We are always told about the importance of SEO when it comes to website design to help potential customers find your website, increase visibility, drive traffic, and improve the user experience of your website. In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at what SEO is, why it’s important, and how you can achieve it.
What is SEO and Why is it Important?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website in search engine results pages (SERPs) by optimising its content and structure. The goal of SEO is to rank higher in search engine results for relevant keywords and phrases, ultimately driving more organic traffic to the website, increasing the effectiveness of your website conversion.
It is beneficial to undertake SEO optimisation activities as this will improve the user experience of your website by ensuring the pages are crawlable by search engines and that the content is relevant and useful. By using SEO to create more user-friendly websites, this can help to increase user engagement and increase the likelihood of returning users.
SEO is important for a number of reasons, including:
- Increased Traffic: By ranking higher in search engines, your website can receive more traffic and visibility, which can help you reach a wider audience and drive more business.
- Improved User Experience: SEO is about more than just ranking higher in search engines. It’s also about providing a better user experience for your visitors. This includes having a website that is easy to navigate, provides valuable information, and loads quickly.
- Competitive Advantage: With more and more businesses competing for visibility in search engines, having a strong SEO strategy can give you a competitive advantage and help you stand out from the competition.
SEO Top Tips
Now that you understand what SEO is and why it is important to consider when designing your website, you need to know how to approach it. The process of SEO is multifaceted and complex, however by undertaking the following tips, you can drastically improve the search performance of your website.
1. Keyword Research
Understanding the keywords and phrases that people use to search for products or services like yours is the first step in optimising your website. Keyword research will help you identify the words and phrases that your target audience are using to search for information online, and to determine which keywords are most relevant and valuable to your business.
2. Off-page optimization
Off-page optimization involves optimising elements that are not on your website but can impact your website’s ranking, such as building quality backlinks from other websites. Backlinks are an important factor in search engine ranking algorithms as they signal to search engines that other websites consider your content to be valuable and relevant.
3. On-page optimisation
On-page optimization involves optimising the content and structure of your website to ensure that search engines can easily understand what your website is about. This includes optimising the title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, and content of each page to ensure that they are keyword-rich and accurately describe the content of the page.
H1 tags and meta descriptions
We recommend using H1 tags and meta descriptions in particular as an effective on-page optimisation technique to improve search engine visibility.
H1 tags, also known as headings, are used to structure the content on a webpage and indicate the main topic of the page. They help search engines understand the content of the page and its relevance to specific keywords and phrases.
Meta descriptions are short summaries of the content on a webpage that appear in search engine results. They provide a brief overview of the page’s content and can include relevant keywords and phrases.
Both H1 tags and meta descriptions play a critical role in helping search engines understand the content of a webpage and its relevance to specific keywords and phrases. By including relevant keywords and phrases in H1 tags and meta descriptions, a website can improve its visibility in search engine results.
However, it’s important to note that H1 tags and meta descriptions should not be overstuffed with keywords, this is called “Keyword stuffing” and it can have an opposite effect and lower the website’s ranking.
How can this be put into practice?
- Determine the main topic of the webpage and the message that it needs to convey, and use this as a guide when creating H1 tags and meta descriptions.
- Use descriptive H1 tags that include relevant keywords and phrases to help search engines understand the content and relevance of the webpage.
- Use meta descriptions to provide a brief overview of the webpage’s content and include relevant keywords and phrases to help search engines understand the content of the webpage.
- Optimise the length of meta descriptions to ensure that they are short, clear and concise (don’t exceed 160 characters).
4. Technical SEO
Technical SEO involves optimising the technical aspects of your website, such as ensuring your website is mobile-friendly, has a fast load time, and is secure. This includes optimising your website’s code, making sure your website is accessible to search engine crawlers, and ensuring that your website is protected from cyber-attacks.
5. Content Creation
Content is king when it comes to SEO. To achieve SEO, you need to create valuable, high-quality content that is optimised for search engines and provides value to your target audience.
6. Mobile Optimization
Mobile optimization is crucial for SEO, as more and more users are accessing websites from mobile devices. To achieve mobile optimisation, you need to ensure that your website is optimised for smaller screens, loads quickly, and provides a great user experience.
7. Continual SEO management
It is important to be aware that SEO is an ongoing process and not a ‘one time thing’ as search engines regularly update their algorithms and the ways they rank websites. Keeping up with these updates and incorporating them into your SEO strategy is crucial for long-term success. This requires regular monitoring of your website’s performance, analysing your website’s traffic and keyword rankings, and making ongoing changes to your website’s content and structure to improve its visibility in search results.
SEO Made Easy
SEO is a critical component of any online marketing strategy. By optimising your website for search engines, you can increase your visibility, drive traffic, and improve the user experience for your visitors. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to improve your existing SEO strategy, there are a number of steps you can take to achieve SEO and grow your online presence.
However, despite the benefits, optimising your website for SEO can seem like a complex and resource heavy process. We recommend the use of a WaaS (websites-as-a-service) provider as they will have the expertise and know-how to implement SEO best practices within the website design, as well as aid the continual management process. For example, WaaS provider Creatify ensure all of their websites are optimised for SEO upon development and are continually revised to maintain optimisation at no additional cost. This allows you to benefit from improved website crawlability, higher search rankings, and the benefits of increased visitor numbers!
