Search Engine Optimisation or SEO as it is mostly referred to, plays a big part in the success of any business website. It is basically a way of ensuring your website pops up on the search page results for a certain keyword – one that is relevant to your products or services. The very first thing to do is choose which relevant keywords attract a lot of searches but are not too costly for your marketing budget.
Techniques for using the chosen keywords should only those that are approved by the search engines. They can now pick up keyword stuffing –improper use of keywords – and will ignore the page it is used on. Most genuine business websites avoid doing anything that gets them a black mark on Google, since that’s the main search engine.
If you write quality content that makes proper use of keywords and provides valuable information to visitors about your product or services, the search engines will look on your website with favour. That doesn’t mean you can’t use certain aspects of SEO to increase the visibility of each page. For instance, the keyword should be used in the page title, the URL, the headline and where an image is used – and it should be – in the file name, image title and alt attribute. Keywords should also be in the meta descriptions.
The keyword should be used at least twice in the page text, which should be between 400 and 600 words. There can also be other, similar keywords scattered throughout the text where appropriate. Naturally enough, your website should have many pages, each one optimised for a certain keyword, and each one linked to other pages in the website.
All websites these days should use responsive design that allows the website to display properly on small screens such as iPhones and tablets, since that is how so many people now access the Internet. If yours does not, it means that 80% or so of surfers will not be able to access your website. All the SEO in the world will not help your website be seen if it is not a responsive design.
SEO basics also include linking out to other authentic websites and having them link to you, but only if they have content that relates in some way to yours. For instance, if your website sold a dog-training guide, it could link to another website that sold dog bowls or other accessories. This increases the authority of your website and helps search engines to take it seriously by choosing to display it for certain keywords.
The two main questions you should ask when looking at your website are: Is it natural and authentic, and, Does it provide a good experience for the user. If the answers are yes, then your website can be considered successful.