Why SEO matters
If you have, ever had or are looking at having a website, somewhere along the way someone will have mentioned Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). When we speak to clients, they’re often a bit daunted by SEO and don’t really understand what it is. So let’s start with a definition:
“The process of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website by increasing its visibility to users of a search engine”
By having effective SEO for your website, you increase your chances of receiving ‘organic’ traffic direct from search engines like Google. These are essentially free visitors to your website that have come to you rather that you having to reach them. A website with truly great SEO can potentially bypass any need to invest in paid means (such as Pay Per Click services) to drive traffic and increase a customer base.
The search engine which dominates the market as most people will know is Google. While there are others (such as Bing), somewhere around an incredible 92% of searches are carried out on Google across mobile and desktops. This is why when we develop new websites for our clients, we focus on optimising them against Google standards, however it’s worth mentioning that Squarespace does have great baseline SEO naturally built in.
There are a few things which you should focus on when considering the SEO of your website:
Clear and relevant page titles and well written content
Your page titles should be punchy and descriptive. It’s worth having a good think (and maybe a little brainstorm!) about what phrases and questions your ideal clients are going to be typing into a search engine when they’re looking to find your products or services. One thing we always advise our clients to do is create a key phrases list and use that to home in on the ideal page titles and content for their website. You can build on this over time - keep an eye on your analytics, see what kind of searches are bringing traffic to your website and capitalise on that.
Establishing links to your site from other reputable websites
Google loves a bit of what's known as back-linking. Traditionally you could get your website ranked very highly on Google just by paying a load of purposefully set-up backlink sites to shove your website URL all over the place. HOWEVER, in 2012 with the Google Penguin update, all this changed. Google recognises more ‘spammy’ websites now and actively penalises websites for receiving links from those sites. So while it’s important to have backlinks - it’s worth taking the time to establish them with reputable and relevant websites.
Site navigation and speed
Having a clear and clean site structure is beneficial both for your search rankings but also just generally for your users and their ability to find the information they need. As we’ve mentioned above, page titles should be clear and to the point so that a user of your website knows exactly where to go to get the particular information they’re searching for. Your site should also have a fast page load time. There are plenty of third party websites out there which can check this for you - but you can also get a feel for this yourself - if you’re frustrated by a slow site, it’s likely your customers else will be too!
Keep it fresh!
One of the easiest things you can do to positively impact the ranking of your website on the search engines, is to keep your content fresh. Stagnant content will damage the reputation of your website over time and so doing things like posting regular, relevant, content-rich blog articles or updating your news page is really valuable. Even if your website is ranking really highly, keeping the content static will do more harm than good. Learn from your Google Analytics, see what people are interested in and adjust or add to your content as regularly as you’re able.
Don’t spam!
We advised that you should use key terms earlier but beware - shoving exactly the same keywords into content over and over again isn’t going to do you any favours with Google’s algorithm - in fact it’ll get you down-rated. Think carefully about the language you’re using, try not to be overly repetitive and avoid creating ‘lists’ of words just for the sake of getting ‘keywords’ in. You actually want to focus more on meaningful ‘key phrases’ so think about what someone might type into Google when they’re searching for your goods or services.
The final thing we’d like to stress about SEO, is that it doesn’t happen overnight. On average, it takes 3 months for changes to start taking effect and according to a Google article, it can take up to 18 months for a good organic SEO campaign to really start performing. There are of course ways you can shortcut this for example, you can use Pay Per Click (PPC) where you essentially opt to pay to increase your status on the search engines, but although this might yield short term results, it can be a long term financial commitment if you rely on it.
Our advice would always be to make sure you’ve got it right from the start, invest in time up front to get your site structure and content right so that your website can do the work naturally for you over time (with a few blog articles and updates from you along the way!).
If you think we can help you with your SEO or a new website, please get in touch - we’d love to hear from you!
