5 Essentials Of SEO in 2014

SEO is essential to every business. In fact, you probably know by now that great SEO gets you more sales. But before learning the different techniques to optimise your site, you need to understand the basics of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

SEO is not just one particular activity. It is a number of activities designed to make a page or website rank higher in search results. Unfortunately, some business owners are so focused on generating leads that they sometimes forget SEO basics that may affect their bottom line.

Website search engine optimisation was developed to create a seamless and satisfying experience for the user. SEO was created to help site owners like you to communicate your intent to search engines so that they can recommend your site for pertinent searches. SEO was not developed for site owners to “cheat” engines.

Unfortunately, black hat SEO techniques have also been created to deliberately manipulate search engine indexes. But – we’ll talk about that later.

So, what are the essentials involved in getting your site higher in search engine results?

• Without SEO, your website is just like a boring infomercial
  If you have links and use paid search and social media but do not have great content, good information architecture, a content management system and infrastructure, your site would look like a boring infomercial where you would go on and on about your product until your visitors just leave. Worse, they might decide to go to your competitors instead.
• Know what search engines look for
  Search engines refer users to websites and content that is most relevant to what the users are looking for. How do search engines know what is relevant?
  • Relevant content is determined by the theme given by the user, the text on a web page and the titles and descriptions that are given.
  • Search engines look for sites that load fast and work properly.
  • Search engines look for sites that have great content that others link to or sites that other authoritative websites cite for available information.
  • Search engines look for sites that look good, are easy to navigate around and do not have a high bounce rate.
  • Search engines look for sites that look secure.
• Know what search engines are NOT looking for
  Don’t waste your time on using black hat SEO techniques because this will hurt your business in the long run. Search engines do not want these:
  • Purchased links
    Google knows that they are not real and will penalise your site.
  • Keyword stuffing
    Search engines can detect overused keywords on your pages.
  • Poor user experience
    Search engines may not recommend a site that has too many ads. You also need to make sure that the user can navigate around safely and easily within your site.
• Focus on your main goals
  You need to ask yourself:
  • What exactly are my goals?
  • Am I just selling impressions or am I really selling what people click on?
  • What is conversion for my business, a lead or a sale?
• Optimise for different channels
  It is important to use keyword strategy on-site but you should also use this on other off-site platforms such as:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Emails
  • Radio, TV and print advertisements

Just remember to be consistent with your keyword phrases within all these platforms. This will help in your branding efforts and will also train users to use specific phrases that you are optimising for.

Use keywords in your URL

Putting keywords that you are trying to rank for, in your URL will also help your overall SEO efforts.

Optimize your site for different types of results

Try creating rich media content like video. It is easier to get a video to rank on the first page than it is to get plain text to rank higher.

Optimise your rich media content so search engines can find it. If you use Flash or PDF, you need to research on the latest best practices so search engines can crawl your non-text content and give your site credit.

Try to learn more about the latest optimization technique – mobile and tablet optimization.

Use metadata

Content on your website should include title tags and meta descriptions.

Your site must have unique meta descriptions and each description should speak to a specific page. Having duplicate meta descriptions in different pages will bring your site nowhere.

Title tags should be unique, too! It would be best if your title appeared as a 4 to 8 word advertisement so as to attract the user to click and read more.

Always follow SEO best practices. Avoid using black hat SEO techniques. Do not skip the basics of SEO as this will prevent you from increasing your sales and may also prevent you from succeeding in your business.

If you need assistance with your SEO, let our search engine optimisation specialist help you. Contact Complete Cloud today.

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