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For those of you who are not in the know S.E.O stands for search engine optimisation. To summarise, this is how efficient your website is at being found and ranked by Google. Consider your website as a car wanting to win a race. The more time you are spending tuning it and tweaking it for that race the better chance you have of ranking in that first spot. If you take your car out of the garage to find it hasn’t been used in 10 years but it was winning, doesn’t mean it will be now. The goal posts have moved and you’re playing by Googles rules.
In the early days of S.E.O it was quite easy to fake your ranking. Using Exact Domain Matches (EDM) and fake back links, your website could be to the top of Google that afternoon. Since this caused a lot of unbalance, Google introduced something called Panda. Panda is an algorithm which ranks a website based on 23 questions Google has designated are key to a website’s success.
To get your website to the top of Google you don’t need to rebuild or spend thousands doing it. Just a bit of time and effort. In this blog we are going to provide you with a few hints and tips on how to get your website ranking higher.
1.Content
Mobiles are glued to our hands 90% of our waking day. From that we are being fed information from news articles, social media channels and websites. Ask yourself this, if I was a user coming to my website for information would I find it? If so how much information is there and is it enough to keep me? After an honest look at your website if it reveals that it is kinda boring then you need to invest in adding more. If your website sells products or services, do you talk about them in detail? Do you sell the benefits? Do you have professional photos that show them off? Do you have reviews? If the answer is no then you need to start investing. Cost wise this is a cheap option but will eat away at your time. However, once it is done you will only need to make tweaks here and there.
2.Blogging
Are you an expert in your field? How often are customers or clients asking you for advice? A blog is a great way to save you time and show off your knowledge. As an expert you can put your knowledge into a blog which customers and clients can read. This will save you from re-answering the same question and let everyone know, you know your stuff! Fed through your website a blog gives people a reason to stay. Example, you’re reading this blog post on Blades Media. If you read it till the end you would have been on our website for an additional 5 minutes. Blogs are free but time consuming.
3.Forums
Forums are a deadly place, full of keyboard warriors and trolls. Regrettably though forums provide a collective audience of the people you’re looking to go after, you need to wade in! Treat forums with a pinch of salt. Look for the questions that you can answer easily. If you have a blog post already setup, use this as an opportunity to link people to your site. Normally forums will stop advertising unless it is paid for but offering more information on a subject can only be beneficial to their users. Don’t get in a war with anyone and remember, if someone is slating your business, report them. Forums generally ban this behaviour.
4. Social Media
Social media is a great free digital platform for you to engage customers about your business. We will be honest, social media has no direct effect over S.E.O (unless it is Google+). What it does provide is exposure. Example: If I was looking at holidays and when I went to Facebook, saw an advert for a holiday I was looking at I am more than likely to go back to that website to buy it. You can use social media to push sales, new items, your blog and engage customers in real time.
5. Mobile Optimisation
Previously mentioned, we spend at least 90% of our waking day with a mobile device glued to our hand. This new method of viewing the online world has meant we need to think differently on how customers will view our site. If a website loads incorrectly on a mobile device or slowly, then the chances of the customer staying longer than 5 seconds is less than half. If it takes longer than 5 seconds to load or doesn’t load at all, you will never see that customer again. You can see, this is very important. If your website is not optimised for mobile, we suggest you speak to your web developer.
If you would like any more advice or a review of your website, drop us an email at: info@bladesmedia.co.uk