You’ve probably heard the term SEO thrown around when it comes to websites and marketing, but do you know what it is and why it’s important?
It’s like this – all the major search engines present their results to a user’s search query in the form of a list. This list is populated in a specific order taking into account factors such as location, time, and specific search terms. So when you search for “Canberra web design” for example, your chosen search engine, in this case, Google, looks through its algorithms and delivers the more relevant websites to you.
How do Search Engines pick what to show first?
It is easier to understand how they pick the order if you understand what the goal of a search engine is – and that is to provide the most relevant results, whether that is to answer a question, show specific information or convert currency. So when it comes to any sort of search term that you type into the search box, the search engine will try its best to understand what the user means and then give them the results that it feels will best answer the question that is asked. Google especially continues to innovate in this space, changing the type of answer you get depending on what it thinks is the most relevant response. So a search for “Bill Gates” might bring up his Wikipedia information first, while a search for “penguin” might bring up images of penguins as the first result.
How can a website rank higher?
While search engines used advanced algorithms to decide how to rank websites, they don’t tell anyone exactly what these algorithms are or what they do. So Search Engine Optimisation is mostly a mix of experimentation and widely accepted rules. Through a range of simple and advanced practices websites can rank higher, but all these techniques revolve around making the website seem more knowledgeable and relevant to the target search engine terms or keywords.
One of the sure-fire ways to rank higher is to use content marketing through the form of a blog on your website. Cater each post around what your website or business does and cover a variety of angles so that search engines start ranking you higher as an authoritative place to go to find information on that specific topic.
What can I do right now to help my website?
When we are asked this question we generally have a two-pronged response:
- Conduct a basic SEO check and optimisation which ensures that at a basic level your website is search engine friendly (we do this starting from $200)
- Start a blog on your website and write about things that relate to what your website is selling or doing, include information that you know your clients are looking for and make it easy to share all your information by integrating share buttons directly on your site – you can start doing this yourself right now.
We offer SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to our clients in Canberra, as well as clients from all over the world. Get in touch with us to see how we can help you increase your website’s search rankings.
