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SEO, Search Engine Optimisation, is the practice of increasing the quality and quantity of traffic to a website through organic engine results.[1]
W
ith internet at our fingertips and users starting even younger, there is the potential for as many websites on ‘planet virtual’ than there are humans on planet earth.
That makes for A LOT of competition.
In reality, there were 1.7 billion websites in 2021 [2] but this number grows every day.
So, how do you set yourself apart? How do you reach your potential customers? A big part of this answer is -you guessed it!- SEO.
Why should you care about your SEO?
On average 53% of all website traffic comes from organic searches [1]. This means that potentially half of your business could come from someone typing their needs for your product or service in the Google search bar.
But only if you appear on the first page of results (someone once said: “the second page of Google is where websites go to die”).
That is where SEO comes in handy. It takes time and effort but it allows you to stay competitive and target the right customer.
“target the right customer”
The more effective your SEO efforts, the higher you’ll rank on a search engine result page, therefore it’s more likely potential customers will see you and click through your website.
Not only does SEO gets you seen, it gets you seen by the right people. The ones that actually have a need and an interest in what you are selling.
You want those customers; they are already prime to buy what you are selling. You are offering exactly what they want at the best price or the best quality. Why wouldn’t you get those sales?!
How to get you up on the search engine result page?
One good thing is that once you start caring about SEO, not only will it get you more visibility, it will organically improve the look of your website. And although the results can take a few months to kick in (because of the crawling time of Google robots), it is well worth the wait.
Our tips:
Spend time on User Experience
Make sure the potential customer browsing your website has a seamless and positive experience. Google robots are really sensitive to the usability of your website (and your visitors too!).
Take steps to make your website more responsive by making sure no links are broken and each page links to one another. And increase your page load speed by using compressed .jpg or .png transparent images.
We test the loading speed of any website we create for our clients, and confirm it via this tool.
Use relevant keywords
Identify and target a specific keyword for each content page you create. Think about what your visitors would search for. Your page should be the answer to it.
Make sure to use those keywords naturally. This will help you rank higher on a Google result page and do not stuff as many keywords as you can at the risk of loosing readability. ‘Keyword stuffing’ is now a practice penalised by Google and you could also lose your ranking.
“Think about what your visitors would search for”
Use Meta tags
Titles and descriptions for each page you create with your chosen keywords will help Google robots understand the structure of your website. It will also allow your potential customers to know what content they’ll get by clicking on your link.
Update your content
Google likes active pages. On the almost 2 billions websites on planet internet, only 17% are active [3] and that’s the ones Google will prioritise as the result of a search query. You need to be part of those.
Creating content with targeted keywords is sure to boost your search engines ranking. But if that is not a possibly, updating your original content is viewed as the best indicator of your site’s relevancy.
SEO seems like a monster that you need to keep on slaying, but it’s really not. Set small goals for yourself, be patient and think about the visitor experience you’re creating for your targeted customer. Test your website multiple times and write about things that are relevant to your customers. And if you need the advice of professionals, we are more than happy to help you!
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