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Hello everyone,
I trust 2017 is now in full swing and your sights set on all your business goals for this year. With that in mind I wanted to share something with you that does have an impact on all of your online presence. The topic is as dull as ditch water, often leaving you with the feeling to lack life, but intrinsically we should be paying more attention to save us expenditure now and in the future.
For most (me included) SEO or Seo as she is more commonly known is a magical, spirit that dances and dines in the aurora streamers, often also referred to as the internet. Okay, so maybe be a bit of an extreme but it's another of those anomalies we see working online. You can't touch SEO or interact with it, but it can be felt and seen when it's not working for you. All the stats are down, traffic and interest are not being generated, are all common indicators of poor SEO. So it's another of those anomalies that unless you’re up on your SEO then it can be taken advantage of.
It doesn't matter whether you're just checking in on one of your social media platforms, sitting down to go through your emails or moderating the comments on your blog or website, you would have noticed how many of them are about Seo... Sorry SEO.
Often suggesting;
• Your website isn't doing as well as it should.
• Your website is performing well but isn't SEO friendly.
• Guaranteed results on Google.
• Blah, blah, blah...
Deliberately avoiding all the usual rhetoric, there is an element of truth buried deep beneath the surface. Not that I suggest engaging with these types of companies, on the contrary for the health of your business, don't. However, the truth is we all have SEO issues, some worse than others but even so, it's a very speculative and subjective playground. Predicting and certainly guaranteeing this type of service should be trigger warnings to you, but you should question the SEO for your business or brand. There's now a plethora of tools out there now, from companies dedicated to managing SEO to plugins and more. But what about the rest of us, who don't have the 100k budget?
The good news is, it doesn't have to be. So long as you follow some simple steps and don't cut corners, SEO should be a relatively painless experience. The problem arises when a website that looks beautiful on the exterior, has no backend set up. Websites are easy to build and take your pick of the £1 per month merchants. A topic coming up in one of my future ramblings. So it makes a once impossible job accessible to the masses. Essential in getting your business going or growing with little or no expense.
So what does this all mean... If you're venturing into web building then this article is a must, to ensure your SEO is performing for you. Some of the £1 per month merchants offer SEO sections to complete but it's unclear how effective they really are. It maybe that you've had a website built and your'e not sure if the SEO is set up correctly or even in place. If that's the case we can give you a free report on your site or blog. So I've put together a list of the main objectives to ensure your site or blog is SEO friendly.
Keywords - Best for Business
Quite often you’ll hear a web developer or IT guru saying we need to list your Keywords, what does this mean? Well it used to mean that you would list all the words relevant to your business, which of course makes perfect sense. But due to the ever changing face of the internet, that’s not altogether true now. Not only is Google and other search engines looking for how many visitors click your link(s) but they’re also looking to see who visits your site and then returns back to the search results. This is a score against you, as the search may not have been relevant to the content they saw when clicking your link. So it’s hugely important to ensure your keywords are relative to the content on your website. Keywords have also developed into Long Tail Keywords, helping you to define your business more accurately. Both these approaches should form part of your website build or redevelopment.
Are your competitors doing something different?
It’s always worth checking what the competition is up to and see if you can identify their keywords and if there’s any differences between you and them. If so then time for some testing on social platforms. Are you on the same social outlets? What keywords do they use on their landing page(s)? This is the page you arrive at after clicking a link. My recommendation is always look for the competitors who are out selling your own business and use their data as your benchmark.
Crap content
Okay so you’ve followed all the rules and people are visiting and engaging in your site or blog, so now what key in keeping them there? Writing content isn’t for all of us and having writers block whilst your under the pressure of a deadline is not a nice place to be. You don’t have to be a wordsmith to create good content and generally speaking visitors want to hear from a real person, with genuine feelings and emotions. So sometimes carefully scripted websites can be overkill. Also really think about how much content you publish. Some websites offer really good products or services but trawling through yards or text is highly off putting. It can come across as desperate or even as distressed advertising, something that should remain in the realms of the past. Customers and consumers are much more savvy nowadays and as the choice for everything is so vast, it’s important to retain interest when invoked. When I put pen to paper, (well I say pen to paper, but as with todays’ society I should say fingers to keyboard) I always ask my self the following questions.
• Is what I am writing unique?
• If not, is it factually correct?
• Is it useful to the masses?
• Is it informative and/or educational?
• Could it cause unrest or controversy?
• Is it opinionated?
• Is it visually appealing?
If you can answer these questions positively then you’re on your way to creating good content.
Meta Tags, Optimising
It is true that your html title and meta tags should all be conforming to SEO criteria, but with the recent announcement from Google that they are now not including meta keywords in their page ranking. So it’s not an area to waste too much time on as Google has the lion share of searches with over 60% of the market share. So unless you’re looking to generate more traffic through alternative search engines, then just ensure they’re correct for each page and don’t forget each page requires data relevant to that page. No copying and pasting the same data for all pages, this will work against you too. This is also true for all headings, sub headings and images, which all work towards pushing your website further up the organic search results and attaining a higher page ranking. There’s lots of ways to measure your ranking so please do get in touch if you’d like to explore this.
Indexing
Okay so by now if you’ve followed all the tips above then your site is ready to hit cyberspace. The last big thing to tick off your list is to index it with Google. It can take up to 6 weeks for changes to take effect but it’s the most important aspect. If Google hasn’t indexed your site then it will be virtually impossible to find organically. If you’re unsure if your site is indexed, just drop us a message and we’ll let you know.
Conclusion
Firstly thanks for hanging in there as this isn’t the most inspiring subject, but a subject that can seriously benefit your online presence. I hope you all have a truly rewarding month and I look forward to connecting again next month.
Jo Sennett
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