A component of digital marketing; search engine optimization (SEO) is helping websites rank higher on the search engine results page (SERPs) by looking for relevant web content on your page and what users search for.

1. Customer

    A big part of SEO is understanding your customer. You need to know what and the reasons why users look for something on the web. Here are some reasons: 

• • Awareness: Customers are aware there is a problem, so they start looking for solutions. E.g. “flat tire”

• • Consideration: They are aware of their problem and now they look to find a solution that best fits their needs. They may search for solutions using keywords that match their needs.

• • Purchase: The customer is ready to buy and is usually aware of who they will purchase from.

2. 2. Keyword

Keywords are words and phrases customers use to perform a search. For example, ‘bicycles online’ and ‘where can i buy bicycles online’ are both keywords.

Keep in mind to match your keywords with what users use to search for products and services.

• • Ensure to place your keywords in the page title, page content, and metadata 

• • Utilise relevant keywords to your location, businesses, and services.

• • Make sure to not overuse keywords as it can negatively impact your SEO.

3. 3. Update content 

Frequent modifications to your website can help search engines scan and index your site more often. Ensure to remove content you no longer require or any content that is irrelevant. 

You can also use sitemaps to allow search engines to find new content as well as update existing content.

4. 4. Backlinks 

Search engines look at other websites that have linked to yours, in order to rank your web pages. Search engines view these external links as a “vote of confidence” in the relevancy, accuracy, and usefulness of the content.

Links from reputable sites are more helpful than less reputable sites. The more reputable websites link to you the higher it will rank.

5. 5. Use of meta tags

Meta tags are website codes that do not show in the web page. This tag gives information to the search engine and browsers about your content.

Common meta tags are:

• • Meta description: what your page is about. It shows in the search results page.

• • Meta title: heading of the page that shows in the browser

• • Alternative text: text that describes images. This is crucial for people who are blind and cannot see the image.

It’s important to regularly keep up to date with SEO techniques as it is ever changing and can hugely impact your web content.