A beginner’s introduction to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
What is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimisation and it is the act of trying to make your website show up higher in search engines like Google. That way, when someone heads to Google to search a question or for a business or for “best hot chocolate in Belgium” then your website will show up top of the list. (It’s Chocolate Kiss in Bruges btw).
Of course Google is not the only search engine out there, there is also Bing, Yahoo, YouTube… but throughout this post I will be referencing Google as it the number one search engine in the world, accounting for 78% of all search activity.
If you have any questions at all about the content of this article, then feel free to contact me and I would be happy to help. I am a website designer of 3+ years and have a degree in digital marketing where I chose to specialise in SEO, so I’ll definitely be able to answer any questions you have.
Why is SEO beneficial for your business?
I am not going to sugar coat things, SEO can be time consuming and/or expensive if you decide to pay someone to help. However, it can have a huge return on investment.
Firstly, SEO allows your website to show up at the exact moment a potential client is looking for your services. So when they type in “best life coach in London” or “social media management services” then a well-optimised website means you could be the very first website to show up on the list. You have ready-to-buy eyes on your business!
How does that compare to social media? Well instead of posting and hoping you show up in someone’s feed who happens to need a life coach at that time, instead you are reaching people who are actively looking for your services.
A well-optimised website also means that you can be seen as the go-to resource in your niche/industry. For example, if you had a blog of useful articles on your website, then people searching for questions you answer will be shown your website and your business.
And lastly, all you need is one high-performing blog post or page and you can have leads coming into your business on auto-pilot. You’re not reliant on Instagram or LinkedIn to show your posts to the right people. You don’t have to create 5 reels every week or film videos or post every day on LinkedIn. You simply have to write and optimise it once.
Sounds amazing right? But how do you actually create a website or blog post that ranks well on Google?
The basic principle you need to understand about SEO
When it comes to SEO, there is one key thing you need to understand if you want to show up highly in search results:
Google’s sole purpose is to help people find what they are searching for and they therefore want to show people the best, most helpful and high-quality results from trustworthy sources.
What does that mean for you? You have to create the best, most high-quality and helpful content on the internet and show google that you are trustworthy. If your web page sucks compared to what’s already out there, or Google doesn’t know who you are, it won’t get ranked. It’s that simple.
Google themselves tells us that trust is such an important factor in assessing that your content is worth ranking.
However as the internet grows, more websites are published and more content written, how does Google decide what website to rank over another?
How does Google decide what website to rank?
That is where Google’s algorithm comes in. It has hundreds of different ways of choosing one website as the best and ranking it #1. And while there are lots of methods/techniques that SEO professionals have tried and tested, no one truly understands the algorithm and can give you a comprehensive list. We simply have tried and tested techniques to help Google view our websites as the best.
These techniques can be broken down into three core pillars:
The three core pillars of SEO
On-site SEO
On-site SEO is all about editing the pages themselves and the content on your website. This is where keywords come in and it’s all about creating great-quality content that is relevant to what people are searching for. Some common techniques you’ve probably heard of include adding keywords to your headings, to your image alt-descriptions and throughout your articles.
Off-site SEO
Off-site SEO is your efforts outside of your website to show Google that you are trustworthy and authoritative. This is about building brand recognition and building backlinks (links from other websites to your websites).
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is about making your website faster, easier to crawl and more understandable for search engines. Some common techniques in this category include optimising image sizes so the page loads faster, indexing your website with Google Search Console and making sure all your links work.
If you want someone to audit your website and give you suggestions on how to improve on all three of these areas then you may benefit from a power hour where can discuss these exact pillars. View my power hour service to see how we can give your website a powerful boost in search engines.
WTF are keywords and how do I find them?
If you’ve heard of SEO before then you’ve probably heard of keywords. They’re a key component of on-site SEO and they’re essential for making sure your SEO efforts pay off.
A keyword is simply the word/phrase that someone types into Google. That could be “SEO tips” “life coaching” or “what is the best way to tell my mum I broke her favourite vase”. They can be one word or a hundred words but not all keywords are made equal.
There are a few questions you need to find the answer to, to understand if it worth you trying to rank for them.
What is the exact keyword someone is typing in? E.g. lifestyle coach vs life coach
How many people are searching for this keyword? There is no point creating content for a keyword that people aren’t searching for.
What is the intent behind this keyword? What is someone looking for when they search for that keyword?
How easy/hard is this keyword to rank for? If the article currently ranked #1 is the NHS or the BBC, you’re probably not going to rank for it.
The best way to find the answer to all these questions is to use a keyword research tool like Ubersuggest or AHrefs.
However, even if you find the perfect keyword and write the perfect web page/blog post, there is still something you need to consider: Backlinks.
Why backlinks are important for SEO
Something that is often overlooked when it comes to SEO is backlinks and showing Google that you are a trusted source of information. Even if you wrote the best article in the world, Google needs to know that you are an authority on the matter, and not some random guy on the internet.
And how do you show Google you are a trustworthy authority? Backlinks.
Backlinks are just links from one website to your website. You can think of them like a vote of confidence. Another website owner trusts you enough to link to your website. The more votes of confidence (backlinks) you have, the most trustworthy you will start to appear.
If the website that links to you is trustworthy itself, then even better. For example, if the BBC linked to your website, Google will see that link and think wow – they must be legit. A backlink from a trustworthy website is worth more than a backlink from a random website that also isn’t trusted by Google. And the more trustworthy backlinks you have, the more of an authority you will appear.
How long does SEO take?
Okay so, you’ve found the perfect keywords, optimised your website, it loads quickly and you’ve started getting backlinks to your website. How long does it take to see results when working on your SEO?
Unfortunately SEO is a longer-term strategy and you won’t have likes/views rolling in right away like you do with social media.
If you were to hire an SEO professional, they would usually tell you that you should wait 6 months to see significant results. However, you may start to see some small wins right away. Especially if you’re a more established business with some Google trust already established - your rankings might start to increase within a couple of weeks.
But patience is a virtue when it comes to SEO and you should see it as a long-term investment in your business, not a quick fix.
Increasing your rankings in Google until you become #1 is the result of consistent effort over a period of months, not weeks.
So there you have it, a simple introduction to what you need to know about SEO for small businesses.
If you want to work with a website designer who understands SEO principles well and will implement SEO best practices into your websites (so you don’t have to), then check out my services page to find out how we can work together.
