The Ultimate Guide to Boosting Your Sales Using SEO
Need help understanding what SEO is and how you can use it to increase leads and sales? Look no further as we look to break down SEO and show you how to utilise it!
What Is SEO?
SEO stands for 'Search Engine Optimisation'. SEO is the process of continually improving (optimising) your website and its content to improve your search rankings on Search Engines Result Pages (SERPs), particularly on popular Search Engines such as Google.
These rankings on SERP are where your website appears organically for keywords and phrases entered on Search Engines. The higher you are able to rank your website keywords and phrases linked to your business the more visitors your website will receive.
SEO and the undertaking of an SEO marketing campaign aim to improve organic traffic to your website. This is not traffic via paid campaigns such as Pay Per Click, but rather visitors who have found your SERP and clicked your link from there.
Not on the first page of Google? 95% of traffic doesn't make it past the first page.
Types of SEO
There are three types of SEO available:
On-Page SEO: is the optimisation of web pages and content for search engines. Common optimisations include content relevance & structure, URL structure, Title tags and internal linking.
Off-Page SEO: is the process of link & citation building, PR, brand building and the use of social media. Off-page SEO is all about building trust and authority in your space.
Technical SEO: is a form of On-Page SEO, however, this is concentrated around the performance of the website. Technical SEO improvements come in the form of speed improvements, codebase improvements and sitemaps.
Which Search Engine Should You Prioritise SERP Rankings For?
Google of course! Over 90% of daily search queries are entered into Google each day, far outperforming other Search Engines such as Bing and Yahoo.
You should aim to appear in the top 3 rankings on Google for your chosen keywords. These 3 rankings receive approximately 70% of the organic traffic.
How Does SEO Work?
Google’s mission is to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”. In order to do that, it needs to know what information is out there. That starts with Googlebot, Google’s web-crawling software.
Googlebot visits web pages and adds them to its index when they are found. This process is called crawling the web. More than half a trillion websites have been indexed by Google, including this one.
When people search for keywords related to the information they are looking for, the search engine shows the most relevant results from its huge catalogue of trillions of web pages.
How to do SEO Keyword Research?
“Be original, show off your style, and tell your story.”
Start with Brainstorming: Brainstorming is a great way to start your keyword research. Think about your product or service and all the related terms that you can use to describe it. Make a list of all the words and phrases that you can think of.
Analyse Your Competitors’ Keywords: Analysing your competitors’ keywords can give you valuable insights into the keywords they are targeting. Identify their most successful keywords and use them as a starting point for your own research.
Use Google’s Keyword Planner: Google’s Keyword Planner is a great tool for researching keywords. Enter the terms you brainstormed and the Keyword Planner will provide you with data about how often those terms are searched for and how competitive the terms are.
Look for Long-Tail Keywords: Long-tail keywords are keyword phrases that are generally more specific and have less search volume than more generic terms. These keywords may be more difficult to rank for, but they can also be easier to convert, as they are typically more specific than generic terms.
Monitor Your Rankings: Once you have identified a set of keywords to target, monitor your rankings to see how your pages are performing. This will help you determine which keywords are most successful and which ones need to be adjusted or replaced.
Where to Include your Keywords?
When coming up with your SEO keyword strategy you should also give some thought as to where your keywords will be located. We suggest using the following SEO keyword locations:
Page Titles: The title of your page should include your primary keyword, as this is one of the first places that search engines look for keywords.
Headings and Subheadings: Headings and subheadings are important places to include your keywords, as they provide structure to your content and make it easier to read.
Body Text: Your body text should include your primary keyword and related terms, as this will help search engines understand the topic of your page.
Image Alt Text: Image alt text is a great place to include your keywords, as it allows search engines to index the images on your page.
URL: Your URL should include your primary keyword, as this will help search engines understand the topic of the page.
How to Optimise Content for Search Engines?
You should complete the following to optimise content for search engines:
Use the Right Keywords: Make sure that you include the right keywords in your content. Identify the most relevant keywords and make sure they are used throughout your content.
Write Quality Content: Quality content is essential for SEO. Make sure your content is well-written, informative and engaging.
Optimise Your Title Tag: Your title tag should include your primary keyword and related terms. This is one of the most important factors for SEO, so make sure it’s optimized correctly.
Use Internal Links: Internal links are important for SEO because they help search engines understand the structure of your website. Make sure to include relevant internal links in your content.
Optimise Your Meta Descriptions: Meta descriptions are important for SEO as they provide search engines with an overview of your page’s content. Make sure to include your primary keyword in your meta description.
Use Structured Data: Structured data is important for SEO as it helps search engines understand the content of your page. Make sure to add structured data to your content to help search engines understand the content better.
How to Build Links for SEO?
Link building for SEO is the process of acquiring hyperlinks from other websites to your own in order to improve search engine rankings. Obtaining links from other websites to your own, helps search engine algorithms to understand that your site is authoritative and relevant to a certain topic, which in turn can help improve rankings for your website. Link building is an important part of a comprehensive SEO strategy, as it can help to increase the visibility of your website and drive more traffic.
To build links back to your website you should:
Create high-quality content.
Reach out to influencers and other websites in your niche.
Guest posts on other websites.
Participate in forums and discussion boards.
Connect with other bloggers in your field.
Submit your website to directories.
Leverage social media platforms.
Run an email outreach campaign.
Use broken link-building strategies.
Share content on social bookmarking sites.
Find out more about improving your SEO by building links.
What Tools & Software to Use for SEO?
Tools and software can be incredibly useful for SEO because they can help automate certain processes, provide insight into what competitors are doing, and allow you to track and measure your results. Automation tools can help you identify and fix broken links, crawl your website to find and fix errors, and keep track of keyword rankings. Analysis tools can help you understand how your content is performing and what changes you should make to improve it. Tracking tools can help you monitor your progress and measure the success of your SEO efforts. Also, utilising software can help you optimise your website and create content that will be more effective in reaching your target audience.
Here are the tools and software we advise using to support your SEO strategy:
Google Search Console: This is a free service provided by Google that helps you track and optimize your website’s performance in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Google Analytics: This is a free service provided by Google that helps you track and measure website traffic, as well as analyse user behaviour.
Ahrefs: This is a paid tool that helps you track keyword rankings, backlinks, and other website performance metrics.
SEMrush: This is a paid tool that helps you monitor and optimize your website’s performance. It provides keyword research, website audit, and other SEO-related features.
Moz Pro: This is a paid tool that provides keyword research, backlink analysis, and other SEO-related features.
Yoast SEO: This is a free plugin for WordPress that helps you optimize your website for SEO.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider: This is a free tool that helps you audit your website’s technical SEO performance.
Ubersuggest: This is a free tool that helps you monitor keyword trends and provides keyword suggestions.
How Does Social Media Link to SEO?
Social media can help SEO in multiple ways. Posting and sharing content on social media platforms helps to increase brand visibility and build a following. This can lead to more visitors to your website and more opportunities to generate inbound links from other websites. Additionally, social media can help to increase the authority of your website by providing more backlinks from other websites. Finally, social media can help to increase the ranking of your website by improving your domain authority, as well as by providing direct traffic to your website.
How to Optimise Mobile SEO?
As more searches are now completed on mobile than desktop, it is important to ensure the mobile version of your website is optimised for SEO. Many web developers have begun to suggest designing websites mobile first. Here's why we think your should be conscious about optimising your mobile website:
The Majority of Searches Now Come from Mobile Devices: Mobile searches on Google now account for more than half of all searches. This means that if your website isn’t optimized for mobile, you’re missing out on a huge portion of your potential traffic.
Mobile Friendliness is a Ranking Factor: Google uses mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor, which means that websites that are mobile-friendly will rank higher in mobile search results.
Mobile Users Are More Likely to Convert: Mobile users are more likely to take action (such as making a purchase) when they visit a website that is optimised for their device.
Mobile-Friendly Sites Provide a Better User Experience: Mobile-friendly websites are easier to navigate, load faster, and are more user-friendly. This can result in higher engagement rates, more time spent on the site, and higher conversion rates.
SME Geek advises on completing the following to improve the mobile version of your website for SEO:
Optimise your content for mobile: Make sure your content is easy to read, with short sentences and paragraphs. Use larger font sizes to make sure your content is legible on smaller screens.
Optimise your mobile website for speed: Mobile users expect fast loading times, so make sure your page loads quickly. Compress your images, minify your code, and use a content delivery network (CDN) to speed up delivery.
Optimise your mobile website for usability: Make sure your website is easy to navigate on a mobile device. Use larger buttons and input fields, and make sure your menus are easy to use.
Use mobile-friendly structured data: Structured data helps search engine crawlers understand your website’s content, and can help your website show up in Google’s mobile search results.
Improve your page titles and meta descriptions: Make sure your page titles and meta descriptions are optimized for mobile devices.
Make sure your website is mobile-friendly: Use Google’s mobile-friendly test to make sure your website is optimized for mobile devices.
Make sure your website is secure: Make sure your website is using HTTPS
Does SEO Lead to Increased Leads?
With search engines, people find information long before they're ready to talk to you. So you have to put that information out there, and help them to find it easily.
In the old days, customers found information through a door-to-door salesman or cold calls; now, they use Google and Bing to search for what they need. That means marketing has changed forever.
Inbound marketing works
Google AdWords costs money, so most companies use SEO to get leads for free. When you rank high in Google searches, your company gets a lot of traffic from people who want what you have to offer. That’s ideal for lead generation, because when searchers follow links back to your site, you have the chance to convert them to leads, and later make sales. Your website is one of your best lead-generation tools, and SEO funnels traffic to that tool. The better you get at SEO, the more traffic—and more leads—you’re likely to attract.
Marketing is changing fast
Cold calling doesn’t work anymore and people tend to block or ignore ads. That means that relying solely on paid traffic isn’t a good strategy. Instead of marketing at people, you need to make it easy for them to find you when they need you or already be at the forefront of their minds. Put out informative, engaging and shareable content that keeps answers to questions people have and helps them solve their problems. Over time this will build trust with people and keep them coming back.
Knowing Your Audience
Knowing your audience is important for SEO because it helps you to target the right type of content for your website. By understanding your target audience, you can create content that is optimized for the right keywords and phrases, as well as content that appeals to your target audience. This helps to improve your website’s visibility in search engine results, as well as your overall ranking. Additionally, by understanding your audience, you can create content that resonates with them and ultimately helps to increase conversions.
Our SEO Insights
Here are SME Geek's SEO insights:
There's Increased competition: With many businesses forced to close their physical doors, many have shifted their focus to digital channels, leading to increased competition for organic search engine rankings. The longer you wait to step up your SEO game, the harder and costlier SEO is going to be for your business.
Longer content: With more people working from home and spending more time at home than ever before, people are spending more time reading content. As a result, content that is longer and more detailed is becoming more important to rank well in search engine results.
Freshness of content: Search engines are now giving more weight to content which is up-to-date and relevant to the current situation.
Local SEO: With many businesses now offering online services, local SEO strategies have become even more important. This means optimising websites for local searches and using local keywords to target potential customers in the area.
Voice search: As people are spending more time at home, voice search is becoming increasingly popular. This means optimizing for voice search by using natural language and creating content that is easy to read aloud.
Are you ready to step up your SEO game and take your business to higher ground? Get in touch today for a no-obligation chat.