SEO – Search Engine Optimisation

Do you have a web site which seems to warrant more traffic than it really gets? It is sparkly, polished and tells everyone just how awesome you are. But even so, nobody knocks on your door? Well maybe you need a dollop of SEO (geek speak for Search Engine Optimisation). I don’t pretend I can tell you anything original. But I will try to distill the really nuggetty bits, to give you a pointer in the right direction. This gives me an excuse for the following headline:

4 Steps for Search Engine Optimisation for the Seriously Daunted Web Site Owner

On the web, any page with “[insert number here] steps to do [insert task here]” is like an invitation to fast food. Why should I buck the trend?

Step 1: Set up Google Analytics

Now this step comes in my favourite category: “optional”. Only do this if you are keen to get some sense of Before and After. Some people like to see proof that their efforts have provided a tangible benefit, in which case Google Analytics (GA) can tell you how many visits you are getting day by day. But if you want it, then it’s worth setting it up a few weeks before you make any changes, so you get a proper baseline.

Navigating through GA is not a task for the faint-hearted – zillions of options. But in practice, you generally only want to see the pages under “behaviour”, which gives you a nice graph of how many people visited your site, and specific pages if you drill down for detail.

Step 2: Craft Your Content Text

You’re wise if you don’t take note of the contents of spam, but you may have reluctantly noticed experts in SEO, who have enjoyed diligently browsing your web site (yeah, do you really think they did?). Many of them promise that they can boost you to the number one position on Google. It’s a brave promise eh? Heck, they must be really good at what they do to make such a confident claim.

Well, I am sure that many of these people really are good at what they do. But the brave claim is a fairly empty promise. Unless as your site is not locked behind some digitally-concrete wall, then it already is number one result on a Google search results page. It just depends exactly what you search for. It won’t be hard to cherry pick a few words or phrases which zero in on something very distinctive in one of your pages, even if (in practice) your site is poorly setup for SEO. And these phrases may not be ones that get used by potential customers; That’s why the marketers can guarantee such a promise.

What you really want (of course) is to be found for “proper searches” – searches made by those benighted customers who haven’t ever heard of you, but really should do.

So, if you need some SEO boost, your task is to think like a prospective customer. Make a list of the things you would search for (include synonyms where suitable). Put some effort into wider variations. Then, shoe-horn those word or phrases into your site wording. If you practise natural health in Maintown, make sure your home page mentions Maintown at least three times (but don’t go overboard). And as well as mentioning “natural health”, put in acceptable variants like “holistic therapies” and “alternative health”.

If you have a significant extra sub-speciality, devote a whole page just to that one topic, and pepper that with those phrases. If you make this page attractive enough, it may become a “landing page” – visitors may come from Google directly to this page, rather than first finding your Home page and stepping from there.

Step 3: Fine Tune your Markup

Take your list of words and phrases, and ensure that they are strewn sensibly throughout your site, preferably several times. Not every phrase has to appear on every page, use your discretion and keep the content readable.

Now, this is the bit which might seem too technical. From time to time, Google analyses your site, and collects the significant words & phrases into a clever index. When people search, Google looks through its own index for sites which have the same words as in the visitor’s search string. But not all words count equally. Words which you put in the most noticeable parts are presumed to be the most indicative of the nature of your site. In particular, try and put some of those phrases into HTML headings, (or “H1”, “H2”) where they get more Google “brownie points” than if they stayed in regular text. I recommend you keep it fairly factual, minimise the evaluative terms like “best” and “excellent” which I suspect make no impression on the average jaded surfer.

Most likely, your admin environment or Content Management System (CMS) will allow you to edit the page title and page description. The description is what Google (usually) displays under your title in the search results. You have an opportunity of about 160 characters that can entice your visitor to click on your link. In your CMS, these fields might be called “meta information”. In SquareSpace and Wix, there is a dedicated menu item for each of your pages, which is labelled “SEO”. Surprisingly, WordPress does not automatically create the Meta description, and commonly people use plugins such as Yoast or JetPack.

Step 4: Set up “Google My Business”

Hurray. Another step which is optional. Although this step is not strictly for SEO, you might try exploiting “Google My Business” (GMB). That’s the system which Google offers a little like a replacement for Yellow Pages – you can assign a location (crucial for many business searches), a description, contact details, some choice photos, FAQs, opening hours and special features. It is free to set up, and not too hard. You can add more or less info, depending on how much brain-strain you can accommodate. (If your business has no sensible map location, this option doesn’t make sense for you).

There is a reason that I say this step is not really SEO – paradoxically, it may actually detract from visits to your web-site. If you do GMB well, (especially the phone number), then there can be enough information directly in your GMB listing that the visitor does not need to look any further. She’ll know enough to get to you immediately. But that’s efficient – a great thing, surely?

Finally…

I’ve not given you novel advice – anyone with some SEO experience will start with these tasks before any other changes. Is it easy? Well, you and I have only just met, so I can’t say how it will be in your case. But at least now you may have a bit of a guide.