Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Knowing what words people use to search for your products is crucial. You might use the term "motorcycle apparel" when customers search for "motorcycle gear". Equally important are the typical search volumes for different keyword sets. If search volumes for keywords are low then ranking #1 won't really increase visitor levels. These things are revealed through keyword research.

The goal of keyword research is to end up with a limited set of "target keywords" to focus the SEO effort on. Target keywords should be relevant, have decent search volumes and also be achievable (meaning competition isn't so high that you can actually get to the first page of results). There's more benefit to ranking #3 for a medium-volume keyword than ranking #13 for a high-volume keyword. I'll help you to figure out the right balance.

For each given keyword group or theme it's important to decide which page on your site has the best chance of achieving top ranking for those keywords. The way Google's algorithms work is that if a page is more about one thing then it must be less about other things. Trying to target too many different keywords using the same page generally doesn't work - it ends up not being predominantly about any of the topics and gets poor ranking for all of them.

Keyword Mapping is about grouping all your target keywords into similar themes, deciding which of your sites pages is going to be the target page for each keyword theme, and optimising each page's content accordingly.

It might sound simplistic but if you want to rank well in Google search for "custom cookies" then that exact phrase has to appear on the page. But where it appears is also important - Google's algorithms see page titles, URLs and main headings as more important so your target keywords must appear in those important places in addition to the body content.

How does Google know which is your main heading? It's based on the page's HTML markup whereby text is assigned "h1", "h2", "h3", "p" styles and so on. If you assign a line of text a "p" (paragraph) style and then make it really large that doesn't make it the main heading - it has to be given an "h1" style. This is a mistake that lot's of web designers who aren't skilled in SEO make. Applying the right HTML markup hierarchy to blocks of text containing important keywords is really important.

Did you know that Google affords higher ranking for a given keyword to sites that load more quickly? Website speed is an important factor in SEO.

There are many factors involved in improving the load speed of pages and each site is different. It might require re-sizing or re-formatting images, "deferring" the loading of images or scripts that aren't used until further down the page, or removing unneeded apps or code in the page.

The goal of Google's search algorithm is partly to list the most relevant website pages at the top of results; and partly to list the most popular (or well-known) sites at the top.

If you start a website to sell running shoes you won't rank ahead of Adidas in a search for "running shoes", no matter how much your content is about that topic. Google realises that Adidas is better known than you; and the way they know that is because other websites all around the world mention Adidas and contain links pointing to their site.

SEO is therefore partly about being mentioned on as many other sites as possible, and adding your business to the many online directories out there is one way to achieve that.

When Oscar Wilde said, "there's only one thing worse than being talked about, and that's not being talked about" he wasn't referring to SEO but he might as well have been. In Google's quest to give priority in search results to better-known brands, the number of online reviews you have and the amount your business is talked about on social media is important.

Part of a successful SEO strategy is ensuring you have a presence on social media platforms, encouraging people to talk about you, and encouraging happy customers to post reviews.