What is... SEO?

Victoria Canham • 30 May 2023 • 2 min read

Introduction

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation and help you to increase organic traffic to your website. That is, traffic that you have not had to pay for. SEO helps your content to rank higher in search engine results, making it more likely that potential leads will find your company and products. The goal is to rank at the top of page 1 of the search engine, without having to pay for ads to do so.

Do I need SEO?

In short, DEFINITELY.

Search engines, whether they are Duck Duck Go, Google, Qwant, Bing whatever, search engines deliver targeted traffic to your site, that is, people who have specifically search for you or your offer. These people tend to be warming leads, people who want what you've got.

If your ideal client types your business or even your name into a search engine and nothing comes up, or your details are buried on page 5, they are unlikely to contact you, because you'll have been pipped to the post by someone else who is ranking higher than you.

But, you should bear in mind that while you want your site to be search engine friendly, you also want your website and your content to be reader friendly.

Guidelines for SEO

SEO is about boosting your search engine visibility in the long term and hopefully reducing your advertising or costs.

You do not need to hire someone to do your SEO for you, if you refer to guides by the search engines themselves, you can find a lot of what you need freely available. e.g. https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide

Here are some of the main tips to support you on your SEO journey:

Key Ranking Factors

There are three main areas referenced by Google as important in SEO to impact your local rankings:

✳️ Relevance- are you writing content that is considered to be relevant to the desired search terms on your website and blogs e.g. are you talking about dogs when you are selling services and products for dogs or are you just referring to brushes? The more specific the terms are to your target audience, the better.

✳️ Distance- where are you and your products or services located in relation to the person doing the search? There's no point in Google showing dog groomers in the Outer Hebrides when you are based in Jersey.

✳️ Prominence- do your people hold you in high regard and know who you are on and off-line?

Use Keywords

✳️ Keywords help search engines identify what your content is about and align it with the words used in the search bar on their platforms.

✳️ Use relevant keywords such as dog groomer or doggy spa.

✳️ Do not over use keywords and make your content repetitive and boring

✳️ Use unique keywords relevant to your content on each individual page of your website so that your pages don't compete with each other for Google's space.

✳️ Use H2 and H3 headings (for example my "Use Keywords heading above is H3) to highlight topics of interest.

✳️ Keep your site accessible by using 'ALT text' on images, which is read aloud by screen readers to help the visually impaired access your site.

Use a Google Business Profile

✳️ Complete your profile with as much detail as possible including all your contact details and opening hours.

✳️ Upload your blogs and some social media posts to your profile with a call to action such as "Book now" or "Learn more" encouraging people visit your website.

✳️ Having a verified local profile also helps people in your vicinity to find you.

✳️ Keep it up to date, so that Google continues to index it when people in your area search for your products and services.

Backlinks and Domain Authority

Domain authority (DA) is the ranking that is applied to a website based on how likely they are to rank on the search engine results page. Your goal is not to reach 100, your goal is to outrank your true competitors. To improve your DA score, you need backlinks from quality sites.

A backlink is created when another website references your company by posting a link to your website on one of their posts. To obtain high quality backlinks, you can ask suppliers and customers to reference your website when you write a relevant article etc.

Meta Data

✳️ Meta data is the short description you see under a website title on the search engine results page, it describes what that page is about and Google will trawl meta data looking for the keywords that the user is looking for.

✳️ Meta data must be kept short, to 156 characters max, so that it is not cut off when the user is reading through the description.

✳️ Do not simply repeat the same sentence in different ways e.g. Plumber in Colchester and plumbing Colchester, the search engines are wise to this tactic and will penalise you.

Conclusion

Look I know these things can seem complicated and overwhelming, but that's why I am here. I can help you to strategise and set up and build your lead magnets and opt-in pages, amongst other things. I am Coach Vicki, and I am a Tech Genie, here to help you focus on the work you love, not on the tech you don't. Book a call now to discuss your requirements.

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Victoria Canham - Your Performance Partner

Victoria is an ICF-accredited certified professional coach, who offers personalised performance coaching. With a background in change management and countless hours of professional coaching training and experience, I made the big switch to full-time coaching in 2020. I know what it is like to suddenly have the rug pulled out from under you while you're busy making other plans, as a result, I now help people like you to bounce back from adversity and major setbacks to emerge stronger and better than ever before. Our clients have transformed from feeling overwhelmed by life's challenges to confident, goal-driven individuals who navigate life's obstacles with ease. They've achieved their personal and professional objectives and embodied peak performance in all aspects of life. You too can experience this transformation. This is your moment. Your chance to take control, to choose growth over stagnation, achievement over inaction. This is your opportunity to prove to yourself that you're not defined by your challenges—you're defined by how you rise above them. Are you ready to transform your life and achieve peak performance?