10 things you need when it comes to SEO

SEO in 10 Points

Ever wonder how SEO works?  A potential customer always asks how things work, what gets done, what needs to be done at the start, so I thought as I am new I’d share a few things with you.

First of all, the obvious. Organic SEO marketing  isn’t an over night job that pushes your website to the top of Google, there is a lot of details that go into the SEO process, but you know that don’t you! :)

For me and as the new person here the easiest way to explain each step is in 10 simple SEO starter points, as follows:

 

(1) Optimise Around Keywords

Keywords should appear in important on-page elements. This is areas such as the title, headings and image alt text.

The best way to do this is by optimising for the human eye and not a search engine. Yeah, we want to add in keywords we are targeting but if nothing makes sense it won’t work.

(2) Get some Qualified Links

Rather than using complex URLs, use fully qualified links.that ideally are 100% related to what you do.

There is no point in getting a backlink from a Wedding Cake shop website if you clean carpets for a living is there. Think logically and keep natural.

(3) Grow Natural Links

Even now in 2015, Google continues to use natural, quality inbound links as a main ranking factor. Always monitor these links to ensure that they are constantly growing.

(4) Text Over Images

If there is ever a time that you can use text over images then do it! The search engine spiders can’t ‘see’ all of the text on image files therefore they won’t be able to detect all the details and information from the site pages.

(5) Be Mobile Ready

Last year 40% of the organic traffic came from mobile devices. So, it is easy to believe that this percentage has grown and that mobile friendly websites will rank better in Google. Make sure your website is mobile friendly and looks the same on a mobile as it does on a computer!

A great example of this was last week we had a locksmith come in looking for SEO. He said his site was fine, was adament that no On Page SEO was needed and just a few links was what ne needed each month. :)

When we told him that the majority of his clients are locked out, no t on wifi and using a mobile browser – the penny dropped!

(6) Keyword Strategy

A big part of SEO which is an ongoing process is the keyword strategy. It begins with extensive research and continues, it’s the process that essentially never ends.

(7) Web Analytics

Web analytics are a topic involved in SEO where there is so much to talk about. Make sure you have it if you want to improve search engine ranking.

Ensure the analytics are properly set up and monitored regularly to see if the keywords are generating traffic and your site is optimized for them.

(8) Dashes or Underscores in URLs

In URLs, dashes are seen to separate words and could come across looking like they are spam. Underscores are alpha characters and do not separate words. Underscores are the answer when it comes to URLs!

(9) Reported Crawl Errors

If a page has a crawl error, it means Google is unable to access the page. This is why it is important to check the Crawl Errors Report, this can be found in the Crawl section of Google Webmaster Tools/Console.

(10) Analyse Site Traffic

Obviously you will want to see the traffic getting directed to your site, if your site and it should do, has Google Analytics traffic code added you can login anytime to see visitors stats, page view stats, return visitors and if you’re clever keyword positions found within the GWMT integration.