Search Engine Optimisation

Search engine optimisation is a combination of strategies to help your website perform better in search engines.

Since search engines have existed there’s always been a lot of discussion around getting good rankings and results. When it comes to SERPS (Search Engine Optimisation Results Pages) there are two main methods to rank well:

• Organic SEO
• Sponsored links

Organic search results are everything displayed in search engines after any sponsored links (paid for links). If you’re not paying for links — also known as PPC (Pay-Per-Click) and SEO marketing — your focus should be on competing with organic results.

There are many techniques to get desirable organic search results and to rank higher than your competition. They come down to:

• Performance — speed of your web pages and responsiveness (AKA mobile friendly layouts) — the best place to start.
• Security — websites that are secure with up-to-date certificates usually rank higher.
• Accessibility — catering for as many people as possible, which includes people with disabilities, is vital.
• Code — clean and valid web code contributes to better search engine rankings. There are a myriad of on-site SEO techniques that are code-based which we can help you with.
• Usability — websites that are user-friendly and easy to navigate perform better in search engines.
• Link Building — probably the most popular way to boost your website’s search rankings. This requires getting backlinks from other websites within your field or, more applicably, to do with the page you want to optimise. It’s an intensive but very worthwile, tried and tested technique.

The next SEO method to consider is paying for your ranking (search engine marketing). PPC, or web ads, are listings that take up the prominent top section of most search engines as well as getting displayed through ad networks. You can also pay for sponsored links to appear on people’s social media feeds using social media marketing.

The obvious way to compete with paid search is to increase your budget. However, you must use the right search terms to attract your target audience — this begins with keyword research and competitor analysis.

Before undertaking any SEO it is worth running through a number of prerequisites which will add to your organic search engine performance. The points below must be considered as a foundation because failing to do so can seriously hinder any SEO methods implemented or cause them to fail completely.

• Is your website mobile friendly — responsive?
• Is it secure, with an active certificate installed? (Check for https in address bar before your domain name, where the ‘s’ denotes ‘secure’).
• Does it load quickly, even on phones and tablets?
• Does it feature clear and user-friendly navigation?
• Are there any obvious technical SEO issues e.g. possible page duplication?
• Does it contain a lot of scripts or third party content e.g. widgets?
• Is the site database driven/dynamic? If so, do the URLs contain query strings, for example: www.site.com/longpagename?source=123444fgge3212 — (with ‘?’ symbols), or does the site use parameter workarounds to remove the query strings?
• Is the content well written and unspammy?

It is highly recommended to consider the above to give you the best chance of ranking well.

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