Search Engine Optimisation or SEO as it’s frequently abbreviated to is crucial if you want your business to have a presence and be found online.

Essentially it means using commonly searched for key words associated with your company to improve your search engine rankings and drive traffic to your website.

The search engines use a set of complicated algorithms to work out the order in which each page should be ranked.

And with millions of users going on to search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing every day looking for something, it’s key if you want to promote your business.

SEO is a powerful tool

Fundamentally, SEO is a powerful tool that can produce a better return on investment than traditional forms of marketing such as TV and print advertising.

That’s because it enables you to market to people when they are looking for products and/or services that your business provides.

It can also help to improve the quality of your website by making it easier to navigate if the terms visitors are looking for are used, thus helping to drive new leads.

The key benefit of being high up the list on search engines is that most users are more likely to click on the link to your website rather than trawl through all the other pages that follow it.

And it enhances the visibility and credibility of your company.

Also, if they find your website because of good SEO and like it, they are more likely to promote it to other people on social media and the like.

According to the stats, 32 percent of users click on the link ranked No.1 in the list, 17% to No.2 and 10% to No.3.

By the time you get to the second page of results less than one percent of traffic visits those links.

And you also get more value than paid for adverts where the traffic often dries up when the advert disappears.

Finding the best key words

If you are unsure which key words are most searched for then use an analytics program such as Google Adwords. Ditto, to find out the most visited sections of your website with Google Analytics.

You can also get an SEO audit done of your website to see how it is performing for key words.

Then tailor it to those words you want your business to be associated with and found for.

That will enable you to target your core market more effectively.

But bear in mind that if you are in a line of work that a lot of companies do then they are likely to use the same terms so you run the risk of getting lost among your competitors when people search for your products and/or services.

Also, be careful not to get hung up and overload your content with key words as search engines will recognise this and will pick up on it.

Above all, your content should be readable and not just a series of words thrown together.

Get in touch

  • Are you making the most of your SEO? Give me a call on +44 (0)7949 590213 or email alex@alexwrightjournalist.com