Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): Frequently Asked Questions
You’ll have probably heard the term search engine optimisation (SEO) and may even know that SEO plays a critical role on how your website performs. As most people use the Web as the first port of call to search for products and services it’s essential to be on page one of search engines for a number of ‘keywords’ relevant to your business. A simple rewording of your website text that leads you up the search engine rankings could in effect achieve more than any expensive PR or advertising campaign, purely due to the number of people who will be finding your site who previously couldn’t locate you online. And remember, these people will have entered relevant keywords which means they could be looking for your product or service.
But there’s a whole lot more to know about SEO, which is why RunMarketing has put together a quick and basic guide to how SEO works and how to optimise your content.
What’s a search engine?
Google, Yahoo!, Bing and Ask are all search engines. They’re the sites people go to when looking for products and services. After entering ‘keywords’ – e.g. “Carpenters, Birmingham” – the search engines’ “spiders” will trawl the Internet looking for the most relevant match.
What is search engine optimisation?
Using search engine optimisation on your website makes your pages more visible to search engines, meaning you get listed and seen by your potential clients.
What are the benefits of search engine optimisation?
If your Web pages have been optimised for search engines, they’ll draw more potential customers to your site. And unlike other methods of Internet marketing, such as pay-per-click, the only investment in SEO is your time.
How do search engines like Google work?
Search engines work by matching up your search criteria with the most relevant Web pages on the Internet. Websites which contain words with the most relevance are most likely to come up, but there’s a whole host of other factors involved, such as “page rank” (PR – not to be confused with Public Relations), which is basically linked to the amount of hits and backlinks – or incoming links – that a site has. Linking internally to other pages in your site is also really helpful as it helps the spiders delve deeper into your content.
Why are keywords and phrases so important in search engine optimisation?
If your Web copy includes the same keywords and phrases your customers are searching for your website will be considered relevant and will be ranked by search engines. Keywords can be highly competitive, but phrases are also really handy for what’s known as “the long tail” of search – where surfers enter longer phrases, such as questions into search engines, for example, “highly recommended Indian restaurant Wandsworth”.
How do I know which keywords and keyphrases my customers are searching for?
Google is by far the dominant search engine, so have a look at its Google Keyword Tool before you generate any Web copy. If you enter your Web address where indicated you can see what search terms people are using to look for which are relevant to your site both locally with your country and globally. The most popular ones are those you should focus on using in your content.
So if I cram my Web copy full of keywords and keyphrases I’ll hit the top of the search engines?
It’s not quite as simple as that, unfortunately. To be successful with search engine optimisation, you need to disperse the right amount of keywords and phrase in your Web copy and they need to be in the right positions on your pages. This is known as “keyword density”. Too few keywords and the spiders won’t recognise you, too many and they’ll view you as spam and penalise you!
What are the rules for keyword density?
Always keep in mind that each keyword or keyphrase should make up around five per cent of the copy, so on a Web page of 350 words, the same keyword or phrase should appear around 18 times.
Is SEO just about weaving keywords and keyphrases into the page copy or is there more?
It does go beyond purely dispersing keywords. Make sure that click-through links are placed over keywords rather than over ‘click here’, for example.
Keywords should feature in the title headings and, if possible, the URL (Web link), too. This makes it more relevant in the eyes of the search robots for those keywords. Also, make sure you tag the content with at least eight relevant keywords. Your Web publishing tool should offer you the opportunity to add tags.
Any other SEO tips?
When writing for the Web, remember that you’re essentially writing for two audiences; your potential customers and Internet search spiders. Content therefore needs to be compelling enough to read and well thought-out so as to be easily found in the first place by search bots.
SEO is an endless job. You need to constantly assess your ranking by entering your key words in Google, Bing and Yahoo! to see where you are. Also, check analytical sites such as Xinu and Alexa regularly to see how your site is ranked.
If you’re unsure about generating content, it’s well worth considering outsourcing to a creative SEO copywriter.
Further Reading:
http://www.contentandmotion.co.uk/social-seo/
http://www.nixonmcinnes.co.uk/category/seo/
