Stop Hiding in Plain Sight
By now, most people know the phrase search engine optimisation (“SEO”) but not many people know what it is exactly or how to use it to benefit their website and online presence.
Good SEO should be inserted into a website from the beginning, in fact a content-first approach is often the best one when building a website from scratch rather than attempting to shoehorn SEO elements into the structure of the website afterwards. Web content should be really persuasive and good copy writing will make for more and better engagement than good design ever can. Remember words trump design in terms of persuasiveness every time and content needs to be conversion focused.
SEO is always a contest; the aim is to outrank your competitors so make it clear and clever. The first step is to find the keywords applicable to the website based on the business or services that are being offered. There are several keyword planner tools that can be used to assist in this regard. Next, make sure the keywords are tailored to the site or business and ensure that they are local. Geotagging images can help to fix the address of a business and establish its location.
words trump design in terms of persuasiveness
You should also use specific keywords for every page and not just focus on the home or landing page as often visitors to your site may enter via links from social media or mailing lists to a page that is not the traditional homepage. Each page should be given as much importance as the homepage in terms of keyword descriptors and SEO.
Once the fundamentals have been laid, don’t forget to consider how mobile users will be viewing the site. Considerations such as image compression and legibility of font take on increasing importance in this regard. Types of fonts and special effects such as Java and animated texts can reduce SEO effectiveness and so should be used sparingly.
Another point to consider is to ensure that description of your business and services on the website is consistent across different listing platforms and search engines. If the business is described a particular manner, care should be taken to repeat the specific description everywhere it appears verbatim. This consistency will optimise search results.