Images
The pictures and graphics included in your content are graded the same way as its content. Websites that have well written content with thoughtful keywords often haven’t considered SEO in their images. Below is a list of things to consider when including an image in your content:
Squoosh is a useful tool for shrinking your images and reducing your bounce rate.
Image Optimisation
Picking an image that is too large will slow down your website or maybe difficult to load on a mobile device. Large images will increase your bounce rate and lower your content’s ranking. There are several tools online that can shrink the size of the image while still preserving the quality of the image. The easiest to use is Squoosh. Just drag and drop an image into the browser then resize it to the appropriate level.
Names of files
Google and other search engines analyse the names of files. Remember to rename your files with appropriate titles. Try using a keyword in the file title to increase the site’s SEO ranking.
Alt tags
Alt-tags are written descriptions to help those with accessibility issues understand your images or graphics. Search engines also use alt-tags to understand your content and help them rank your site. A good alt-tag is one that accurately describes the content for vulnerable users and contains keywords for search engines.
Meta-descriptions
Our meta-description contains our keywords and our tagline.
A meta-description is the description that appears underneath a website on search pages. Meta-descriptions are used by customers and search engines to understand how likely your website is to satisfy their needs. This should contain your primary keyword and an engaging tagline. Possible visitors will use your meta-descriptions to decide if they want to visit your site so make it engaging as well as geared for SEO.
Measure your progress so you can optimsie your SEO strategy.
Track and review your SEO strategy
There is no point doing any of the above if you do not keep track of your progress. We have included a number of tools below for keeping track of your website’s SEO. The two best tools we have found are Ubersuggest and Screaming Frog. They are both useful applications for analysing your website’s progress. Uberuggest tracks your ranking over time helping you to understand what is working well and what needs adjusting. Screaming Frog is an easy tool for carrying out an audit of your website. The software contains a lot of technical information that may initially overwhelm a beginner. Just focus on the columns that advise you of deadlinks or pages missing a meta-description.
There is no conclusion there is just practice
SEO is difficult. Even the most knowledgeable expert does not have the exact answers. Search engines keep their SEO algorithms secret to ensure they have a steady supply of businesses willing to pay for adverts. The most important thing is to follow the steps above to build a solid foundation of SEO understanding. Once you have ensured every alt-tag and link has been checked you need to experiment. Block out a few hours every few weeks to research new keywords and to analyse how your existing strategy is working. Good luck and SEO you on the other side.
Resources:
Screaming Frog is a good starter tool for your SEO audit.
Screaming Frog - Screaming Frog is a free piece of software that analyses the SEO profile of your website. Screaming Frog flags any dead links or pages that lack meta-descriptions. This tool is useful for regular SEO audits of your website.
Ubersuggest - Ubersuggest is a free tool by Neil Patel for tracking your website’s performance and finding content ideas. This tool is great for finding keyword ideas and checking your site’s traffic.
Keywords everywhere - A useful web browser extension for finding new keywords and seeing how users formulate their search queries.
People to follow:
Neil offers great summaries of SEO strategies.
Niel Patel - Neil offers a large amount of content relating to content marketing and SEO. Neil is the best person to follow when looking for an entry level understanding of SEO.
Moz - Moz has a large catalogue of youtube videos that discuss many SEO challenges.
Brian Dean - Dean’s Backlinko website contains many guides and blogs for SEO.
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