3. Introduction
Search engines have become our prime resource for individuals searching for a business,
product, service, person or information. Over the years, people have changed their
purchasing habits both in their personal and business lives. For many the internet has
become like a third arm and as our dependence on it continues to grow, so does its
power.
What does this mean for businesses? It means accessibility is key, as the internet
reliance consumes us, the importance of being found for businesses increases. Every
business needs to adapt and embrace the client searching landscape, particularly B2B
companies who lag behind their B2C counterparts.
Businesses no longer need to spend thousands of pounds on advertising , invest in large
sales teams, or conduct a mirage of meetings. Every business with a website has the
potential to get found by more clients online through search engine optimisation (SEO)
and inbound marketing.
This best practise guide offers an insight into search engine optimisation, commonly
referred to as SEO.
4. Introduction
SEO
On-page Off-page
On-page SEO are all the factors taken
into consideration within your
website which attribute to your
search engine results page (SERP).
Off-page SEO are all the factors taken
into consideration outside of your
website which attribute to your SERP.
5. Search Engine Result Pages
Last year, marketers focused on strategising
which keywords to place across their web
presence in order to increase their SERP. We
witnessed a multitude of companies proclaiming
to propel businesses onto the first page of Google
by using a multitude of techniques.
But the landscape of SEO has evolved, with
relentless changes by Google, its search algorithm
has taken us into a different direction. And whilst
keywords, links, meta descriptions remain
important they now contribute a smaller
proportion to the key ingredients of SERP.
25%
75%
On-page
Off-page
Previous focus on keyword, content and website structure, known as on-page SEO only
accounts for 25% of what actually impacts your position in SERP.
The other 75% is made up of compelling content, news updates, blogs, co-marketing,
social media, link building and PR, more details of which can be found in our guide
Understanding Off-Page SEO.
6. What is on-page SEO?
Search engines used to measure the relevancy of a website based on how many
times a keyword was used within a website. And of course we witnessed an
eruption of webmasters stuffing content with keywords, creating uninteresting,
unfriendly and poor scripted content. These keywords littered the website and
could be found in various prominent places.
KeywordsURL
Page Title
Meta Tag
Description
Page
Heading
Page
Content
7. What is on-page SEO?
Now search engines function differently. Keywords are still vitally important.
However the quality of the content is equally as important, so forget the continual
repetition of the same word, regardless of the quality of the ‘read’.
Search engines are crawling websites for quality written content which is appropriate
and which has connections (links) to other relevant sites. Websites are now being
rewarded for the authenticity of their sites. For B2B companies it’s an opportunity to
showcase expertise, to produce authoritative articles which advise and educate the
reader whilst still incorporating keywords.
It’s also important to update websites regularly with relevant content. Most
established businesses now operate with a content managed section to their website,
which allows for easy instant updates. To cease control of the ability to update your
website is an absolute must in today’s internet world, as search engines check the
frequency of your website, rewarding those who update frequently, pushing them
further up the search page rankings.
9. Key Elements of On-Page SEO
Keywords
Content
Meta
Tags
Meta
Descriptions
Web Map
Links
Updates
Core company information
Regular quality updates
Key Elements to On-Page SEO
10. Keywords
Keywords
Search engines scan and rank your website content based on two key
drivers, relevancy of your website content and authority built through
your website content. So the first step is to identify what keywords are
searched for in relation to what you are selling to ensure the search is
relevant.
There are normally several keywords and phrases being used, you can check this
through the Google Keyword Tool to view the volume of searches. Your descriptions
of products and services should naturally include your keywords. But as the
competitive landscape for most businesses is fierce you’ll need to think laterally
about your keywords. We recommend 2 sets of keywords your core keyword which
are the bedrock of your product/service and lateral keywords which maybe seasonal,
or as a result of external drivers, such as the environment. Let’s take an example of a
double glazing company.
Core
Keywords
Lateral
Keywords
Double glazing
Double glazing offers
Double glazing repairs
Insulation tips
Retaining house heat
Winter heat tips
11. Content
Content
On-page content is an acute component of on-page SEO. Content is
what the search engine crawlers need to associate your page with a
set of keywords and/or key phrases and thus rate your relevancy.
Effective websites which focus on keywords but which retain their target audience
experience as their prime emphasis, will organically build keywords into their
content. Remember your first objective is to generate traffic to your website, the
second objective is to convert those visitors into consumers or clients, you don’t want
your content to dis-engage visitors, there is no point generating thousands of hits a
day if no one is buying from you.
Knowledge about your product or service, insight into your target audience and
creative thinking, should generate a multitude of content ideas upon which you can
build your content strategy, simply writing your content describing your
product/service will not suffice.
ContentEngaging
Useful
Current
Concise
Relevant
12. Meta Tags
Meta
Tags
Meta tags are the official data tags for each web page that are found in
between the open and closing head tags in the HTML code. The most
popular Meta tags are the title tag, meta description, and keyword tag.
These tags alert search engines with relevant information describing the content of
the page, which helps the search engines decide if your website is an appropriate
listing in response to a particular search query.
If your product or service is seasonal, create a page strategy to introduce new
relevant pages. Your website does not need to remain structurally static, change it,
utilise it, prioritise it – own it!
claire@studio10design.co.uk
06 45 AM 20/03/2013
Effective websites
Creating effective websites with an expert team
13. Meta Descriptions & Title Pages
Meta
Descriptions
Title Tags
Title tags and Meta descriptions are two of the most important tags
when it comes to SEO and enticing potential visitors to click through to
your website. A title tag is an HTML tag which contains a sentence of
text describing the contents of its associated webpage.
Meta descriptions are what appear on SERP describing the content of the page being
linked to. While these descriptions are not used by the search engines to determine
relevance, they are used by your visitors to determine said relevancy and entice them
to click – think about when you search!
You almost always read the description of each link before deciding to click, right? Or
at least skim. Make sure you include your keywords and the main call-to-action right
in this description.
14. Website Map
Website
Map
A website map, sometimes referred to as website structure or
navigation, determines how easy it is for your web visitors to find
information, products or services.
Segmentation of your content into bite size chunks allows your web visitor to digest,
decide and move on or move off. It’s absolutely crucial you structure your website
map with the prime focus of producing a user friendly website map. But also
remember the importance of meta tags, page tags and of course the descriptions,
when planning your website map.
User friendly
Number of
pages
Page titles
Page
descriptions
Logical
15. Links
Links
Search engine algorithms rank web pages based on numerous factors.
The basic premise is that a page will show up in search engine results
because the website had mentioned the terms that were being
searched for on the website page. Of course, many websites use the
same keywords on the same page
But in order for search engines to determine how these pages should be ranked, they
take into consideration two major factors:
Links increase the authority and trustworthiness of a page to search engines, which
increases the overall authority of that website. Links help search engines connect the
relevancy of a page with specific keywords - based on the keywords that are used in a
link’s anchor text. Learn more about links in our guide The Truth About Link Building.
Quantity of the
links pointing to
your website
Quality of the
links pointing to
your website
Factors
16. Updates
Updates
Long gone are the days when you wrote your website content and
reviewed 12 months later. However it’s a typical error of many
businesses who invest in the development of a website but fail to
maintain relevancy.
Keeping your website updated with news, information or guidance has a multitude of
benefits for your web visitors giving them a reason to return to your website. But
remember search engines check how often you update your website, the more you
update, the more the check, the higher you will be placed in the SERP.
A growing trend is to outsource website content maintenance, this ensures the site is
updated regularly, regardless of business priorities which can often be a barrier to
consistency of updates. Checking a news section on a website sits within the top 3 pages
checked by prospective clients (B2B) who perceive it as a reflection of a company’s
efficiency and industry insight.
Updates
Search
engines
Return visits
Efficient
19. Summary
There are endless articles, guides and proclaimed experts professing to have all the
answers in positioning businesses on the first page of a search engine such as Google.
There are plenty of SEO companies in UK that can effectively put a plan together for
your business. Obtaining some knowledge into the theory of SEO will place you in a
position of confidence when selecting a SEO or website development company.
What ever road you take towards obtaining a prime search position, don’t let it be to
the detriment of your web visitor experience.
Continually review your keywords by monitoring monthly search volumes and
analysing the source of your website traffic. Plan any seasonal words well in
advance, produce a content, link and distribution strategy. Explore a range of long
tail keywords – think laterally, use some imagination to generate creativity.
Constantly research your market and target audience the more you know, the greater
your insight, which will generate content ideas and mostly importantly engagement
with your web visitors.
20. Summary
One tactic used to quickly thrust your business onto the first page is Pay Per Click
advertising (PPC). But a PPC campaign is only as good as the last cash injection
you pumped into advertising.
Statistics show that nearly 80% of internet users completely ignore sponsored
links in any case, and nearly as many don’t ever go beyond the first page of
results to find what they need on Google.
This is a clear indicator that money will be much better spent on a long-lasting
SEO campaign such as Off-Page activity.
The average internet user in the UK spends almost 40 hours each month
browsing the internet, and these users spend nearly 25% of their disposable
income on internet purchases.
For more guidance refer to our guide, Understanding Off-Page SEO.