SEO is a set of techniques for improving the ranking of webpages in organic search engine results by increasing traffic from these search engines. Google (and all the other search engines) essentially look at your site and make sure it's checked all the boxes whilst at the same time having the most relevant content that users want to see.
Let's take a look at the steps involved to get a solid SEO ranking. Remember, SEO is an ever-changing and ongoing process that takes time, money and effort. You won't see results overnight - but implementing all, or at least as much as you can, of the following will best help you get the results you're after!
1. Keyword research and analysis
The key to a successful SEO strategy is to write content for your target audience. Part of this strategy involves determining what keywords are most relevant for your target audience, and then using them in your content.
Keyword research and analysis should be an ongoing process throughout the life of the site, as you will need new keywords as you develop new features, products, or services. For example, if we were launching a course on how to make ice cream at home instead of buying it from the store every time - we would research keywords like 'ice cream' or 'how to make ice cream'.
You can research keywords using tools like SemRush. SEMrush provides access to more than 100 million keywords and more than 500 million domain names. With over 2 million unique monthly visitors and an average of 900 thousand daily sessions, SEMrush is the world's leading search marketing analytics platform. Not only can you go onto the site and fire in a particular keyword phrase you are interested in, but you can actually go and type in the domain name of a competitor and see all the stuff that they are ranking for.
If you don't feel confident doing keyword research yourself, there are a ton of keyword research offers on freelance sites like fiverr which can help you out for pretty cheap!
2 - On Page Optimisation
Now that you know the types of keywords your customers are searching for, it's time to start implementing them into your SEO plan.
There are multiple factors that should be considered when choosing the right title tag, including:
The page title should appropriately reflect the content of the page, as it will appear in search engine results. The page title should not contain keywords or phrases that will cause potential visitors to leave your site immediately. While some webmasters do avoid using keywords as their page titles, using a keyword-rich title tag will improve your rankings in search engines and more prominently feature your content in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). An example of a title tag that could be optimized for SEO is:
Title tags should be kept as short and descriptive as possible, while also containing the primary keyword to maximize search engine optimization.
The meta description tag is an HTML attribute that provides a short summary of the page's content. It often appears in search results below the title, next to the link to the web page. A meta description should be written for users and not for search engines, because descriptions given by webmasters are used by search engines on some occasions. Users often decide whether to visit a website based on what they read in the descriptions shown in search results.
Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions are the sentences you put at the top of your webpages that tell searchers what they will find when they click on your page. They should be relevant to both the content of your webpage and to what people are searching for (i.e. keyword research). A good meta description is usually 120-150 characters long, but can also be longer or shorter depending on how much you want to include in it. It is important to use these in order for Google's ranking algorithm to understand what a web page is about because Google uses meta descriptions as part of their search engine ranking algorithm which ranks web pages based on freshness, relevance, popularity, and prestige.
Alt Tags
Alt tags are text in the "alt" attribute of an HTML tag, which is a way to store text associated with an element on a web page. For example, if you wanted to add text that the image of a website was from one company that you were advertising, then you would put the text "Advertise With Us" in the alt attribute of "img".
Not only do alt tags give you a chance to have more content on the page, but Google will also be able to identify your images and display them for users that are visually impaired and can't see images
Image Sizing
If you are looking to increase your SEO rankings, it is important that the size of your images aren't too large. With high resolution cameras available on most smart phones these days it doesn't take long to fill up a web page with larger images which could slow down the page loading times.
For more information about search engine optimisation please visit http://seo-companies.co.
Backlinks
Backlinks in SEO are hyperlinked words, phrases, or sites that webmasters place in other sites to connect the search engine's index of a site to theirs. These backlinks will increase the ranking of a site on a search engine page.
News outlets and blogs provide an opportunity for backlinking because they are trusted and respected sources from which people may generate content ideas. When experts publish content on these popular platforms, they want it to be seen by as many people as possible. To do so, they create relevant links connecting their own blog posts to other influential media outlets' pieces on issues of common interest. This practice helps promote the work and challenge other perspectives while simultaneously augmenting their own online reputation with increased traffic from new audiences.
"How to build links back to your website"
1. Create relevant content that is about the subject in which you want backlinks, and post it on a blog or news outlet that has a lot of traffic.
2. You will need to create an annotation for the website in order for Google and other search engines to understand it is connected with your brand. To do this you will need to click on the "share" or "syndicate" button, which will usually be somewhere in the header and look like this:
3. Paste the link of your article into the box that loads. If it is in text format, then make sure you also paste in a title for the link like so:
4. Check it is working by going to google and searching for your website - if it is working correctly then your website should be showing up as a result in Google. Now you can add more backlinks!
5. Go on other news sites or blogs and comment on relevant content that has been posted on there with links back to your site at relevant points - e.g. on the bottom of a post or a comment made by somebody else. It is important to do this in relevant places, otherwise it may look unprofessional and/or spammy to other users.
6. Get involved with relevant forums online that will allow you to post links back to your site - e.g., if you are running a competition, then post about it on relevant sites so that people will find out about it and link back to your site.
7. Find local bloggers who may be interested in posting something on your website and ask them politely if they are interested in posting an article about what you have got going on at the moment.
Page speed
Site speed is important for SEO because Google uses page load time as a ranking signal. Your site's page load time is calculated by how long it takes for the homepage to fully load after clicking the "load" button in your browser. The smaller (and faster) your site is, the better your page load time will be.
SEO and UX are not conflicting strategies — they are actually complementary. If SEO tactics aren’t aligned with user goals, you will see more of a negative impact than a positive one in the results. For example, if users want to navigate directly to a specific product from the search engine results page, then they should only be served results that best match their intent as quickly as possible. By improving your page speed and lowering your bounce rate, you help narrow down what visitors are looking for and increase their satisfaction.
3 - Content marketing
Awesome, so you've gone through and done your keyword research, and you've checked all of the SEO boxes that uncle Google wants to see (alt tags, meta descriptions etc) Now it's time to look at something that will really make a difference to your website SEO in the long run. Content marketing.
Content marketing is a must have for your SEO strategy. It's the process of creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience - and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action. Not only will your customers see this content and think 'hey, these guy's obviously know their stuff!' but Google will also look at the content you are putting up and go 'Woah, these guys actually care about their site...let's show it higher up the rankings because we think our users will like this'
How much should I be writing?
Obviously content marketing isn't just putting out a ton of garbage content - because that is not only a total waste of your time to produce said crap content, but a total waste of time for anyone who stumbles on the post. You'll get a high abandonment rate (folk who read a bit then leave because the content is rubbish), and ultimately that will affect your SEO ranking (as google will look at it and think, everyone is leaving this site without reading the content...it must be rubbish so we'll show someone elses higher up)
The optimum word length for blog posts is 450-1000 words. This is the recommended length for blog posts because it provides enough information to be useful to your reader and give them what they need to know.
What Should I Be Writing? (Choosing Content)
In order to boost your rankings, you want to write content that is specific to your business and target audience. You want to keep this pretty targeted and consistent. At Dab Hand Marketing we tend to write about web development topics (such as this blog on SEO which you are reading right now!) We focus predominantly on web development because it is our main service and there is a lot we can talk about. We also get a lot of traffic through these blog posts because they have a high search volume.
If you take a look at one of our other clients, funkyhemp.co.uk - you can see that the content we produce for them is generally about how CBD Oil can affect daily life, health, pets and other positive factors. This not only helps to sell the oil, but also acts as an informative post which people can learn from.
4 - Clean Code
Good code is like a good house: it should be built on solid foundations, with a sound plan and with attention to detail. It's guaranteed that handing a badly coded project over to a client or other developer because they will absolutely hate it. But you know who will hate it more? Uncle Google! That's why making sure your projects submit clean, easy to read and optimised code is so important or else it'll affect your rankings!
Connecting with Search Consoles and Webmaster Tools
Connecting your site
Google Webmaster Tools is a tool designed to assist website owners in their search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. Google Webmaster Tools allows you to view your website's traffic, crawl reports, and check on the status of your site's indexing process on Google Search.
It's important to stay up-to-date on your website stats. The Google Search Console is an excellent resource for making sure that you are doing a good job with such things as indexation and crawl efficiency.
Installing AMP
Google AMP is a new, open source project that aims to spur innovation in the web. Google, Spotify, Twitter and Pinterest are some of the companies already working on tools that will help website owners speed up their sites by converting them to a mobile-optimized layout.
With Wordpress, you will need to install a plugin like https://wordpress.org/plugins/amp/ - which may, or may not, make your site look like absolute dog shit.
With Webflow, we can pretty easily add Google AMP to the site as this article explains here: https://help.storychief.io/en/articles/3516148-webflow-enabling-google-amp
Need A Hand?
At Dab Hand Marketing, every site we built is made with SEO in mind. That's why we use Webflow and Shopify- the two leading platforms for websites and eCommerce stores that have tons of awesome . Interested in working with us? Shoot us a message! We look forward to working with you!
