Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a term used widely in the digital world and refers to the optimisation of web content to rank higher in search engines.<\/p>\n
The three big letters seem to carry a lot of weight and scare many off into paying thousands of dollars a year on expensive \u2018improve your rankings\u2019 packages often for nothing.<\/p>\n
Understanding the basics of organic SEO will likely be the most important bit of information you can learn.<\/p>\n
Organic SEO is the natural optimisation of content and webpages based on the presumption that:<\/p>\n
The web is full of SEO \u2018review tools\u2019 and content that is will not help your SEO one bit. Moreover, many of the suggestions out there can harm your page ranking.<\/p>\n
Key is to understand that no one knows the exact algorithm or each search engine and definitely would not be selling it to you if they did. Your SEO journey takes time, following good practice and ultimately simply following these simple tricks and tips.<\/p>\n
Taking the above into consideration we put a lot of weight on the user\u2019s experience. Most of you have heard the term UX design (user experience) and the importance of providing online presences that are user friendly.<\/p>\n
User experience not only refers to design, but the complete look, feel, message, and quality of the entire website and content you wish to rank for.<\/p>\n
Focusing less on optimisation vs. providing relevant, easy to read, fun and engaging content and experiences to your users will be the biggest part of the optimisation process.<\/p>\n
Just in case it\u2019s not clear enough- information rich, quality, easy to read and purely awesome content is the winner hands down.<\/p>\n
Write better headlines for your content by following our guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n A good way to gauge your user\u2019s experience with your site and engagement with your content is your bounce rates.<\/p>\n There are cases where a site has only one page and other circumstances where your bounce rates will be higher, but for the majority the bounce rates are a good indication of success or failure.<\/p>\n The majority of the below points are considered best practice and not guaranteed to get your content ranking higher. Nonetheless, these are what you could consider the foundations to SEO and should become second nature.<\/p>\n Most content management systems (CMS for short) allow you to insert custom page titles and meta descriptions per page or post. Use this space and customise each page\u2019s titles and descriptions focusing on making it relevant and attractive to users.<\/p>\n Get it right with practice and take time writing good quality relevant titles and descriptions that will stand out in search engines.<\/p>\n Note: Google wants you to do this, however; will often serve a different title and description based on the user\u2019s search query. This happens more so with long tail search queries.<\/p>\n Avoid stuffing too many keywords and links in your content. This goes back to the user experience point and when you write content make sure it reads well.<\/p>\n Use your headings to segment your content to subjects knowing that readers skim and don\u2019t always read. Use bold sparingly- the days of using bold on your keywords is dead. Instead use bold purely to draw attention to a specific point.<\/p>\n Write less, use simple language and write copy that is purely for the enjoyment of your readers. This will help keep the structure clean. A good way to enforce this is to write on a word processor and print the document. If it looks good on print and easy to read then it\u2019s good for the web.<\/p>\n Use images to compliment your message. People love images, and as the saying goes, \u2018an image speaks a thousand words\u2019. Google and other search engines are becoming more lenient with sites using images in their design as well as to compliment your message.<\/p>\n If you use images remember to utilise the \u2018alt tag\u2019 which is basically a description of the image. Again good practice is writing descriptive alt tags that are meant for a situation when the image cannot be viewed and only the description displays.<\/p>\n Good link structure is a very important part of your organic SEO strategy. Not only does it help users find other relevant content on your site but also passes on \u2018link juice\u2019. You will notice that many of the larger sites like Mashable\u00a0<\/a>use many internal links to their other relevant content that makes a user click through to read other interesting articles.<\/p>\n This is a great strategy and helps get your bounce rates down which we will cover later.<\/p>\n Another very important part of your link strategy is to link to other powerful blogs. You might be thinking \u201cthat makes no sense\u201d but research has shown that this is favourable to your page rankings and additionally you might get the favour returned.<\/p>\n NOTE: do not stuff your content with links. Again look at your page from a user\u2019s perspective. Less is more and just a few links in the right place, linking to the right content will work miracles for your site. Overdo it and you cheapen the content and could be penalised.<\/p>\n Remember, your content posted will already have links to other parts of your page. This includes the main navigation menu, side bars, widgets, and footer links. Use links sparingly in your content and always ask yourself if it adds value. If not then don\u2019t bother.<\/p>\n This is different to your on page link structure and refers to keeping your site easy to navigate for users.<\/p>\n Make sure your URLs are tidy and use a good structure i.e.<\/p>\n Yourdomain.com\/first-level-page\/second-level-page\/third-level-page\/<\/p>\n This not only makes it easier for search engines to navigate your site but as you will see from the example; it adds a hierarchal structure to your site.<\/p>\nSEO Basics<\/h3>\n
Page Titles and Descriptions<\/h3>\n
Content structure<\/h3>\n
Images and alt tags<\/h3>\n
Links (internal structure)<\/h3>\n
Tips when linking content:<\/h3>\n
\n
URLs and site structure<\/h3>\n