What is Search Engine Optimisation?
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO ) is a process which allows your website to rank higher in search engines. Having a higher ranking on a search engine is essential, as the higher your website appears in the search results, the more viewers your website is going to be visible to. Therefore, increasing your online brand recognition and potentially gaining you new customers.
With most search engines, the first few results are paid adverts or Google Ads, followed by the search results which are most relevant to your search query. These results are referred to as organic results. Search engines use algorithms and mathematical formulas to help them order the results and work out the most relevant results.
The Basics
The main purpose of search engines is to provide users with accurate and relevant results online. Which is important as there are approximately 2 billion websites on the web. SEO helps the algorithm to figure out which website is the most appropriate to display, this is done by looking at:
Which website is mobile friendly?
How responsive is the page?
Is the website secure and accessible?
How old the website is?
Is the content optimised?
The more your website is optimised for relevant searches, it’s more likely to rank higher on the search engine results pages.
What are the factors that affect Search Engine Optimisation?
Once you have implemented your website optimisations, and you see a high level of traffic, that doesn’t automatically mean it’s worked. There are many other factors that affect SEO. Here are the top 3 most important factors:
Technical SEO – optimising the infrastructure of your website. This helps search engines easily access, interpret and index your website.
Search engines use bots to scan the web. These bots “crawl” (visit) websites and log all the content such as text, images and videos. Once all the information is collected the bot will add the data to the search engines “index” (database). This process means that when a search is performed, the bots scan through the index and present the most relevant result.
On Page SEO – Optimising page content, keywords, headings, metadata and HTML tags to improve the searchability of your website.
Optimisation of text, image and videos on your website allows search engines to better understand your website and the content. Which means that the algorithm is more likely to push your website up higher in the results when a relevant search is made.
Off Page SEO – Social media posts, comments & likes, backlinking, newsletters and digital advertising all contribute towards making your website rank higher.
This allows your business to be seen on many different platforms, and means that more people will be searching for your business online and therefore will increase your search engine ranking. The search engine bots that crawl your website also consider all digital activities related to your business outside of your website to determine where your website will be positioned on the search engine results.
Local SEO
Most businesses generally have the same main goal for SEO which is to be ranked at the top of the search engine results pages. But this is not always achievable for a business to rank so high nationally or globally. However having your website optimised to appear higher in local searches is.
Local searches have risen dramatically, Think with Google 2018 states that over 2 years, there was over 900% increase in searches for ‘near me today/tonight’ using mobile.
By using local SEO, your business can get a higher ranking on the search engine results page when geographical specific keywords are used in the search query. This will enable you to market your content to your target audience based on their geographical location.
The bots used by search engine companies can recognise information that is related to the search being made from website, social media pages and listing pages.
Local SEO is essential for businesses who are trying to grow their business, as nearly half of all Google searches are people looking for local businesses. So it’s very important that you show up within the top results so you don’t miss out on opportunities such as potential customers. Local SEO will increase your website’s visibility within your local area which will have many positive impacts on your business.
Conclusion
Hopefully by now you realised the importance of SEO to your online business presence. Here at Creative Thinking Media we are eager to help your business have the best chance of succeeding and growing online.
Article by Creative Thinking Media ©
If you wish to discuss how we can develop your brand or provide a great advertising strategy for your business, then email us on info@creatvethinkingmedia.co.uk.
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