Top 10 tips for SEO success

1. Content is King – In the world of SEO, content is king. Make sure your content is well-written and focused on your primary keywords or phrases.
2. Title Tags – On each page, make sure you have keyword focused title tags. Remember to order your keywords based on their importance. Your company’s name should go at the end of the title, and should only appear if you have room.
3. Fresh Content – Make sure the content you upload to your site is unique and quality. Your SEO rankings will be penalised if you duplicate copy so, if you are going to upload the same elsewhere, make sure it appears on your site first.
4. Search Phrases – Try to use phrases instead of single keywords to narrow your competition, and help the user find the content which is genuinely most relevant to them. It can help to add your location to improve local searches, i.e. Cambridge web design, instead of web design.
5. Get Listed – It can take weeks to list your site with Google’s submission form. The quickest way to get your site indexed is through links from other sites. However, remember quality not quantity. One single quality link is worth much more than a dozen links from poor quality websites.
6. Page Focus – Don’t try to optimise every page for every one of your keywords. Optimise each page for a single keyword or phrase and surround it in relevant, quality content.
7. Social Marketing – Google takes into account a company’s entire contribution to web, so social media is an important part of this. Make sure your social media is posting original and relevant content. Pay particular attention to the Google+ platform.
8. Videos – Remember platforms such as YouTube are still social. Post your shareable company videos to YouTube and drive traffic to them to gain likes and comments. This is important as Google takes the popularity of content into consideration when it is ranking.
9. SEO – SEO needs to be constantly monitored and reviewed. Search engines, and their rankings, change daily so your SEO tactics need to be adaptable too.
10. Go Viral – Add viral content to your site such as FAQs, or functionality for customers to leave reviews, comments or ratings.

In the fast paced, constantly changing world we live in, people want information now, and they aren’t prepared to wait for it. So it comes as no surprise that 75% of people don’t go past the first page of search results on Google. Often companies spend considerable amounts of money on the development of a website, without thinking about how people are actually going to find their new site. This is like opening the best shop in the world but no one knowing about it.

To drive traffic to your website you have to have a good SEO strategy and ongoing campaigns. SEO tells Google what your business or website is all about, and it uses this information to direct people to the most relevant content. By being ranked on search engines you have the opportunity to reach a world-wide audience, but if you aren’t on the first page of a Google search it is unlikely you are going to be seen.

SEO is a constantly evolving beast and just filling pages with keywords is no longer appropriate. You have to look at the bigger picture.

Google now ranks on much more than just keywords, and so SEO requires a strategical approach if it is to be successful. Google takes into consideration total contribution to the web, beyond just your website. Social media is instrumental to this and platforms such as Google+ really drive rankings on search engines.

Another interesting addition to SEO strategy is the use of video. Unlike an image which requires tags to decipher its content, video can be understood by Google and the content is then uses to feed into its rankings algorithm. Of course it also helps that YouTube is owned by Google, and they like it when you use their products. SEO can sometimes feel like an alien subject, but if you get these points right, whilst remaining agile and flexible to change, your site should rank well on the major search engines.