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What is SEO?
SEO stands for "Search Engine Optimisation". Simply put, it's a series of steps you can take to help your website show up in results on search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing. Following good SEO practices consistently will help your business appear higher in the list of search results.
Why SEO is important for small businesses
With the masses of content online these days, just having a live website is no longer enough. You need to give prospective customers the directions to find it - and SEO is one of the best ways of doing this.
Just check out these 2022 SEO stats from digital marketing experts Inter:
A massive 68% of all online experiences begin with a search engine; and
Over two-thirds of purchases (online or in-person) begin with an online search.
75% of people searching online don't scroll past the first page of results.
Convinced yet?
How to start improving your SEO
Identify your keywords. Keywords are a selection of words or phrases that potential customers might type into a search engine to find your business. Targeting the keywords that best represent your business will help your ideal clients find you.
Sort out your on-page SEO This simply means making sure you integrate your keywords into your website copy (preferably in the headings). You also need to check your site settings to make sure every page has a relevant SEO title and description - these are what will show up in the search engine results (this service is included in all our website packages).
Check your site speed Sites that are slow to load are more likely frustrate visitors, who may just go back to the search results and try a different site. This will give you a high "bounce rate", which can negatively affect your rankings. Read more about site speed here.
Create great content, consistently Good quality, relevant and up-to-date content will not only keep people coming back to your site, it will also encourage them to stay longer AND recommend your site to others - all of which helps your search ranking. Read more about content guidelines here.
Develop a link strategy Links are essential for creating more traffic to your site, and help to improve your credibility. Internal links take your site visitors to other pages within your site, while backlinks lead visitors to your site from somewhere else.
Promote, promote, promote It's a bit of a catch-22, but the more traffic your site gets the higher you will rank in the search engines, which will lead to more traffic. So promote your site whenever and wherever you can (without being spammy of course!). Social media, email marketing and posting to your Google business profile are the easiest ways to do this (and will create backlinks at the same time!).
Image by Freepik
Handy resources for your SEO Toolbox
When it comes to SEO tools and resources you really are spoiled for choice. These are a few of my favourites:
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