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SEO: The Basics

We get so many questions about SEO and on a recent Instagram story discovered it is something our community want to know more about. So here are the basics…

SEO is a really important element of your online business journey and this quick guide will give you the necessary knowledge to be able to put the right measures in place from day one and know what questions to ask when seeking professional SEO help.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for ‘search engine optimisation’ and is about increasing both the quality and quantity of your website traffic, as well as improving the exposure of your brand through organic search engine results.

In order for SEO to be successful, here are some key ingredients:

We need to understand what our ideal consumers are searching for online

The types of answers they are seeking

The type of language and keywords they’re using within their search 

And the type of content they wish to consume.

Knowing the answers to these questions mean that you are able to better connect and entice those searching for the solutions that your business offers. 

Basic SEO tactics…

  1. Keyword research & targeting

First things first, we need to identify the terms people are searching for (keywords) that you want your website to rank highly on.

There are lots of free keyword search tools out there (Ubersuggest is a great one) and this is a great place to start.

When analysing the results, we’re looking at;

Search volume – This refers to how many people are actually searching for a given keyword

Relevance – It could be a term that is frequently searched for, however, is it relevant to you and the types of consumers you’re looking to attract? 

Competition – This means understanding the relative competition (and likelihood to rank) for specific terms. 

2. On-page SEO

This refers to all those SEO tactics within your website. Ensuring these elements are fully optimised plays a key role in the success of your ranking.

This includes:

Title tags

Meta descriptions

Body content

Alt attributes

URL structure

Information architecture 

Internal linking

Top tip: When finding an agency to build your site, find one that has a full 360 approach and SEO knowledge. A successful site should be designed cohesively, from design, copywriting, SEO and site build. When these elements are done well and collaboratively, it creates magic! 

3. Off-page SEO

This is where you consider your content marketing and link building. This is all about driving traffic to your site from other reputable sources. For example, links from social media, links from influencer collaborations, features in online articles that drive traffic to your site and so forth.

Things that affect your SEO

It is also worth considering the following elements to ensure you’re giving your site the best possible chance of ranking highly.

Page speed – search engines favour those sites with faster loading times

Mobile optimisation – you’ll be rewarded for having a mobile friendly site

Broken links – you’ll be penalised for broken links, so it is worth checking your site links regularly

Duplicate content – this dilutes your link equity which subsequently can affect your ranking

That concludes our basic SEO tips. We hope you found this useful! It is a super complex and specialist world, however, you now have the basic level of understanding to make some changes yourself and more importantly, know what questions to ask when hiring help.