Search Engine Optimisation: The Truths and Myths Revealed
Is Search Engine Optimisation or SEO important?
The NPD Group is a research group that specialises in consumer purchasing and behaviour. They recently measured search engine listings against banner ads, bulk email, and affiliate programs in a number of target markets.
In all cases, natural search engine listings were far more fruitful and cost effective.
The reason for this is that consumers are 12 times more likely to buy services and products they are actually searching for than with all the other Marketing approaches above, combined.
Unfortunately, simply submitting your web site to the search engines does not mean you will rank amongst the top 10, or the top 10,000 come to that! Your website needs to be optimised in order to drive traffic/people to it in a way that the search engines like.
This sounds simple doesn’t it? All you need to do is design your website and add content to it in such a way that search engines will be able to decide that the keyword phrases that people are searching for are most “relevant” to the product or service you are offering. You also need “relevant” people linking to your site in the correct way!
This is not as easy as it sounds, as only the people working for the search engines, such as Google, know how their searching algorithms work! Get it wrong and you could get “black listed” and no one will ever find your site.
Four Simple SEO Tips
You can, if you wish, make some simple changes to your website that will help your site rank much better in the search engines.
Here are some simple techniques that you can put into practice right away to get your website appearing near the top of the search engines:
1. Know exactly what your customers are searching for! Before you begin to market your site on the web, it’s vital you know exactly what the people you want to become your customers are looking for.
How do I do this I hear you ask? Simple, use WordTracker
It allows you to find the most popular search words that people type into the search engines and helps you target the best keywords for the products or services that you offer. You can also use Google’s Free keyword tool in your Adwords account.
2. Include your keywords in your domain name, page and file names. If you already have a website then you are stuck with it, unless you create a new domain name, which may cause more problems than it is worth, especially if you have a well established business. However, in reality it is not too much of a problem. But if you are creating a new website, then it is a good idea to have your main keyword included in your domain name.
For example, if you were an accountant in Sevenoaks and this was the search term you had acknowledged as being the best one for you, then you might consider the domain www.accountantinsevenoaks.com.
Then, each page on your website should be optimised for a different search term. For example, if we take “accountant in Sevenoaks” as an example, you might have a page under your main page which is about “book keeping”. You would name the file book-keeping-sevenoaks.html.
3. Write your website content so that it is appealing to the search engines. Do not make the mistake of thinking that just by adding your keywords all over the page will help your rankings. This can have a negative affect and your page could be penalised and drop down the rankings. This is known as keyword stuffing.
It still counts, but page content is increasingly less important. So here are some simple tips for writing good search-engine optimised body copy:
• Make sure your keyword appears in the first few words of the headline of your page.
• Make sure your search term appears once in every block of 125 words of body-copy and subheadings. It can appear anywhere in the block, (with the exception of the very first one, where it should be in the first 90 characters).
• Include at least one HTML text link thar contains your keyword in the link copy. The easiest way to do this is to have a link at the bottom of the page linking to the top e.g. “Back to top of book keeping”.
4. Once your site has been optimised for the search engines, you can begin the process of link building – getting high quality sites linking to you in the correct way.
If you apply these 4 tips to your website, you will increase your chances of getting highly-qualified traffic your website from the search engines, and, best of all it is FREE traffic.
However, if you do not have the time to implement these changes to your website, why not check out our small business SEO service that will help your website rank higher in the search engines.
About the author: Blue Square Management help small local businesses grow, increasing visitors to their websites and ultimately sales, through small business SEO. If you would like Blue Square Management help your business why not contact us now.
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