SEO in Six Steps
Kerry Ferguson continues our guest blog series. Once a month, we share a guest blog post from an industry expert. Kerry is the award-winning co-founder of Gwe Cambrian Web, where the team create affordable, bilingual (Welsh & English) websites for small businesses. Kerry also teaches a range of digital modules at Aberystwyth University and she shares her knowledge in digital communities to help demystify SEO.
If you’re wondering What does SEO mean? How do you do SEO? I don’t code so I can’t do it…, Kerry says, “never fear, it’s actually relatively straightforward.”
In this post, Kerry shares what SEO is, why SEO is important, and shares her 6-step SEO strategy with us so that your website can reap the rewards in the search engine results.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is an important part of digital marketing for small business owners. In today’s digital age, having an online presence is crucial for businesses of all sizes, and SEO plays an important role in ensuring that your website appears at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs).
More often than not, we assume that once our website launches – we can just sit back, and wait for those sales to roll in. Sorry to say, that really is not the case, and I can’t emphasize that enough!
Once we launch a website, we need to start thinking straight away about our search engine optimisation. For a website to be successful, and to be a hard-working part of your overall business, it needs constant TLC.
Hopefully, by the end of this guest blog, you’ll have some pointers on what you can do to begin your SEO journey… but let me tell you this – SEO is a huge part of your business, and it isn’t something you can do every now and again. It’s a long term process, changes you make won’t take affect straight away. You have to stick at it, work at it, analyse and go again.
Why is SEO important?
Before I carry on at you, let’s look at why search engine optimisation is actually important (as if you needed convincing?):
Increased Visibility: Proper SEO techniques help improve your website's rankings in search engine results, making your business more visible to potential customers.
Credibility and Trust: Websites that rank higher on search engines are perceived as more trustworthy by visitors.
Cost-Effective Marketing: Unlike paid advertisements, organic traffic that comes through SEO is free, which means more return on investment.
User Experience: Good SEO practices often go hand-in-hand with improved user experience on your website.
Honestly, if there’s one element that is often forgotten or pushed down the list, it’s SEO, and yet it plays a huge role in the success of your website. If you rely on that website for your business, then it’s even more important.
I know from working within SEO for many years, that the avoidance of it comes down to a lack of understanding. What does it mean? How do you do SEO? I don’t code so can’t do it… Well, never fear, it’s actually relatively straightforward.
SEO Strategy
Let’s look at a simple SEO strategy. I am a huge fan of simple – there’s no point complicating things if it’s going to mean the job never gets done. So, here’s my recommendation:
Set Clear Objectives:
Define what you hope to achieve with your SEO efforts. Is it brand visibility, more sales, or increased website traffic? Having a clear objective is really important because it helps us to map out what changes we need to do, and how we can measure our efforts.
Keyword Research:
Find out what keywords your potential customers are using to find services or products similar to yours. Tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush can help. This is an essential part of your simple SEO strategy, and is also a great way to get ‘in the zone’ when thinking about your website content and your audience.
On-Page SEO:
Ensure that your website's content is optimised for these keywords. This includes meta titles, descriptions, headers, and content itself. On page SEO is the easiest element to tackle, it’s all focussed on content, and getting into the mind of your audience.
Content Creation:
Produce high-quality, relevant content that answers user queries and establishes you as an authority in your field.
Technical SEO:
This is looking at elements other than the aesthetic and content. For example, how fast your website loads, is it mobile friendly, does it have an SSL certificate?
Measure and Refine:
Use tools like Google Analytics to measure your success and refine your strategies. It’s so important to constantly check your efforts, and make sure you are taking steps forward to improve.
Six, easy to follow steps. Don’t get me wrong, they each take time, but by working on these consistently, your website should start to reap the rewards in the search engine results.
I want to make sure you get value from reading this blog post so if you'd like to find out how to tackle these steps yourself, let's dive deeper into SEO!
🔗 You can connect with Kerry on LinkedIn or her website.
👀 Watch this space for more Guest Blogs throughout the year! If you’re interested in writing a guest post for The Bloom Blog, get in touch.
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