Search engine optimisation (SEO) is one of the most blogged about topics, not just by us but by so many of our fellow agencies and digital resources. Businesses big and small, serving all sectors, are continuously looking for ways to increase their search engine rankings and up their conversion rates, and as the lifeblood of business online, we don’t blame you.

In the spirit of getting your business better visibility online, searches for the latest SEO trends will have no doubt been done, but with that so many forget about the basics. Regardless of whether you’re an SEO newbie or a business owner that keeps the most recent developments in the world of optimisation at the forefront of operations, there are quite a few rudimentary steps that shouldn’t be overlooked but often are. Make your marketing as cost effective as possible and your climb online just as succinct and successful by taking noting of these top tips…

Start with your website

Whacking up a website isn’t the end of your online journey. If it isn’t already, your website should be optimised to spell out exactly what your company delivers to search engines and browsers alike. Googlebot’s spiders will be crawling your pages as we type but ensuring your pages and the content within is accessible and crawlable is important. Structured data certainly helps spiders to understand what each and every page across your site is there to do. Whilst on-page content, from text and images to other visuals and video, must also be clear and easy to understand.

Pay attention to crafting the right meta descriptions to ensure your website speaks volumes to not just search engines but new and existing customers. It’s not just your site content that matters, the speed in which your website operates is another defining SEO factor. Every second counts when it comes to impressing browsers. In fact, a measly 1 second delay in page response results in a 7% decline in conversions. Want further advice on improving website loading time? Here’s 4 steps to speed up your website.

Keywords are important

This may seem pretty obvious but keyword research is relatively under-resourced across many SMEs. We covered the importance of choosing the right keywords in a recent blog, whilst another also gave you access to the top keyword research tools that make finding the words and phrases that best describe your business even easier. Pouring plenty of time and resources into keyword research will definitely pay dividends, particularly when you incorporate these keywords and phrases across your website.

Optimise off-site too

Optimisation shouldn’t be restricted to your website, your business is likely to have many portals and marketing channels it frequents to increase customer reach further. Make sure those heavily researched, carefully selected keywords and phrases feature across all areas, including your PPC campaigns and social media profiles, to achieve the very best results for your brand.

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