SEO 101 for your website
What is SEO? Is it hard? How can I do well for SEO?
A client once asked me: ‘Would anyone design a website without keeping SEO requirements in mind?’
I was momentarily stunned, as I’ve met designers who didn’t have SEO requirements ready when designing a website.
Today, I’ll talk about what SEO is, and what you can do to make your website SEO-friendly.
What is SEO?
SEO, short for Search Engine Optimisation, is all about improving your website’s (company.com) or webpage’s (company.com/website) ranking on search engines.
And we aren’t just talking about Google. Since the word here is ‘Search Engine Optimisation’, SEO applies for anything that involves a search engine, not just any other search bar. Whether it’s Bing, Yahoo, GoGoDuck, or even eCommerce platforms like Lazada and Amazon, SEO comes into play.
Is SEO difficult?
The truth is, it isn’t.
If you’re already running a site, you’re practically doing SEO every day. For example, creating a job post and linking it back to your website (company.com) counts as SEO. So does posting a picture on Pinterest with your company account.
Today, search engines like Google monitor almost all content activity online. And when it comes to optimising SEO, it isn’t all about building links, it’s about creating relationships between them.
So how can I get ahead in the SEO game?
Want to climb the search rankings? Here are a few SEO tips:
- Create social media accounts, whether it’s a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, or Dribbble account
- Get listed on directories such as Yellow pages or Google Business
- Create job posts on platforms such as Glintz and JobStreet
- Contribute guest posts on other platforms
- Answer queries on forums such as Quora, sharing your company name and website
The list goes on… but simply executing the above will significantly improve your website reputation and domain ranking (DR).
SEO for web designers
Are you currently in the midst of designing a new website? If yes, you might find some of these SEO guidelines useful:
- Keywords: Use your primary or most important keywords in headings where possible. For secondary keywords, try limiting them to 5 to 10 keywords.
- Meta title, meta description, and featured image: Check that these are all optimised. For example, a great meta description entices searchers to click when your page shows up as a search result.
- Load times: Your content should load fast. If you intend to leverage SEO as a core means to generate leads, minimise the use of animation as they could slow down your site.
- Blogs and frequently updated content: Thinking of updating your blog regularly? If yes, put your blog on the homepage. By doing this, search engines can easily detect that your site’s content is refreshed frequently, which will help your rankings
- Company, service, and product descriptions: Spend a little more time working on these descriptions so they are genuinely useful and relevant to your audience. This will help you rank more organically.
Like to know more, check out this post on technical SEO.
Some examples like agoda, tripadvisor, etc etc
Would having more content improve my ranking?
Yes and no.
Over the years, search engines have become more intelligent at differentiating between useful and spammy content. Today, Google is smarter at telling whether your content is relevant, and if it addressing what users are searching for.
If you put out lots of content that appears spammy instead of helpful, it isn’t going to help your SEO. That’s why blog posts have become more effective at raising rankings, compared to a company homepage.
Don’t believe me? Take a look at these examples:
Example 1, 2, 3
You can see how the Top 3 results are largely blog posts. And yes, it’s because they’ve been created to answer very specific queries.
You can see how the Top 3 results are largely blog posts. And yes, it’s because they’ve been created to answer very specific queries.
That’s it for this post. In subsequent posts, I’ll continue to share more simple SEO tips that will take your site further.
Need dedicated support for your SEO needs? Here at Oats — a new content marketing agency in Singapore, we have the expertise to help you stay ahead.
