How to optimise your website for better organic search rankings

Every day millions of people use the internet to search for a wide range of products and services – using search engines such as Google and Bing.

For websites, it is imperative that they appear high in the search results to provide their target audience with the solution they’re searching for.

This is why search marketing is a critical strategy for all businesses who want to grow their businesses online.

Maintaining optimised organic search results provides you with a direct link to your potential customer pool. Customers searching for specific items will see your site first in the case of paid searches and showing up within the first 3 pages is essential for your virtual survival in the uniquely competitive world of online advertising.

Generally, customers do not venture beyond the first 2 or 3 pages when searching for what they need.

Image by Firmbee from Pixabay 

What is Search Engine Optimisation?

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a term you’ll hear a great deal in the marketing world. This is the process of making improvements to your website so that search engines can rank your content within their vast information directories.

Essentially, when a customer searches for a specific product or service online, the generalised phrase they put into a search engine is what yields results.

SEO has become a niche all on its own, with marketing experts and content creators all over the world using SEO as their primary selling point to earn your business – when in fact, it’s simple to manage yourself.

Some search marketing terms to be familiar with: 

• SERP – search engine results page. When you carry out a search on Google, Yahoo etc, the first page of results it shows is the SERP.
• Ranking – your position on the SERP. Search engines will put results in order of most relevant to least relevant. You may aim to rank as the first result, or on the first page.
• Organic results – these are the results on the SERP that are not paid for. They appear because the search engine has determined they are relevant. Paid or sponsored results are not organic.

Get to know your keywords and where your business fits in the industry and use that knowledge to help optimise your website for the sake of Google and organic search.

Keyword Research

Keyword research is the process of finding and analysing the search terms that people enter into search engines. These give you insights that will help you develop your marketing strategy. 

For example, you may choose to sell upmarket watches. You could spend hundreds of pounds promoting ‘premium watches’ online – but if your target market is searching for ‘luxury watches’ then it could be time and money wasted.

Photo by NEW DATA SERVICES on Unsplash

How to find the keywords that will get you noticed online

1. Firstly, write down a list of words and topics relevant to your business. For example: watches, men’s watches, luxury watches, premium watches.
   
   
2. Do a Google search of each of these terms and scroll to the bottom of the page to see what similar searches Google recommends. Add these to your list.
   
   
3. Make sure you have a mix of short phrases and longer search terms on your list (for example, ‘mens watches’ and also ‘mens watches with metal strap’.
   
   
4. The next step is to research these terms so we can narrow them down to the most relevant. We do this using keyword research tools…

Keyword Tools

 There are tools available to help you find the best keywords:

• Google Ads will show search volumes and how competitive they are, with a cost per click (CPC) for advertising https://ads.google.com/home/
• Google Trends shows trending subjects which you can search by region https://trends.google.com/
• SpyFu will show you what your competitors’ most profitable keywords and ads are spyfu.com

Now you have a list of relevant keywords that you can use to make your digital marketing much more effective.

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