SEO - what is it, and why do you need it?

Whether you're new to the business world, or you've been around for a while, chances are you've come across the term SEO. There are two main responses to this term:

1. What's SEO?

2. How the heck do I get SEO to work for me?

The good news is that, on the most basic level, SEO - or Search Engine Optimisation - is really quite easy. The bad news? It can still take a fair amount of work to get your SEO working really well. (But that's where Tech For Pracs steps in to make everything a lot easier for you!)

 

Let's start with the basics:

Search Engine Optimisation - what does that even mean?

Essentially, it's the level at which your business website, blog, or social media pages can be found in a search engine (such as Google). You know when you search something, and then you're given a list of different websites as the search result? That's SEO.

How good (or bad) your SEO is determines where on that list you end up. Are you in spot #1, or spot #2,980,553?

When your SEO is working really well, your website is likely to show up on the first page. Now, don't get too upset, but that elusive number one spot almost always gets taken by someone who's using paid advertising. But don't lose heart! I've seen (and worked with!) a lot of businesses who end up high up on that first page of search results.

 

So how do we achieve that?

Let's take a look at what SEO really does: essentially, it's about using keywords that are likely to be searched for. What makes a keyword? It's something your clients are going to use when looking for your services. For example, if you're a nutritionist, that's a keyword right there - nutritionist.

But, there's a problem with this keyword... It's too common. It will come up in millions of search results, so you need to narrow it down a bit more. Let's say you're a nutritionist that works in Hervey Bay; put those two things together and you have a new keyword: Hervey Bay nutritionist.

 

This is called a long-tail keyword. It's not just one word, but a series of words that will really help narrow down the search results. Using long-tail keywords improves your SEO rating; let's use another example:

"Hervey Bay sports nutritional therapist"

 
This long-tail keyword includes nearly all the relevant information someone would need to find your exact practice; it has location, what type of clinic you run, and the types of clients you serve. It is much more likely to rate higher in a search for your clinic than simply "nutritionist" would.

Now we know what SEO is, and the basics of how to use it... Where do we put it?

The answer for this one is pretty straightforward, but can be confusing to implement. You'll want to include as many keywords on your website in as many different places as possible; this increases the chances of each page of your site turning up in a search. But the really important part is making sure each of your pages is optimised for your SEO. There's a few ways to do this, and it will depend on which platform you're using to host your site.

If you'd like help with finding out where to find your optimisation settings, get in touch and I can point you in the right direction.

Does SEO sound like "blah blah blah" to you? Book a call, and I can take care of it all for you and get you hitting page one on the search results! Pop a comment in below if you found this helpful.