What are you searching for?
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is often considered a bit of a black art (not black hat – that’s something different – and not recommended). But what is it really?
In simple terms SEO is all about setting up your website so that, when people search for what you do, your site comes high up in the list of options. It’s a combination of:
- Well-written content around your key subjects
- Tagging of images and pages
- Meta-descriptions
And, most important of all, knowing what people type into the search box when they’re looking for the products or services you offer. So for a web services company like mine they might search for:
- Website developer
- Website designer
- App creator
Or would they?
Those terms have millions of people searching for them, so it will be quite hard to push your website up the rankings to compete. But is that really what people type into the search box? Think about what you type in when you’re searching; it’s usually a longer phrase like:
Basic starter website for small business
Or
Budget website design service
Or
Where can I get an app for our sports club?
These are often called ‘long-tail terms’, but they’re important as they’re more likely to match what the right customers for your business are actually searching for.
What are your keywords?
Anyone who has dabbled a bit in keyword generation quickly gets overwhelm at all the possible keywords they could use. You type one or two words into a keyword generator and it spits out thousands of similar phrases.
In experienced hands a keyword generator is a useful tool, but a good place to start is to ask your existing customers or networking contacts what they would search for if they were looking for a business like yours.
At the end of the day it’s a human being that will be doing the typing – so knowing what human beings are likely to type is a bonus!
Having a couple of keywords or key phrases for each page of your website means that the copy and tags can be created to target those. It’s a good place to start.