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SEO stands for search engine optimisation and it is the most powerful tool your website has to rank 1st on Google, and do you want to know the secret of how to master SEO? … There is no secret sauce, no instant switch just research, planning and implementation.
Well if that is the case then why do I need an SEO expert?
Even though there is nothing you can’t do yourself, all efforts can be in vein as not knowing what to target can cause you to rank for what people aren’t searching. Having an expert on board ensures you are hitting the right mark and every foot step is put right.
What does SEO look like?
SEO can be broke down into 3 key areas:
You need all three to strike the balance to rank well in the Search Engine Rank Position (SERP).
Local SEO:
Google my business
Did you know you do not even need a website to rank on Google? Having a professionally designed and built Google listing can make you appear higher in SERP than a company with a website. This is the starting point to local business seo
Local backlinks
Have you been on a church website recently? Most of them are HTML 1.0 websites from early 2000 and are severely outdated. However, if you are trying to build a business locally, websites like this have more influence in the local community and are more valuable than a national website.
Fundamental SEO:
Keywords
Do you know what words customers use to find your business? Do you know how customers search for what you sell? Do you know what your business ranks for? Having professionally researched keywords, placed into a keyword planner will take away the guess work and put you in front of the right customers.
Content
Do you have loads of beautiful images, video and well written pages? Or just a few words and stock images? Content marketing is king! The more content the more likely Google is to recommend you as a place of knowledge. People go to Google for answers, do you have the answer?
Mobile Ready
Does your website have responsive design? Does it work well on mobile, phablet and tablet? Google ranks this more importantly over desktop search. If your website doesn’t work for mobile, it doesn’t work for Google!
Structure
Is your website laid out how Google expects it? Click here to read our blog about structure.
Backlinks
How many websites talk about you? Are they all genuine websites? Build your network and build your ranking. Imagine it like being introduced by someone. The more popular they are the more people will respect the introduction. However back links want to have weight. Applied to content. Just a link on a popular site will not have the same impact as if it were attached to some outstanding content. Make sure to use a back link checker.
Technical SEO:
Schema Markup
Google is a pattern machine. The more you meet the pattern the better chance of ranking well. That’s why it helps to supply google with information in a format it can understand, schema. Not guaranteed to help you rank higher, but the more you can help Google the better!
Hierarchy of Pages
Consider buying shoes.. you go to the website and click men’s shoes. You click running shoes followed by Nike. Your search goes from broad to narrow. Imagine if that was the other way around. The hierarchy of your website lets Google know what the broader pages are which will appeal to a bigger audience and what the more niche pages are where the conversions happen.
Internal linking (crawlability)
Google has crawlers called spiders. These bits of code will scour your website and look for pages and work out how they can benefit search. However, it only follows the path of links. For example, if you had an amazing page on your website full of useful content, but no links to it, Google would not read it and offer it in search.
Link all the pages then? Ah, not that simple. Google likes patterns including correlations. If your page is about food and you link to events they do not directly link. You need an interim of catering to connect the pages.