SEO is one of the most important aspects of online marketing. It can be difficult to understand, but with the right information, you can do it yourself.

In this article, we will go over the basics of SEO and what you need to do to improve your website’s ranking.

What is SEO and why is it important

SEO, or search engine optimisation, is the process of improving the ranking of a website for a query on a search engine. The higher your rankings, the more likely people are to find out about your site.

Why is this important? Well, think about it – when you need information, what do you do? You probably go to a search engine and type in a few keywords. The search engine then scours the internet for websites that match those keywords and display them in order of relevance.

If your website is well-optimised, it will appear higher up on the list, and more people will find it. This can lead to increased traffic and, ultimately, increased sales or conversions.

Basic SEO For Your Site

There are many different elements to SEO, and it can be overwhelming to try and tackle everything at once.

The most important factor is the content of the website. The content must be relevant to what people are searching for, and it must be well-written and informative.

This means writing blog posts, articles, and other pieces of content that are interesting and useful to your target audience. If people like what they see, they will be more likely to share it, which can help you attract new visitors and improve your ranking.

Search Terms

What are people searching for? When starting out, the first thing to do is to choose the right keywords. Keywords are the words or phrases that people use when they search for something on a search engine.

They should be highly relevant to the content you are creating for your website. They should also be popular enough that people are actually searching for them.

Once the right keywords have been chosen, use them as a list of articles to write for your website. Each article should tackle one keyword phrase, and that phrase should be the theme for that piece of content.

Hint: Keywords should be used in a way that sounds natural, they should not be repeated too often and should include all other relevant phases and variations.

Page Titles and Descriptions

These are the easiest way to use SEO for each piece of content you create. This can be done in the content editor when using WordPress.

1. Page (meta) Title – Make sure your website’s ‘meta’ title is optimised for the keyword(s) you want to rank for in 60 characters or less.
2. Page (meta) Description – Describe your page by adding relevant keywords and well as secondary variations in your page description using 150 characters or less.

Get their attention at the start, arouse curiosity in the middle and then end your description with an open loop. Example: Find out why…, See more here…, Click to reveal…, etc.

The meta page title and description are the details about your page that the search engine will show in their results. These are the words the searcher will see in the results of the search they just did.

By using this method you are trying to entice the user to click on your result. However, don’t cheat. Clickbait does not work in the long run. Use a genuine open loop.

Hint: These settings are found in the SEO section at the bottom of the page you are editing in WordPress. If you don’t have an SEO plugin, you should install one. There are many plugins available, however, we’ve found SEOPress to be a great lightweight plugin.

Heading and Subheadings

Just as with titles and descriptions, your main heading (H1) and subheadings (the H2, H3, H4 etc) contained inside your article are great opportunities to include relevant keywords.

This helps both search engines and readers quickly understand what your page is about (H1) – and what each section of the article is about using your sub-headings (H2s).

Structure Your Content

Search engines prefer content that is easy to read and digest. We recommend formatting your content with all the relevant subheadings, and images, using bullet points and short paragraphs to make your content more scannable and complete.

Optimise Your Images

Search engines can’t read images, so you need to provide them with alternative text (“alt text”) that describes the image.

This is also another great opportunity to include other relevant/related keywords.

Tip: Click on your image in the WordPress page/post editor and the Alt text can be entered into a box in the sidebar.

Include Links in Your Article

You should be linking out to any relevant website sources in your article (external links). You should also, include links to other related articles on your website (internal links).

This will help search engines understand the structure of your website and can also help visitors navigate your site.

Tip: Using WordPress, highlight the text – to add a link. Click on the chain link icon. Add an external link directly or use keywords to search for a relevant article on your website.

Other Aspects of SEO

In addition to the content, the website’s design is also important for SEO. The website should be a well-organised structure and clear navigation.

If people can’t find what they’re looking for on your site, they won’t stick around for long, which will hurt your ranking.

Another important aspect of SEO is link building. This is the process of getting other websites to link to your website.

The more high-quality links you have, the higher your website will rank. There are a number of different ways to build links, including guest blogging and social media.

Promote your website on social media. This is a great way to generate traffic to your website. Make sure to include links to your website on your social media profiles.

Submit your website to directories and search engines. There are many online directories where you can list your website.

You can also use Google’s Webmaster Tools to help you identify any errors on your website that could be holding you back from achieving a higher ranking.

Wrapping it Up

SEO can be a complex and time-consuming process, but it’s important to do if you want your website to be successful. If your website is not ranking, read this article to understand what could be happening.

By following the tips in this article, you can start improving your website’s ranking and getting more traffic.

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