Search engine optimisation is a multi-faceted practice. It requires a mix of technical skills and understanding, as well as the ability to write good, relevant content. That said, it’s our view that too much time is spent on the tech and not enough on the content. for good SEO, getting the balance between tech and content right is crucial.
Since Google’s Hummingbird update in late 2013, their search algorithms are more intelligent than ever and can no longer be easily manipulated by SEO tricks. Hummingbird introduced ‘natural language processing’, which helps Google better understand what searchers are seeking, and points them towards original and more relevant content rather than websites that simply contain some of the keywords the searcher has typed. SEO can be simple to master if you get the content right.
Understand Your Customer and What They Want
Your content is for your customers so make sure you understand what they want to read. Be attentive to your customers in every way possible. What sort of person is your ideal customer? Create a persona and write content with them in mind, and your ideal customers’ searches will lead them to your business.
Where does SEO come into this? A major part of SEO is keywords. Keyword use strategy should be woven into the fabric of a content marketing strategy. Don’t just stuff keywords in for the sake of it. Use Google Keywords to research what your customers are searching for and base your content around these words and phrases. Keywords should be part of well-written, targeted content that will grab the attention of your customers.
Make Content Easy For Your Customers To Find
It’s essential that the content on your website is organised in a logical way. The longer a customer stays on your site, the better. You need to make it easy for them to find what they’re looking for and more. Your landing page is the most important as it’s the first thing the customer will see when they click on the link to your website in their search results. Make it relevant and engaging, and include links to other parts of your site to encourage customers to explore further.
Make Content Easy For Google To Find
Google uses this little character, the Googlebot, to crawl and index websites.
There are a number of ways you can make sure Googlebot quickly finds and indexes your site’s content, encouraging more traffic from Google search:
- Make sure you have a Google account to make the most of features such as Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools. You can create a sitemap for your website and submit it to Google’s Webmaster Tools. This will tell Google when new pages have been added and how often to check back for changes on specific pages.
- Add links to your social pages and share via statuses or tweets. The more places your website links can be found, the more chance Googlebot has of finding it quickly.
Regularly analysing your SEO content to see what’s working and what isn’t is vital to successful marketing. Simply tweak what’s not working and do more of what is. To discover more about SEO and content marketing and how it could work for your business, get in touch with us today.
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