Everyone talks about SEO and how it can benefit our online lives but for many small businesses, Search Engine Optimisation is a very complex topic that looks at lots of separate entities and scores you accordingly. We are not going to go too deeply into SEO as it could easily fill a book in it’s own right, so we’ll just cover the basics.

Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO as it’s more commonly known, is the practice of optimising a website to improve its ranking and visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs). With more than 6 billion searches conducted on Google every day, it’s essential for businesses to invest in SEO to attract organic traffic to their websites. Organic traffic is normally people finding you via a search engine or by links in social media that you’ve not paid to advertise.

In this article, we’ll discuss the basics of SEO, including the different types of SEO, the importance of keyword research, on-page Optimisation, and link building.

The Various Types of SEO

Yes, just to confuse the issue even more there are two types of SEO: On-Page Optimisation and Off-Page Optimisation.

On-Page Optimisation refers to all the elements that are present on a webpage that can be optimized to improve its ranking on SERPs. This includes optimizing the content on a webpage, using appropriate HTML tags, optimizing images and videos, and improving website speed and performance.

Off-Page Optimisation refers to all the activities that are done outside of a webpage to improve its ranking on SERPs. This includes building backlinks, social media marketing, and influencer marketing.

Keyword Research

Keyword research is an essential part of SEO. It involves identifying the words and phrases that people use when searching for products or services related to your business. The goal is to optimize your website’s content for those keywords so that your website appears higher in search engine results when someone searches for those keywords.

There are several keyword research tools available, including Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, and SEMrush. These tools can help you identify relevant keywords, their search volume, and the competition for those keywords.

On-Page Optimisation

On-Page Optimisation involves optimizing the content on a webpage to make it more search engine friendly. This includes optimizing the title tag, meta description, header tags, and images. It’s essential to ensure that the content on a webpage is high-quality, relevant, and provides value to the user.

Other on-page factors that can impact your website’s ranking include website speed, mobile-friendliness, and the use of HTTPS.

Link Building

Link building is the process of acquiring backlinks to your website from other websites. Backlinks are an important ranking factor for search engines because they indicate that other websites consider your content to be high-quality and valuable.

There are several ways to acquire backlinks, including guest posting, broken link building, and resource page link building. It’s essential to ensure that the backlinks you acquire are from high-quality websites and are relevant to your content.

Conclusion

SEO is a complex and ever-evolving field that requires continuous learning and adaptation. However, by following the basics outlined in this blog, you can improve your website’s ranking on SERPs and attract more organic traffic to your website. Remember to focus on high-quality content, keyword research, on-page Optimisation, and link building, and you’ll be on your way to success.