SEO is essential for all businesses to implement as thoroughly as possible if they want to get the best results in Google search rankings. Good search engine optimisation doesn’t just happen by itself, however, it requires a thorough and well-developed SEO strategy.
Here’s what you should be focusing on to create one.
Crawlability and website visibility
Your website will never do well in the Google rankings if you don’t make it as easy as possible for Google to find and index it. There are three main ways Google search rankings are determined – put simply it consists of a crawler and index, and an algorithm. Making your website is well optimised for crawlability is the foundation on which you should build the rest of your SEO strategy.
What is crawlability? Google sends out “crawlers”, which are essentially bots, to follow links on the web. When the crawler reaches your website it will scan every available page and relate an HTML version back to a huge database known as the “index”. If your website is higher in the rankings, the crawler will find it more often and will update the database every time it finds revisions or updates in your content.
Building links
Building links is an essential part of SEO as it gives context to your visitors for your business’ place in the wider market place and industry. Many businesses make the mistake of thinking that their whole website needs to be optimised before they start considering linking to off-site content. This isn’t the case – it’s never too soon to start cultivating a powerful brand identity through link building.
Effective link building requires research, time, and consideration. Remember that where you direct your traffic is a reflection on you – if you direct them to poor websites with bad content, it won’t help you. Take the time to thoroughly research and narrow down your list of potential off-site link destinations. Look for high-quality content and industry authority before you consider driving traffic there.
Content optimisation
Content is the heart and soul of any website, and understanding how to make your content as well-optimised as possible is one of the most important factors in effective SEO. Before you begin thinking about content optimisation, however, you must first start with high-quality content. It must be written well, and in such a way as to present yourself as an authority, while remaining as broadly accessible as possible.
After you have achieved consistent quality content, you can begin optimising it. This involves understanding what your audience is looking for. From that information, you can make important decisions regarding the optimum length of your content and any keywords that you feel will be most effective. It’s always better to be judicious with your keywords, however, and avoid over-stuffing – this negatively impacts your rankings.
Offer insight
Pure promotion can sometimes do very little to drive traffic to your websites. Remember, your visitors are people, not numbers. They have problems, they have concerns, and they’re looking for advice. Modify the scope of your content to account for this, and you’ll be able to reach a much wider selection of potential customers. This is particularly true when it comes to modifying an already established SEO strategy.
So, for example, don’t simply blog about your new products. Instead, tie content into your visitors’ lifestyles – tell them how they can use your products more effectively, how to choose the right products, and identify problems that your products can be the solution for. Taking a more sophisticated approach to your content generation is always an effective method of improving your SEO strategy.
