This week I was asked to look at SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and find out what we needed to do to begin to get our new website recognised and ranked in search engines. This is important because as a new business we have no visibility which makes it hard for interested parties to find us.
Never having done SEO before, I’ve been on a steep learning curve which I’d like to share with you. I’ve summarised this into five simple steps.
- Keywords: Decide what keywords or search phrases people are realistically going to use when seeking a business like yours. You can have more than one but we’ve focussed on ‘b2b PR in London’. SEO phrases are like signposts to help people and search engines know what it is you do.
- Metadata: Make sure all the tags, page titles and page descriptions in the back end of your website are filled in properly. For example, our home page tab now reads “Emmett & Churchman: B2B PR London” whereas before it simply read “EC-PR”
- Social media: Create social media accounts to send out links to useful content on your website and to engage with other parties with a common interest. For example, we’ve been providing a handy guide countdown to Seawork 2016 and publishing it to our network on Linkedin.
- Links: Links are like supersonic pathways, down which people travel to reach your website in order to absorb your content. For social media, links can be shortened by using this site: Tiny URL
- Content: The quality of content is critical. If people travel to your site and are disappointed because the content is out of date or uninteresting they won’t come again! We decided to publish new content featuring hints and tips on our website every week
Search engine rankings can be highly competitive and some companies pay experts to help them using a variety of techniques and this can be money very well spent however why spend money getting these basics right if you don’t have to.
There are lots of resources often presented in a way which can be rather impenetrable and frightening. The resources I found most useful were:
Moz – This link is especially handy for learning the basics of SEO from the beginning. It has structured chapters that allow you to select exactly what you require assistance for. (There is even a downloadable pdf version).
Search Engine Watch – This link has some great advice on what search engines are looking for, how to format your content so that it is picked up and the best techniques for creating tags for your content.
Kissmetrics – This website provides you with an infographic with some effective guidelines on using and managing SEO. The bright graphics and minimal text make it easy to read – particularly effective if you are short of time.
Good luck!
