SEO stands for “search engine optimisation.” SEO is the process of improving your website to increase its visibility for searches relevant to your business. If you have better visibility (ie a higher ranking on Google) then you are more likely to increase the traffic to your website and attract new customers to your business.
If you want to increase the number of visitors to your website, then yes! SEO is an incredibly cost effective way to boost your business’ profile and generate sales without directly paying for advertising.
Google’s aim to is serve the most relevant content from the most trustworthy source and it uses over 200 different algorithms to do so. For successful SEO, you need to ensure that your website is seen by Google as the most relevant result for a specific search query and that your website is considered trustworthy.
Organic traffic are the number of visits your website receives from search engine results that are unpaid, ie not as a result of a click on an advert, a link from another website, from an email etc. Also known as known as ‘natural’ results, this refers to any non-advertised search listings.
PPC stands for “pay per click” where the advertiser pays for each click to their website. Google Ads and Facebook Ads are two examples of PPC advertising. SEO and PPC can work together hand in hand, but if done well, SEO offers a much more cost effective form of digital marketing.
Keywords are the words and phrases that people type into google in order to find what they are looking for. Keyword research helps you determine which keywords are going to be the most beneficial for your particular business which is part of my SEO services.
Link building is the process of asking other websites to place a link on their website to yours. (Otherwise known as backlinks.) Google then sees these links as a vote of confidence that your website contains useful and relevant content which is why link building is good for your SEO.
Yes, blogging is great for SEO, every piece of unique, relevant content you create is another opportunity for your site to rank for a keyword related to your business.
Meta tags are snippets of text that describe a page’s content; they are part of the code (HTML) and don’t show on the actual webpage, although they will be displayed on the search results page of Google.
You don’t actually need any particular software to carry out basic SEO, there are however huge advantages to subscribing to a services such as SEM Rush (which is what I use). This means I am able to carry out an in-depth technical audit with a detailed list of what needs to be fixed in order for Google to love your website. As well as getting access to a huge database containing search terms people are actually using in Google, detailed information about your backlink profile and the online marketing strategies of your closest competitors.
Algorithm
A formula used by search engines to calculates the order of how results appear (rank).
Alt tags
‘Alternative Text’ a tags placed on an image to provide a written description of what the image is.
Backlinks
A backlink is a link from an other website to your own. (Also known as in-bound links).
Bounce Rate
A percentage of visitors who close the website after only viewing one page.
Broken Link
A link on a website that links to a page that has either moved or doesn’t exist. Search engines will penalise a website with broken links.
Conversion
A user completing a specific action on your website, eg. making a purchase.
Crawling
How search engines explore the content on the internet and use this to create an index.
Domain Authority
Or ‘DA’ is a measurement of a website’s credibility and strength, this grows by building good quality via backlinks.
Google Ads
Adverts paid for by advertisers and shown on Google and the Google Search Network.
Google Analytics
Free tools offered by Google to monitor your website’s performance.
Google My Business
A free business listing which appears on Google Maps.
Google Search Console
A Google platform allowing you to understand which keywords are bringing traffic to your website.
H Tags
H1 – H6 Tags are headers (titles) used to provide structure to your website content in order for it to be easily read by users and search engines.
HTML
Stands for Hyper Text Markup Language and is the programming language (code) used to make web pages.
Index
A database (or list) of all of the content search engines have found on the internet.
Internal Links
Links within your website to other internal pages.
Keyword Research
Identifying words and phrases your potential customers will use to search for your products or service.
Keywords
The words and phrases a user enters into a search engine.
Local Pack
A group of (usually) three Google Maps listings showing local businesses.
Long-Tail Keywords
Multiple word phrases that are entered into the search bar including questions or a mixture of keywords.
Meta Description
A tag in the header code of a web page which a search engine will (usually) display on the results page.
Title tags
Also know as page titles, these are meta tags in the header code of each web page. Search engines use these to display within the results that you see.
PPC
Stands for Pay-Per-Click which is a type of paid online advertising where the advertiser pays for visits to their website.
People Also Ask
A block of questions sometimes shown on search engine results pages, with similar questions and answers relating to the search query.
Personalisation
The method in which a search engine will alter your results based on your browsing history and location.
Search Query
The word or phrase entered into the search engine by the user in order to search for content.
Ranking
The order of the search engine results, no.1 is at the top of the page (and therefore the best rank).
Search Volume
The estimated average number of monthly searches made using individual words and phrases.
SERP
Stands for ‘Search Engine Results Page’.
Site Speed
The speed at which pages on your website loads. (Search engines like fast websites as slow load times lead to a higher bounce rate).
Traffic
Traffic is the number of visitors to a website. This can be measured on an hourly, daily or monthly basis.
URL
Stands for ‘Uniform Resource Locator’ and is the address of a web page (shown in the address bar on your browser.)