SEO STARTER GUIDE FOR YOUR BUSINESS
Schalch Marketing
Table of Contents Search Engine Optimisation Defined p. 3 Why People Use Search Engine p. 4 Understanding the Search Process p. 5 Why Websites Need to be Optimised p. 6 Keyword p. 7 Keyword Research Strategies p. 7 Onpage Optimisation p. 9 Optimising your Content p. 13 OffPage Optimisation p. 15 Link Building Strategies p. 15 Social Media and SEO p. 16 Social Media Tips to Boost your SEO p. 17
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION DEFINED
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of amplifying your website and other related digital channels and online content to improve your brand's visibility and ranking on search engines. Unlike PPC (Pay Per Click) marketing technique, SEO targets organic search, where customers use search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing to search information about products and services. When you optimise your website, you increase the chance of people visiting your website by positioning your web pages higher in the search engine results.
WHY PEOPLE USE SEARCH ENGINE 1. Research Most people use a search engine for research purposes based on their needs, desires or problem. They are generally looking for answers, or at least for data with which to make a sound decision. They're looking to find a website to fulfill a specific purpose. Tip: Gear your site content toward things that would be of interest to a researcher. Indepth howto articles, product comparisons and reviews, and free information are all things that attract researchers to your site.
2. Shop After the research cycle is over, search queries change to terms that reflect a buying mindset. Phrases like ''discounts" , "sale" and "best price" signal a searcher in need of a point of purchase. Tip: Optimising your web page to meet the needs of that type of visitor results in higher conversions for your site. Global search engines such as Google tend to reward research oriented sites, so your web pages have to strike a balance between salesoriented terms and researchoriented terms.
UNDERSTANDING THE SEARCH PROCESS Customer has needs and desires.
Customer turns his needs and desires into a search query.
Customer types his search query in the search engine,
Customer view search results.
Customer clicks a specific search result.
WHY WEBSITES NEED TO BE OPTIMISED : THE BENEFITS OF SEO • Gets your website in front of your targeted audience • Drives traffic or visits to your website • Helps your customers during their research/buying process • Results in higher customer conversions • Contributes to sales growth • Increases your profit and ROI for less marketing costs
KEYWORD A keyword is a specific word or phrase a search engine looks for in its index (the list of websites it looks at during a search), based on what the user typed as the search query. Keywords are the most important part of search engine optimization. Search engine 'spiders' and look for keywords that match or closely relate to the search query.
KEYWORD RESEARCH STRATEGIES 1. Discover your site theme. Figure out the purpose of your website based on the products and services you are offering. 2. Brainstorm for keywords. Look for word based natural search, what your customers are using and jargon terms related to your industry.
3. Research your competition and industry. 4. Evaluate your researched keywords using popular keyword tools and software like Google Keyword Planner. 5. Consider semantic research. Check thesaurus and look for words that are closely related or synonymous to your main keywords. Consider 'the searches related to' terms found at the bottom search engine results page generated by search engines when you query your search terms. 6. Use long tail keywords. They have less competition than specific keywords and the bounce rate is very low because the terms you used are closely related to the search query. It adds up to web traffic in the long run.
ON PAGE OPTIMISATION On page optimisation refers to developing your web content with the appropriate keywords that are used by your targeted audience when they search online. Onpage optimisation enables search engines to easily crawl and index your website: Title Tag informs users and search engines the subject of the web page. It is located within the tag of the HTML document. Search engines crawl and index the title tag and display it in the search results. To view the website's title tag, open the website in the web browser and from the top of the browser or tab, the title tag appears: Keyword Phrase 1 and Keyword Phrase 2 – Company Name Tips for Optimising your Title Tag • Create short but descriptive titles. Use words that quickly identifies your web content.
• Create a unique title for each page on your website. This helps the search engines to distinguish the different web pages on your website.
Meta Description Tag gives search engines a brief summary of web page content. It is placed within the tag of the HTML document. Search engines use this tag to get details about the web page and display it on search results: Keyword Phrase 1 and Keyword Phrase 2 – Company Name Tips for Optimising your Alt Tag • Use brief, but descriptive filenames and text • Supply alt text when using images as links
URL Structure of your website should include keywords to help optimize each web page for a particular keyword. . Your website's URL is displayed as part of the search results for a search engine, below the document's title and snippet. Properly optimized URLs help bot and people to identify the topic of your web page: http://www.yourdomain.com/keywordphraseforpage/ Properly Tips for Optimising your URL Structure • Use words relevant to your site content when you create your URLs • Create a simple directory structure to make it easy for your visitors to know where they are on your site.
Optimising your Content
• Create new and unique content. Produce fresh content regularly to attract new visits and encourage repeat views. • Write content that is easy to understand. Edit and proofread your text to ensure there are no grammar errors. Accompany your text messages with interesting visuals or images that accurately depicts your written content. • Always think of your target audience. Prioritize your readers as they are responsible for increasing your ranking and visibility on search engines through multiple visits. Avoid stuffing keywords to your content just to increase your ranking. This can turn off your readers which result to high bounce rate which significantly decreases your web pages visibility.
• Stay organized on your topic. Observe cohesiveness in your text messages. Classifying your web content into logical groups can help your readers find the information they desired quickly. • Optimise content loading time. Fast loading web pages allow users to access your content easily and decrease their wait time. In addition, search engines will be able to crawl and index your web pages faster.
OFFPAGE OPTIMISATION Off page optimisation refers to SEO techniques that help increase your website's visibility, ranking, and traffic in the search engines. The method uses third party tools or websites to help create inbound links pointing to your website. Link building is a popular offpage technique to increase incoming traffic to your website
Link Building Strategies • Create blogs • Create presence on popular social media channels for your niche • Get listed on online directories • Syndicate online content
• Guest blog on relevant sites • Comment on popular blogs and online forums • Submit PR and online articles
SOCIAL MEDIA AND SEO Search engines have begun incorporating social context into their search results. Google, Bing, and Yahoo are displaying results of your post on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Instagram, Youtube and other popular social networks high on search engine results page. Hence, boosting your social media marketing can also amplify your search engine optimisation.
Social Media Tips to Boost your SEO Choose social media channels based on your purpose and target audience. Select social networks frequented by your ideal customer e.g. Linked In for B2B clients and Instagram for B2C customers. Create content relevant to your target users. Attract your audience by providing informative and entertaining content that will make them want to share with their friends and colleagues on their personal social networks. Post regularly to keep your audience engaged. Plan an engagement strategy. Create social media campaigns and promotions that encourage audience participation.
Optimise your social media profiles. Use targeted keywords on your company description. Don't forget to include your company website and other social media links. Enable social sharing. Make sure you have the social media widgets enabled on your blogs, infographics and online articles to help increase spread of your content.
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