How To Get Found! The Mysteries of SEO revealed! (Part 1 of 3)
‘SEO’, that often talked about term that website builders and online marketers insist is super important. ‘SEO’, that magical pot of gold that you know you most probably need1, but you’re a little hazy on the details. Let Web-Sta ‘go behind the curtain’ and reveal a little of the magician’s magic for you. Let us give you some clear insight into why SEO is so important, and why you definitely should be investing in expert assistance if you want to be successful in this area of your web presence.
At some point you undoubtedly asked ‘What does SEO stand for?’ and were given an answer along the lines of ‘It stands for ‘Search Engine Optimisation’. It’s what you need if you want to rank highly on Google.’ Which gets you kind of pointed towards understanding, but not quite there. If you type ‘what is search engine optimisation?’ into Google, one of the dictionary definitions that pops up is ‘the process of maximising the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine’. Which takes you a little bit further in understanding, but doesn’t answer arguably the most important question of all:
‘How does a website become search engine optimised?!’
Ranking highly on Google and other search engines is a good thing, it leads to more exposure and often higher sales. It’s what the majority of website owners want… But how does it work?
There are essentially 3 main elements to the magic of ranking well on Google (or any other search engines). Today we will look at the first one:
- Key Phrases
In the first step of determining a website’s search ranking, Google analysis the most frequently used words and phrases on your page.
This is why it’s incredibly important to get clear on the key terms your customers are using when they’re looking for you. While you can definitely come up with some of these yourself, it’s incredibly valuable to have help in this area. Here at Web-Sta, we specifically research key phrases that are relevant and useful for your business and industry. Sometimes the closer you are to a business, the easier it is to assume knowledge and connections from the general public that aren’t as general as you may think. We offer a little broader perspective.
For example, you might be an environmentally friendly cleaning company based in Brendale named ‘The Green House’. You chose the word ‘green’ because, like a lot of people, you associate it with being environmentally friendly. You may use the word ‘green’ a lot in your website content. However, you may have completely overlooked the word ‘eco’, which is a common search term for environmentally conscious consumers. You may also have completely left out the phrase ‘environmentally friendly’ because using the word ‘green’ seemed so obvious! You may also barely mention your location, which is a key element in an in-person service such as cleaning.
Without the clear use of quality key phrases, your ‘green’ cleaning business website may just end up getting a lot of dud hits from people from Sweden looking for green coloured houses, or retirees in California looking for structures to grow their tomatoes in! Seems a bit silly, but it’s what happens.
To recap: To rank highly on search engines, your site needs to use key phrases that your target market regularly use when searching for products or services like yours. Expert help and/or extensive research is pivotal in uncovering the key phrases that your business needs.
When you know the key phrases for your business, you need to use them on your site. A lot. Not sure how to do that effectively? We’ll cover that in our next post.
In the meantime, there’s time for you to get really clear on your key search phrases, and make sure they feature on your site.
– If that sounds all too much for you, or you’d really just like some expert support, Web-Sta are key search phrase experts and help hundreds of businesses with their SEO. And, the best bit? Web-Sta are specialists in search engine optimised content creation, which means we can write ALL of your content for you! Get in touch to learn more about the fully optimised, customised service we offer, and how we can get your business to the top of the Google ladder.
1 As there are many different possible purposes for a website, a small minority of websites don’t focus on SEO, or particularly need it. We’ll cover website types and purposes in a separate post. We’re also really happy to have a no-obligation discussion with you about your website’s purpose and how we can help achieve your desired outcomes.