Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a multifaceted approach aimed at enhancing a website's visibility and improving its ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). It involves implementing various strategies and techniques to increase organic (non-paid) traffic to a website, making it more accessible and relevant to search engines and users alike. While SEO can be a complex and time-consuming endeavour, the benefits it offers are substantial.
For small businesses in Australia, SEO plays a crucial role in their online success. Statistics from the Search Engine People underscore the significance of search engines in the Australian market - with 94% of Australians using search engines to discover local businesses, it is evident that having a well-optimised website is vital to opening the doors to new markets and being found by potential customers.
Here are five simple ways to optimise your SEO:
The first step to optimising your SEO is choosing the right keywords. These are the terms that consumers search for in databases when looking for businesses like yours - whether you’re a builder, a baker or a budding graphic designer there are certain words that are relevant to your industry, and tapping into those can be key. When looking at keywords, it is important to consider your target audience and what terms they are likely to search for. Tools like Semrush or Google Keyword Planner are great resources to help you do this.
Once you have found your top keywords, remembering to use them across your website, such as in the website's title, meta descriptions, headers, and throughout your content and copy is vital for improving your website's visibility, relevance, and overall SEO performance. Actively monitoring and analysing your SEO efforts through tools like Google Analytics allows you to track your website's performance, identify areas for improvement, and refine your strategies accordingly.
Keywords on their own aren’t going to put you ahead in the SEO game, you also need to invest in high-quality content. Your copy should be well-written, informative, relevant to your target audience and keyword-rich, but not keyword-stuffed. Finding a balance between the natural flow of your content and the inclusion of your keywords helps both potential customers and search engines to make the most of your copy.
When writing your content, remember to keep your target audience front of mind - what they are interested in, what they want to know and how they want to digest the information is important. If you’re providing stark factual advice but selling a light-hearted product, you might need to rethink the way that you’re communicating.
Using different types of content and a variety of mediums such images or videos can help to break up your copy and make your website more visually appealing. More than just a pretty picture, visual content can also help to improve your SEO as well as making it more shareable on social media, in turn increasing your brand reach and recognition.
When using images and videos, it is important to have graphics that are relevant to your content - if you own a boat building company, sharing images of people baking cakes probably isn’t the best strategy. Similarly to the use of keywords in copy, images and videos can also be optimised for search engines by adding keywords to their titles, as well as filling in the alt text, which appears in lieu of an image loading properly or assists screen-reading tools to understand the image. This not only increases the saturation of terms on your site but makes it more accessible to those who use additional technologies to help make the most of their online experience.
More and more people are using their mobile devices to search the web, so it is more important than ever to make sure that your website is optimised for mobile devices so that it can be easily viewed and navigated on a small screen.
First things first, ensure that your website is responsive, meaning that it automatically adjusts its layout to fit the screen of the device it is being viewed on. Opening a website on your phone that is just a shrunken version of the web browser is less than ideal. Considering how a phone display varies from a desktop and customising the display for the smaller screen ensures a smoother user experience and can result in a higher chance of sales or conversions.
Content is key, and if it can’t be read on a small screen, you’re already losing out. Making sure that your website's content is easy to read on a small screen can be done through larger fonts, smaller boxes of text and smooth navigation between the various pages.
Linking through to social media as well as having one-click phone and email contact options makes it easy for potential customers to get in touch.
Backlinks are links from other websites to your website, and are a signal to Google that your website is authoritative and trustworthy. You can build backlinks by guest blogging, participating in online forums, and submitting your website to directories. However, it is a case of quality over quantity in the backlink game, so prioritising a few reputable websites and social media accounts is significantly more beneficial than filling a site with links to irrelevant pages.
As well as providing your business’ contact details and website links in an easily accessible and trustworthy way to potential customers, optimising your Google My Business listing by targeting location- and offering-specific keywords, helps you attract nearby customers who are actively searching for local businesses.
While there are a myriad of ways to optimise your business’ SEO, incorporating these 5 tips into your business' digital marketing efforts, can help you establish a strong online presence, drive targeted organic traffic, and gain a competitive edge in your industry. Remember, SEO is an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring, adaptation, and staying up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices.
If you need a hand navigating the SEO landscape, the We Think Digital team is here to help - get in touch today.
