Explanation of SEO

What is SEO? It's short for Search Engine Optimization. It’s the way of optimizing a website to make it achieve a strong position in Google’s – or another search engine’s – organic search results. That said, since almost 90% of searchers in the UK use Google as their search engine, Google is the one to focus on. Getting your SEO right is effectively speaking the same language as Google.

If you're finding it hard to get your website on page one of Google for your target keyword, take advantage of our current free trial for our Keyboost tool. This boosts your website up the rankings by using your target keyword. Our consultants meticulously research, then place, relevant, high quality high trust links to your site. We've helped our customers lift their websites out of obscurity to get maximum visibility. This is done without altering your site content in any way. Our customers see excellent results within one month. We give everyone who registers with us one free Keyboost trial, providing your website is in Google's top 100 for a given keyword. To find out more, and apply for your free Keyboost, click here.

SEO is your answer to getting good rankings in the organic (non-paid) search results. Your goal, like everyone else, is to secure a place on Google’s first page and as high up as you can. You get a 30% click through rate (CTR) if you’ve attained the first place and 12% if you’ve the third position. In positions 9 and 10, you only get 2% and if you’re on the second page, you’ll get few to no visitors. So doing things right is crucial. You’ve got to get as close to the number one ranking as you can.

Having a strong site architecture and giving clear user-friendly navigation will help search engines crawl deeper into your site and assess your site quickly and easily. And it’s better for visitors too. If they enjoy using your site, this will encourage repeat visits from them. These factors are important for optimizing your site because Google is giving more value now to user experience.

Here, we’ll explain: “What is SEO?” and some of the easiest ways to get it right.

Test your website page for SEO

Your on-page content (that’s your keyword use, placement, and the structure of your on-page elements such as the title, meta description, heading tags – H1, H2, H3 etc – and correct use of bold, alt-tags etc) contributes a hefty 50% of your SEO power.

Are you unsure if you’ve optimized the content of your web pages well for search engines such as Google? To help you in this task and get effective results, our technicians have custom-built a self-use page analysis tool. It’s called SEO Page Optimizer and it delivers you detailed analysis of your pages by keyword.

Better still, SEO Page Optimizer is free to use! We give everyone one free page analysis per day. That’s 365 free analyses a year. All you need to do is register with us and then upload your html file or type in the url of your webpage and submit your target keyword. Try it out now!

Why Google ranking is so important

It’s definitely true that social media can result in visits to your website, but search engines remain the main path of navigation for most visitors. If Google can’t find your site, you won’t get the visitors you need to find the services, products or information your site is offering. SEO is a big multipronged subject, but most people can grasp the basic principles and put them to use – including you!

Let’s go back to basics. Search engines have a dual function: crawling across the web and building an index, and then serving up to users a list of the websites they've ranked as the most relevant.

When users put a term into search and arrive at your site, will they find what they were hoping to find? This is the question that search engines try to answer. Their purpose is to serve relevant results to users. So ask yourself what your target customers are looking for and make sure your site delivers it to them.

Google’s mission is to "organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful". These words, which are the crux of SEO, are from Google's website itself.

Keywords: your launch pad for SEO

The starting point is the words typed by a user into a search engine. For your optimization work to be effective, you must target the right keywords that they’re looking for. These must be related to your activity and the subject of the site without being too generic. Keyword research is your starting point and is one of the most important marketing activities you can do.

Ranking for the right keywords will determine the success of your website. Bear in mind that long tail keywords often give better results. They are the ones people will be typing in further down the buying or conversion cycle. Often businesses use their own jargon or discover that the words their target customers would use are quite different from the ones they would use. So you need to determine the language your target visitors would use, not the words you would necessarily use yourself. Someone using the short-tail keyword query "healthy vitamins" or “accountants” is probably at an early stage and not ready to commit. But someone typing in for "buy vitamins to help with weak nails" or “accountancy services for freelance graphic designers” knows exactly what they are looking for and is probably ready to commit.

But what if you don't know if you're optimising your content on each web page for each keyword? Find the answer by running your page through SEO Page Optimizer. This tool takes into account the main elements on which search engines base their indexing: page tags (title, description, keywords), page titles (h1, h2, h3 ...), body text, bold text, links, alt information ...

It even gives you a list of secondary keywords that you can use to complement your main keyword in order to get an ideal balance. These are related words that are part of the same lexical field and the same theme as your main keyword. The tool gives you a score on each of these elements and tells you what you need to change. Once you’ve got a blue thumbs up from the tool, you’ve optimized your page as least as well as the top 10 pages in Google’s search engine results.

Keyword research added value

This is the cornerstone of your SEO strategy and the most important action you can do to get your website optimization right. What is it? Here’s the definition from Wikipedia: Keyword research is a practice search engine optimization (SEO) professionals use to find and research actual search terms that people enter into search engines.”

That’s the point of keyword research – it empowers you to grasp the exact phrases people are likely to use to search for your products, services, or company, that will end up with their becoming your customers.

So keyword research is crucial for your visibilitybut it has an added value. When you get down to it, it forces you to better understand search intent or why and how people are searching for the things they are searching. It means you get to understand your target visitors better and the language they will be using.

Google’s ‘auto-suggest’ tool – this what comes up when you start typing in a phrase – is actually delivering back to you the highest related searches by real people.

Unless yours is a business in a very esoteric and non-competitive field, focus on long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are important for several reasons. These will always have a lower search volume but because they’re targeted, if you get them right, they will result in better customer conversion rates. Don’t be put off because they’re listed in your keyword planner tool as medium or low competition terms. They’re likely to be so specific to your target audience that they’re valuable in your content. Plan blog posts around them or variations of them to draw in extra traffic. The more keyword-optimized content there is on your site, the better your chances of attracting the right visitors.

SEO Page Optimizer helps you get the optimal results for search engines. Remember that search engines such as Google are sensitive to many elements, whether it’s the external or internal links, tags, structure of urls, media ... By optimizing your page using SEO Page Optimizer, you’re improving the understanding of your page for the robots whose job it is to index it. Try it out now for free and check how your keywords are optimized.

The importance of backlinks

The number of inbound links arriving at your site is the other top factor Google uses in its ranking process. So backlinks are essential. Most experts say they’re responsible for around 50% of your SEO power, with your on-page content making up the other 50%. So ignore them at your peril.

Links are seen as votes of endorsement by Google. Through links, engines determine the popularity of websites and their authority. It takes the view that if many other websites are linking to you, then they clearly want to share your content, so your website must be valuable and popular.

Creating great content and then making people aware of it is the first step to developing your link base. But remember that Google is discerning. It wants to see links that are relevant to your niche and that have been built up slowly and naturally and that come from sites that are themselves popular and ideally of high authority.

It is irrelevant how many links are pointing to your website if they’re not relevant and good quality. The important criteria is where these links are coming from.

Boost your visibility with Keyboost

So is your website appearing in Google for the keyword phrase you're targeting? If you’re not yet being found in the top 10 results, we can help – with our Keyboost tool.

How does it work to help you? Keyboost uses algorithms, similar to Google's, to analyse your keyword. It then uses software to place what are known as 'dynamic links' to your site from other relevant websites. It researches for you only those that Google determines as the most authoritative and pertinentto your target keyword. Linking your webpage with these domains endorses the authenticity of the content of your site. The result? Google grades your site with a higher score and indexes it higher. Note, Keyboost achieves this without altering the content of your website in any way.

To try out our optimization tool, simply click here. It’s totally free. We offer one Keyboost trial per domain name, for one keyword. To be eligible to use it for optimization of your UK site, we just ask that your website is currently in Google’s top 100 for a search in the UK with your chosen keyword. Once underway, the trial takes about a month to complete. It is also without cost to you. We give everyone who registers with us one free trial per domain. So if you own more than one domain, you're eligible for a free Keyboost for each.

In virtually all cases, after a few weeks, the results are very clear. Our evidence shows that most Keyboost users see their rankings improve considerably. They also get a SERPs lift far more quickly than they would get forking out large budgets on Google Adwords. Better still, our Keyboost trial is free. Try it now and see for yourself.

Newsletters that are educational

The story of SEO has changed a lot since we established ourselves as a company over 15 years ago. In that time, our in-house IT specialists have developed a detailed understanding of the workings of Google and the best tactics for a successful website strategy. We live and breathe the field of optimization. We’ve helped hundreds of customers lift their websites from the obscurity that goes with being beyond Google's page one. As a result we're now one of Europe’s leading SEO consultancies. We now work on the basis that making this knowledge available to you can only make the Internet a better place for everybody. Subscribe to our newsletter series here to access our knowledge pool and receive our regular optimization lessons on:

1. Getting more customers to your website
2. The secrets of Google unraveled

Do you need further help with your website?

If you are struggling to attain a place on Google’s first page, you might benefit from a full audit of your site. SEO Page Optimizer company's professional team delivers services, ranging from link building, to on-page and off-page analysis, and SEM (search engine marketing) advice and practice. If you’d like to see how we can help, get in touch with us for an initial informal consultation. Then, if it's what you feel is right for you, we'll perform an audit, deliver you our feedback and suggest the best action-plan for your site and target audience. Email us at info@seopageoptimizer.co.uk or call directly at +44 3308 084797.

Breaking down your page content

For every search query, Google's algorithm assesses which web pages are most relevant for the search's keywords. How it does this is complex but it involves determining the extent to which the keywords appear in the important content elements on every web page. This is why these content elements are worth using right.

Content elements, from important to less important

1. Title tag: this is the title of the web page that appears in the browser and in the list of Google search results. It’s also the first clickable row in the list of search results in Google, so it’s the first thing a user sees of your website when they put in their query. First impressions are everything. Strong keyword-optimized text in the title tag will make the difference between getting a click or no click from your potential visitors. Remember to use your target keywords and keep it under 65 characters. Try to ensure your core terms are contained in your title with the most important keywords nearest the front. If you're using your brand name as part of the title, put it last – unless you're a household globally recognized name.
2. Meta description: this is the short description or summary of the content and it usually appears in the list of Google search results if sufficiently relevant. Google doesn’t consider it in its algorithm but it’s worth writing well because it’s your chance to increase your click-through-rate (CTR) which Google does consider a factor for indexing. So use your keywords and write this description persuasively. Think of it as a small ad for your site. Include a call to action such as ‘click here to find out about our accountancy services package’. Keep it under 160 characters otherwise it will get truncated by Google.
3. Headers: these are the main heading (h1) and sub-headings (h2, h3, h4 etc) in the content of the web page. Do make use of your target keywords and related ones in the headers but don’t overdo it and make it look keyword-stuffed or spammy. Google will use these to decide whether your web page has a structure through the headers and the related content. Also headers are good for visitors’ scanning – after all most will not read all the content.
4. Body: this is the solid text content of your web page. How do you start writing it? Start by finding the web pages that are indexed highly for your keyword. Look at how much text these have and which keywords and related words are being employed. But never copy text: Google penalizes duplicate copy. Write useful and interesting content to demonstrate your knowledge and win trust. Slip in calls-to-action to get your visitors to do what you want them to do. Use your keywords and synonyms in the first 100 words and then continue to use them in the content but without sacrificing readability. Good quality informative copy is your aim. If you're staying focused and writing on topic, you should find that the keywords and related words you use appear naturally.
5. Links: these include the external links - to other websites - and the internal links - to other pages on your same website from the web page. External links let Google know your site is of interest to other users, while the internal links, which you should use keyword optimized anchor text for, make it easier for Google’s spiders to find their way around your site.
6. Alt-information: this is the text information that is linked to images, videos or other non-textual items on the web page. Alt-text should aim to accurately and briefly describe the image and it’s another place to include your target keyword. Remember Google can't see what an image is but it can read alt-text. Don't forget too to give your image files relevant names too. Don't just use numbers; change the file name to include a keyword or accurate description.
7. Bold: these are the words on the web page that are highlighted in some way. You can make them bold, italic or underlined. Google attributes importance to this text over plain text, so again, use of your keywords is wise.

Are all your content elements being used according to Google best practice? Have you used your keyword enough or too little? Find out quickly by trying our Page Optimizer for free. We give everyone who registers one free analysis per day. Register now for better optimisation!

Get a ranking lift with Keyboost

Once you've optimized your page as well as you can using SEO Page Optimizer, your website will be indexed more highly. As we explained, successful website optimization comes down to two factors: on-page and off-page. These come down to well-structured keyword-optimized on-page content and the building of quality off-page external links.

Keyboost, the link creation tool designed by SEO Page Optimizer company, can achieve these links for you and guarantee that they are high-quality and that they come only from relevant and authoritative sites in your specific niche.

Like anything related to optimization, slow and steady is the best path. We are not a get-results-quick link farm that sells bulk qualities of indiscriminate links that might lead to your receiving a Google penalty. Instead, our specialist technicians, once you inform them of your target keyword and target url, will get to work researching the optimum sites from which to gain you inbound links. Each backlink is meticulously researched and of direct relevance to your website and its niche.

You are eligible for a free Keyboost if you meet the following criteria. You have optimized your web page with our Page Optimizer. Or your webpage is in Google's top 100 for a given keyword. Simply fill in our application form to avail yourself of the service for free. The results are seen within one month and are better than those you can achieve with paid advertising such as Google Ads.

10 reasons to use our tool: SEO Page Optimizer

1. The tool has been developed in house by our specialist technicians to mirror the algorithms for indexing used by Google so you can be confident that by using it, you’re analyzing your pages as Google does.
2. It works by taking your target keyword and assessing the top 10 pages in Google and them comparing your page to them. It then feeds back to you the changes you need to make to match their on-page content or improve on it.
3. It’s easy and intuitive. You’ll gain all the knowledge through it to be an expert web copywriter.
4. Once you’ve registered, you get one free analysis per day. That’s every day of the week, so 365 free analyses a year. And if you need more? You can order these from us easily online.
5. You receive practical advice on the optimal use of your keyword.
6. You also get a list of the best keyword-related words to use. These can be used to find an optimal balance between the use of your keywords and synonyms.
7. It serves you up a detailed actionable report, highlighting where your web page is succeeding and where it is falling short, for each individual on-page content element.
8. Each content element is given a color-coded grade in the form of red (needs improvement); amber (getting closer); green (very good) and blue (perfect).
9. It gives you step-by-step instructions as to how improve the content and grades you on it. Once you’ve made the recommended changes, you can submit your page for another free analysis and see if you’ve achieved the blue thumbs up symbol.
10. Once you’ve followed all the instructions, you’ll see an immediate improvement in your Google ranking.

Get a step ahead now of your competitor websites and take advantage of the added value that our Page Optimizer offers. Register now and test one of your web pages for its fstrength for free.

The importance of website form

Google looks at how websites and web pages are constructed according to their best practice and layout and structure are important too for optimization for search engines.

You might think layout is about how your website looks. Yes, the more visually appealing it is, the better. But don’t ignore the practical stuff and it's best to avoid Flash, which Google does not like as it can't be easily read.

The use of a contemporary layout with CSS (cascading style sheets) is now what Google looks for. If layout items are overly complex (special fonts, images or videos in non standard format), they won’t be processed correctly by search engines. Anything that reduces a good user experience is not well seen by Google and will mean poor ranking and lower indexing. The best advice today is to avoid frames for this reason.

Check your page loading speed. If it's slow, you'll be indexed lower. It may be a simple case of reducing image file sizes to speed page loading up for better optimization for search engines.

Mobile responsiveness for optimisation

Another important consideration for optimization is how mobile-friendly your site is. If your site is older and has not been designed to be mobile responsive, you’re likely to be affected by Google’s latest algorithm update. Websites that are not will from now on be indexed lower than those that are. Why? Because Google has realized how many people now use their smart phones for search and how frustrated they become trying to swipe minuscule buttons or links. Layout elements worth thinking about are the size of the text, the content being outside the screen making visitors have to swipe from one side to the other or links being too jammed close for fingers to access.

Navigation for users and Google

Finally, think about the navigation of your website and what are known as the bread crumbs - the internal guide posts between pages. The recommendation is that a user should be able to find his way to the page he wants to go to with three clicks or less. This is especially crucial for optimization if you remember that with search engines, visitors don’t necessarily arrive on your home page. They go directly to the optimised page for the keyword query they’ve typed in. So design your website’s navigation and internal links so that every optimised page is independent while offering clear pathways to your other pages.

We’ve covered the optimization value of giving your site clear and easy-to-use navigation. But to help move traffic around your site, don’t forget the importance of internal linking.

Internal linking has lots of benefits. It can reduce your bounce rate (people leaving your site quickly) because it gives visitors more reading choices and paths around your site. Make them relevant and use strong anchor text (the clickable highlighted words in any give link).

Internal links can improve your ranking for certain keywords. If we want this web page to rank for the term 'what is SEO' then we can link to it from other web pages on this site using variations of similar anchor text. This is a real sign to Google that this page will be useful to surfers looking to understand ‘what is SEO’.

But good internal linking boosts optimization because it means Google can crawl and index your site more easily.

Keep the content coming

To encourage optimisation, keep adding valuable fresh content to your website. Google rewards you if you update your site regularly. It means it's relevant and that your site is being used. Add a new blog post as often as you can and bring any older web pages up to date. If you keep adding new content, the search engines will crawl your site more often and index you higher.

10 reasons to use Keyboost

1. You’ll get a raise in your search rankings within at least one month
2. It’s totally free to trial as long as the webpage you want ‘boosting’ for a target keyword is in Google’s top 100 for that keyword or you’ve optimized that page for SEO using our SEO Page Optimizer
3. Keyboost’s technicians place your links without any need for you to change the content on your website
4. The only effort required on your part is supplying your target keyword and your target web page
5. You can be sure you’re getting good quality links
6. You’ll benefit from the specialist research and placement skills of our expert optimisation consultants
7. You can have confidence that the inbound links that Keyboost awards you are relevant to your niche sector and from sites of relevance, high trust and authority
8. The high-quality backlinks you receive will optimize your site’s reputation and authority
9. You’ll get better effects and it will cost you less than paid advertising such as Google AdWords.
10. You’re tapping into the expertise of one of Europe’s most highly respected SEO agencies, with more than 15 years experience behind it.

Interested to try out Keyboost for yourself? Simply fill in the application form here and we’ll be in touch.

Calls-to-action

Your website has a purpose - that’s why you’re working so hard to optimize it. It might be to persuade your visitors to check out your services, to buy your products, request a quote, or to download an e-book or white paper you’re offering. Calls-to-action (CTAs) are a good idea to put on every web page.

A call-to-action is an active request for the visitor to do 'something' and they’re your way of guiding your visitors through the buying or doing journey. People are quicker to do things which they have been urged to do so you should write your CTAs persuasively. Don’t just put ‘Buy now!’ but make it worth their while: ‘Buy now and get 50% discount’; not just ‘Download here’ but ‘Download white paper to get useful insight into best SEO practices’.

Calls-to-action are your route to conversion. Visitors not only take in the information on your website, but also do something with it, i.e. they take action. Calls-to-action make your website genuinely interactive.

It’s not hard to measure the result of a call-to-action: 'Download the e-book on optimization’ leads the visitor to another web page. Your website stats in Google Analytics will then show how often the web page has been visited and that will tell you how effective the call-to-action was.

If you’re using a call-to-action in the form of a button, remember to be mobile-friendly and that the text on it is clear. This type of button should be in a contrasting colour – orange is an energetic color – and the button should be a finger-tappable size: at least 7mm is recommended.

Here are some examples of calls-to-action:

1. Add to bag
2. Try it for free
3. Use our service for free for two weeks – it’s on us
4. Send this page to a friend
5. Start my 30-day trial
6. Get yours today!
7. Fill in the form for a free quote
8. Not yet a customer? Register here for free and order online!
9. Order now and receive a free gift!

15-point checklist for optimisation

Time for a re-cap now and we’ve created an easy-to-follow checklist below for you to make sure you’re doing all you can to get your website optimized right. We’ve covered keyword research in great detail in this article so it’s not going in the list as we’re assuming you’ve understood its paramount importance!

Don’t forget you can use our on-page optimisation checker Page Optimizer for free to highlight what you need to improve to get your website’s organic search results appearing higher for optimization. And to check your keyword usage. Click here to sign up to the tool for zilch.

And to get your site even higher in Google’s all-important organic search results, take advantage of our free Keyboost trial and gain good-quality relevant inbound links to your website and all the optimization power they bring. Click here to sign up for this tool too for zilch.

Do both and the results will be powerful! So here we go with our checklist.

1. Make sure your website is mobile responsive. Google makes it super easy for you to check through its own mobile-friendly optimizationtest here.
2. Write a strong title tag, using your keywords and your brand name, and keep it under about 65 characters (that’s including spaces).
3. Craft a persuasive meta-description to encourage visitors to click through to you when your website appears in their browsers. Use your keywords and related words in it, include a call to action and keep it under 165 characters (that’s including spaces).
4. Organize your web page content with the most important elements first and divide the copy up using your H1 (only one of these per page), H2, H3, H4 etc tags (you can have more than one of these per page), placing your keywords and synonyms in them.
5. Write good informative content for your body copy and sprinkle your keywords throughout. Focus on the human visitor as you write but afterwards run your page through our checker tool Page Optimizer to get a little mathematical guidance as to optimum keyword usage. The amount of copy you’ll need will vary according to what competition you’re facing out there for the keyword (as a guide, check out the top 10 pages on Google for your keyword) but most pages need at least 450 words. Our checker tool will tell you exactly how many words you’ll need.
6. Make sure all your pages, or at least the key ones, have a clear call to action. Make them easy to see and above the fold and if you’re using buttons, make them large enough to be swipe-able.
7. Use your alt-tags and put keywords into the attributes where relevant and don’t forget to give your image files relevant names too. Make sure images are compressed so they don’t slow your site speed. The same goes for videos if you’re using them. Choose a keyword phrase to target for your videoand use it in your video title, description, and file name (ie: keyword-name.mov). Upload the video transcript for better optimization and Google indexing.
8. Make your contact details clearly available on every web page and in a couple of different ways, via the header for example, and the footer.
9. Make use of social media integration and all your relevant social media platforms and put social sharing buttons on every web page.
10. Write easily-understandable URLs, separate words with hyphens or dashes, and use your keywords in them.
11. Keep your website content fresh. Add new blog material regularly and update web pages often. Google likes to see a site in constant evolution. And the more keyword-optimized pages you can create, the more likely your customers are to find you.
12. Include a privacy statement accessible from the footer generally. This is seen as a trust signal by Google.
13. Create internal links between your web pages so that ideally each web page links to at least three others and use strategic anchor text to do this by using your keywords within it.
14. Spend time developing inbound links by writing great blogs that people will want to share (promote them), offering to guest post on other sites, responding in forums, getting yourself listed on relevant local business or professional directories and reaching out to sites in a similar niche to yourself. Make use of our Keyboost linking service to all of this fast and professionally. (You can sign up for a free Keyboost test here).
15. Install Google Analytics so you can see how well you’re optimizing and measure your (hopefully!) increasing numbers of visitors.

Not sure you’ve achieved all this? Our friendly consultants at SEO Page Optimizer will be happy to talk through your specific circumstances, problems and target market and help you with a site audit. If you’d like to see how we can help, get in touch with us for an initial informal consultation. Email us at info@seopageoptimizer.co.uk or call directly at +44 3308 084797.

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