Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the practice of tweaking and improving websites, together with other various online marketing techniques to improve search engine rankings (In simpler terms, to show your site first for a given keyword or phrase typed into a search engine).
Another way to put this is that if you sell shoes online, and someone types in ‘wedding shoes’ on Google, your site should appear prominently in the search results. Ideally, at the top.
Organic Results
In our example this kind of result is known as an organic search result. It is not a paid ad which can appear at the top of search results. To get your site to the top of a search engine organically requires three aspects to be on point. They are;
- Onsite SEO elements
- Offsite SEO elements
- Site Performance
Onsite SEO Elements
Onsite or on-page SEO elements can be explained as signals which are detected by search engine crawlers (sometimes called spiders or robots), and tell the search engine what your site is about. Although there are a lot of elements involved in onsite SEO, most of it is governed by keyword phrases. Search engines will look for phrases that are in the title of the page, the URL, the Meta description, and the content of the copy, together with variances of the keyword phrase on the page.
Taking our example earlier, the keyword phrase ‘girls’ platform shoes’, search engines will analyse millions of results to determine which pages are relevant to the search. They then sift through the results ordering them by the ‘best’ match. They then display these results to the searcher.
How they determine the best match is strongly determined by the on-site SEO, off-site SEO and site performance.
Offsite SEO
Offsite or off-page SEO involves getting your name and services/products out there on other sites. It often involves the following;
- Social media updates
- Link building – (other sites linking to yours)
- Press releases
- Outreach
- Reviews
In essence, what search engines are looking for are mentions of your site around the web. Links are a major determining factor for search engine rankings, and providing the link does not appear artificial, low quality, paid or irrelevant, the more links you have the better your search engine placement.
So when Google ranks results for the keyword ‘girls’ platform shoes’, it will look at what is happening on other sites to determine the ‘best’ order for results.
Site Performance/Usability
If your site has onsite and offsite elements in place but visitors come via a search engine, stay for seconds and leave this is not good news. Search engines will conclude your site is not relevant to the keyword and stop showing your site as high in the rankings.
Therefore it is important your website appearance and navigation are on point. Never underestimate the user experience where SEO is concerned.
Contact us for SEO Services
This post scratches the surface of search engine optimisation as the more you explore it the more complex it becomes. What is clear however is that if you do not have SEO work on your site, you are not going fulfil your potential in terms of visitor numbers.
To get your site on the first page of Google, click here and complete the form. We can help you get the best out of your site.