Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is often an unknown for many. What is it? What really works? What are keywords? Are they still important? How much should you pay a month? Do you need to use an SEO specialist? Can you trust people to deliver what they promise? Will you get a return on investment (ROI)?
My advice depends on your needs and your situation so if you want any of these questions answered feel free to get in touch. But always use an SEO expert who has been recommended to you by another professional or by someone who has worked with them before.
Disclaimer: I’m not an SEO expert but I do need to have a good understanding of it in order to implement good practice into my designs and website builds. I advise my clients accurately and appropriately in terms of what they should be doing and give them the best marketing strategy for their specific needs. I also often advise my clients on what they can be doing (at little or no cost to themselves) in order to improve visibility, traffic to their site, converting visitors and improving their website’s performance. This is often especially useful for small to medium businesses and start-ups.
First off – basic terminology!
What is Search Engine Optimisation? Put simply – SEO is how well your website performs on search engines like Google.
What are “organic” searches? This is when people find your site without knowing about you beforehand and without paying for online advertising. (E.g. Searching for “Graphic Designer, Cornwall” Should result in someone finding me)
In this blog I will give you 5 things you can do yourself to improve your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). These free SEO tips are bits of advice I regularly give out to clients who work in a wide variety of industries.
1. Add backlinks and internal links
‘Backlinks’ are essentially links going to your website from someone else’s. These are very powerful and give your website credibility and a bit more ‘clout’. These links could be from someone else’s blog, partner websites, social media links, LinkedIn, Google Business page etc. SEO experts should provide a service of creating backlinks for you and will do so in the correct way. For example my SEO expert added me to multiple local business listing sites, which was very effective.
‘Internal links’ are links within your website leading from one page to another. Your pages should always link easily from one page to the next and have a nice user journey flowing throughout. Also when writing blogs you should link to your own pages as I do at the top and bottom of this article.
Cost: £0 – minimal
2. Create a Google business page & get reviews
Most people search via the Google search engine and its Google who create the algorithms. They set the rules for us to try and follow in order to get our websites performing well. Therefore it makes total sense to use their system to play their game. This involves getting Google Reviews, which are excellent for SEO because they provide good regular, updated content about you and your services. They are excellent at proving trust signals to customers but also powerful in terms of giving you an SEO boost. But the only way to have them is to create your Google Business page. This also offers you backlink opportunities and allows you to create a handy digital shop front to your businesses and allows you to be found easily on maps. Also being “verified” on google business should help your ranking. Try and get a minimum of 20 reviews ASAP.
Cost: £0
3. Write blogs / news / case studies / events
Writing blogs (AKA web log / online article) can be time consuming and for busy business owners this goes to the very bottom of the to-do-list (myself included). However I implore you to find time once a month or even every 3 months to write a 300 word blog. These can be about your business, events, your industry or free advice/ tips. But why are they so useful for SEO? Put simply, updating your site with regular content means you’re tapping Google on the shoulder and telling them you still exist and they respond to this but moving you up the listing/ ranking. In addition to this, often your blogs will be full of terms that people are searching for AND are full of content that is relevant to your business and services.
To give this some context – LOADS of people have discovered my website through the blogs I’ve written. That has been the organic route into the website and from there they find my services etc. We often assume people come through the front door (home page) but they absolutely do not!
Cost: £0
4. Separate your service pages
This refers to your website page layout and navigation. Often people make the mistake of putting all their services on a single “Services” page and they write a very short paragraph on each. DO NOT DO THIS. In simple terms – no one ever searches for “Services”. Instead they search for the specific service they need and often where. (E.g. “Web design, Cornwall”) Therefore putting your x6 services under a header of “Services” means you’re hiding it under a generic umbrella. Very poor SEO practice. Instead you should have a separate page per service, each page should be titled appropriately and should be described in a minimum of 300 words in order to rank properly.
Cost: £0 – minimal
5. Highlight your USPs
This is something I’m seeing more and more recently. People might be good at listing what they do and what they offer on their website; and they may have it setup in their headers correctly etc. But their website isn’t performing well and they don’t know why. This is often because the language they are using is too generic and they are using terms, which are heavily over-used. Often huge companies, who are paying hundreds of thousands of pounds on SEO annually, are competing with one another for these popular terms in order to be top dog in their chosen field. Meanwhile small businesses, with little or no SEO budget, can’t possibly compete and neither should they.
Instead of using vague, popular generic terms, smaller businesses should be asking themselves – “What is different about my offering?” If people really think about what makes them or their product stand out and then implement those unique selling points (USPs) into their website language – they will see an improvement in results.
Jewellery for example… “Wedding rings” is incredibly vague. But “Rustic Handmade Cornish Tin Wedding Bands” is far more specific and therefore will get found amongst a HUGELY competitive industry. Know your USPs, shout about them and implement them into your web page headers!
Cost: £0 – minimal
That’s your lot – as mentioned I’m not an SEO expert but I work with them and I’m always happy to recommend the right person for you and your budget. I do give marketing advice whilst providing all design and web services, which includes e-commerce websites. I also work with Shopify.
If you need me to critique your online presence and provide a marketing plan or advice on where you can improve – I’m happy to do so. If you need my help – please do get in touch
