Rising to the top!

So you’ve got your new website but still haven’t had a single enquiry?

You’ve debated design to death, content to kingdom come, and you’ve got calls to action that no one could ignore! Great! You go onto Google, type in your business and… nothing…

It’s all very well having a shiny new website built, but if no one is going to find it then what’s the point! It would be like spending your entire annual marketing budget on a TV advert and not buying any airtime to show it to the world! If no one can find your website, then it doesn’t matter how shiny you make it; no one will give a damn what you do!

“It would be like spending your entire annual marketing budget on a TV advert and not buying any airtime to show it to the world!”

Below are 10 great tips for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). It’s time to get your website found!

1. Check out what all your competitors are doing. What words and key phrases are spread across the pages of their websites? If your target audiences are the same and they are above you in Google, then this is a great place to start.

2. Carry out keyphrase research. It’s important to know what people are actually searching for. Back up your competitor research by ensuring that you’re targeting the words that your prospective client will actually put into Google in the first place.

3. Assess the level of competition. This is an important part of the research and planning stage of any SEO campaign. You need to find a balance between the keyphrases that people are searching for the most, and the keyphrases that have less competition. Getting it wrong in either direction can be fatal; it can cause you to get stuck behind companies that have been there for years (and will continue to be there for several more!) or cause you to spend your time on a keyphrase that nobody searches for.

4. Do not try and trick the search engines. Google knows your tricks, they can spot your tricks, and they won’t just ignore you, they will push you further down the listings! The best way to get found is to simply provide great content.

5. Be clear and focused in your content. It really is best to provide great content. That being said don’t overdo it. There is no point writing for the sake of writing; make your point and stop. Give people the information they need to move on to the next stage; just enough is perfect!

6. Write naturally. This really does lead on from point number 5, but its so important that I’ve given it its own number! Don’t keep repeating keywords. Google will take repetitive content as a sneaky trick and penalise you for it. The search engines will know what you mean from all the words you use. If you go to Google and search for insulin, for example, it will also look for words such as blood sugar, diabetes etc. Don’t take Google for granted; its more clever than you think!

7. Go beyond the content! Great content is key to getting found in the search engines. However everything else can also help to speed you on your way. Make your pages load fast, don’t have broken links, optimise your images. It all counts. Not only will Google like your site more, but so will your potential customers!

8. Create content that people will link to. As well as the content on your own site, it is important to link to other content relative to your business. You don’t have to have many links, but they have to be of good quality. Make sure that anywhere you link to is completely relevant to the topics your talking about, and you’re good to go!

9. Create content that others will ‘share’. Social media plays a big part in SEO these days. Google only takes social media so seriously because it can understand that it will only be so long before any given topic is covered on social media. Be social yourself and engage with your audience. Its about listening as much as it is talking!

10. Get advice if your rankings have ‘bombed’. Like anything technical, if something was working, and now its broken, its best to seek professional advice. If you’re ill, you go to the doctors. If your car breaks down, you take it to the garage. If your SEO positions take a rapid dive, its definitely time to go see that SEO specialist. Its possible that you may need to clean up ‘bad links’ or that Google believes you are trying to cheat. Whatever the problem there is always a way around it, through it, under it or over it!