WHAT DO I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION?

When a prospective customer searches for your type of business, what are the chances of them finding you on the first page of Google? Are the search engines able to find your site easily? If you’re not getting the results you want from your website, what can you do to boost your search rankings without spending a fortune on optimisation?

Recent surveys focusing on search engine usage have shown that more than 60% of internet users click on a link that appears on the first page of their search results. Around 90% will venture as far as the third page, with just a handful choosing to go beyond. If you’re in business, this means one thing: to stand the best chance of being found by prospective customers you need to appear on the first page of search results for the major search engines. Or at least to appear somewhere on the first 3 pages.

One of the most effective, proven methods to achieve strong search engine rankings is to publish frequent content to your website in the form of articles relating to your business or industry.  This serves 2 primary functions: it helps raise awareness of your business, positioning you as a serious player in your field. Secondly, if your ‘article’ pages are getting picked up by the search engines, it will vastly increase your chances of being picked up in an online search. 

As a general rule, search engines love to see the following:

• plenty of relevant keyword-rich content that is frequently updated
• reciprocal links to and from your site
• page titles and headings that relate to the content of your site

If your website includes the above ingredients, the likelihood is the major search engines will keep on coming back for more.  This free guide talks you through the essentials of optimising your website to attract traffic.