SEO Basics
Did you know that WordPress users publish over 2 million posts every day? That equates to 24 blog posts every second. The large majority of businesses also have a digital presence, with 20% of UK micro-businesses being pushed online during the pandemic in order to survive. That’s a whole bunch of websites competing for attention.
So, how can you stand out from the crowd? Well SEO plays a huge part. Read on to learn SEO basics and how you can improve your SEO strategy.
What exactly is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. You’ve probably heard that term used frequently in the marketing world, but what does it mean exactly?
Well, it’s all to do with creating high-ranking content in a manner that’s organic and not paid. The idea is for your content to be shown as the result of a user search. Millions of searches are being made every day and as 75% of internet users never click past the first page of search results, it’s really important to have an SEO strategy in place that’ll showcase your relevance and make your content visible. Moreover, the first 5 results on Google get 67% of all clicks so you can see why optimisation is so important. The audience is very much there, but SEO optimisation will help you to shine amid a sea of competitors.
Let’s dig deeper…
How do I optimise my content?
When it comes to SEO basics and optimising content, it’s important to know that Google always tries to deliver the best user experience possible by serving up the greatest and most relevant content it can find. So, you should focus on:
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Using the correct keywords
First things first, you must conduct thorough keywords research. This is the process of discovering words and phrases that people use in search engines and will help you find relevant content topics and weave highly searched words into your copy. Keyword research will enable you to understand the wants and needs of your target audience better which, in turn, will make it easy to create content people want.
Top Tip: Make sure the most important keywords are present in strategically important places like headlines, URL and meta descriptions as you want to make it obvious to Google what your content is about. Do not over stuff your content with keywords as this could work against you. The Google algorithm prefers you write for the end user.
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Keeping your content fresh
Posting more frequently can improve Google rankings. But, if you’re already snowed under, don’t worry. There are plenty of things you can do to keep the search engine warlords happy such as updating or rewriting existing content. Repurposing old work is much easier than starting from scratch and will help improve your SEO strategy. Think about trainers. If they’re old and muddy you might store them away in a cupboard and forget about them. But if you take good care of them and give them new laces, they’re more likely to get the attention they deserve.
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Optimising for Position 0
Ever heard of Position 0? This is where content known as ‘featured snippets’ appears at the top of the search results page, above the normal search results hence the name Position 0. It’s possible for your content to appear as a featured snippet even if your website or blog is on page 5 of the SERPs. But how?
Featured snippets directly answer users’ questions. Don’t forget Google is also trying to show how wonderful they are by delivering the most relevant content be it in written, video or chart form. So, use your keyword research to create questions your users might ask and weave a question and answer response into your content. For example, you could write a header such as ‘What is Content Marketing?’ followed by a keyword rich description.
Knowing the SEO basics is a good place to start. For a reliable Kent SEO agency speak with Whitefish Marketing for a more in-depth SEO strategy for your business.
