SEO and digital marketing is a global industry that has grown up around helping businesses get noticed in the virtual world.
What is SEO?
SEO (or Search Engine Optimisation) is the process of ensuring your website ranks highly with the search engines so your customers, or potential customers, find you before they find the competition.
As a large percentage of shopping, or hunting, for products and services happens on the Internet, then being seen first is pretty important. But for small businesses, who don’t have the budget to employ in-house digital marketers, the whole process can be very daunting. And many don’t really understand what SEO actually entails, consider it a black art and choose to ignore it.
How does it work?
The search engines use secret and highly complicated algorithms to evaluate trusted websites and their content and then they rank them. The point of SEO is to convince the search engines to put your website at the top of their list.
The search engines look for relevant and specific keywords; links within your own site and to and from other trusted sites; informative and interesting content – relevant to the industry or sector the site serves – and they look for sites that are user friendly and mobile optimised.
How do I do it?
Sadly there are no short cuts to optimising your website. The key is the quality of your content. Keep your content up to date, informative and relevant, with useful articles people will share and thorough descriptions of your services, or advice and information that is useful to your audience.
Consider what keywords your customer will be searching for, use these terms in your content and encourage links from other trusted websites.
Make mobile a priority, search engines increasingly use mobile optimisation as a factor in search rankings.
What can I do if I don’t have the time or resource?
SEO is time consuming and requires careful co-ordination between marketing, content and social media strategy, but is an essential tool to drive new traffic to your website and one increasingly all companies must embrace.
If you do not have the time or inclination to create an implement a SEO strategy then Junction Media has a range of services and trusted partners that can help you.
Content is king
We specialise in creating great content for both print and web. If you would like more information contact us today at: [email protected]
