Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is priming your website to be found by potential visitors. It's aim is twofold; to increase the organic unpaid traffic to your website, and to bring those visitors who will help you achieve your goals for the website.
There are three areas of focus in search engine optimization. They are summarized in the table below and explained further on down this page.
| SEO item | Its role |
|---|---|
| Keyword research | Researching the words and phrases visitors use to find your website |
| Keywords in the website | Placing keywords in strategic places on your website |
| Keyword Analytics | Using metrics to track the effectiveness of your keywords |
Keyword Research
At its core keyword research is delving into the words and phrases a site visitor would use to find your site. It is understanding the audience, looking at competitors in the field and searching for the terms themselves.
What goes into finding keywords:
- Your audience is researched to find out how they search for your product or services
- Competitors are looked at to see what words they are using to attract visitors and how they rank in the search results using those words
- Keyword search tools are utilised to find the most effective words and phrases for your website
How to use keywords
You can now apply your list of keywords to your site to help people find it. Keywords not only help search engines, they are exactly the content visitors came to look for. Using keywords judiciously throughout your site helps your readers and thus contributes to the success of the website on a human level.
Keywords are used in:
- Developing the structure of your website
- Titles and subtitles which help the user quickly skim through your material and find what they are searching for
- Menu items and links which can help the site visitor land in the correct place for desired information
- Within the main written content of the site
- In the metadata section of the website, which is read only by the search engines
Keyword Analysis
Ranking well for keywords in the search results entails more than just the initial setup. Continuing to rank for keywords is a moving target depending on what terms people are using to search for and what competitors in the field are doing. There are a number of tools to help your ranking and keep track of where your site stands in the search results.
Tools used to help your ranking and follow its progress:
- Analytic tracking id for the major search engines are added to your site
- A sitemap is created and submitted
- Your website is connect to a google analytic account