Stand out from the crowd: Ten tips for using search-engine optimisation (SEO) to boost your business
James Brewster from Dentsu X explains how companies can use search-engine optimisation (SEO) to deliver new customers and drive business growth
The coronavirus pandemic has only served to increase the emphasis that businesses should place on selling online. But in a crowded e-commerce marketplace, ensuring your company stands out on the internet is vital.
Today’s consumers place a huge reliance on online searches across a variety of devices and platforms to help them solve problems and satisfy their needs. Research shows that almost three-quarters of people search online even before making offline purchases, while global market leader Google registers two trillion searches every year.
A business that can optimise its web presence to put itself at the front of the queue when potential customers are looking for a specific product or service stands a much greater chance of success.
Here are our top ten tips for making the most of SEO.
1. Know your audience
Audience analysis and keyword data enables businesses to learn more about the kind of people who might be looking for the product or service they offer. The company can then tailor content on their website to cater for these searches and drive engagement.
2. Understand search trends
Knowing what times of the day, week, month or year that people tend to carry out specific keyword searches can be very helpful in guiding a business’s strategy for publishing content or carrying out activity on social media, for example.
3. Take advantage of online tools
Services such as Google Search Console offer businesses free insights into keyword data and wider search data, as well as training videos. To take advantage, simply register your business with Google.
The Keyword Generator from Ahrefs provides up to 150 keyword ideas for any seed keyword, along with data on how often these searches are made.
4. Ensure your technical basics are in place
Ensuring that your website is set up to respond to the bots sent out by search engines known as search crawlers is a crucial building block of SEO. This means using the back-end of the website to give pages titles as well as meta descriptions so that your site shows up on relevant consumer search results.
5. Get your internal linking right
Using links on pages on your own website to other parts of the site doesn’t just make it easier for customers to navigate your content, it is also a vital part of allowing crawlers to discover all the information on your website.
Without these internal links, some of your pages may be ignored when it comes to search results which could mean a missed sales opportunity.
6. Create a great mobile experience
Google prioritises the mobile version of your website over the desktop site when it comes to compiling search rankings, so it’s vital to check your site works optimally on phones and tablets. Google offers a free testing tool so you can check this is the case.
7. Create content to match the customer journey
The information on your website should cater for potential customers at different stages of the purchase funnel: this will range from simply raising awareness and educating consumers about the products and services you offer, to lead-capturing in the case of people who are now ready to make a purchase.
8. Demonstrate expertise
The content you post on your website is an opportunity to build trust in your brand and establish your authority on a particular subject. Make sure the content on your site is created by people with the right levels of expertise and writing skills.
9. Set up a listing on Google My Business
Many consumers will be looking for information about products and services that are local to them, which means it is crucial your business has a local presence on Google. This will give you a virtual storefront with information such as opening hours, photos and customer reviews. Visit the Google business page for more information.
10. Track your progress
Services such as Google Analytics can help you monitor a number of key performance indicators (KPIs) relating to the searches that are driving web users to your website, while also providing information about how long visitors spend on your site and even how quickly your pages are loading on people’s devices or computers.
You can watch James Brewster’s full webinar for more information.
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