SEO Basics: 5 best practices to lay SEO foundations
Written by Lilly Steel, Managing Director
It’s no secret that rising up the search rankings is a challenge. To have the best chance of being seen by potential customers, you need to lay the SEO groundwork so your strategy finds long term success. Starting out can be daunting, so we’ve broken down five best practices to lay SEO foundations and get your website off to a good start.
Define your objectives
SEO is a marathon, not a sprint, so set reasonable and attainable goals. Expect to make marginal and inconsistent growth for the first six months as your website finds its footing. Try not to commit too much to SEO or you may hurt your other marketing efforts.
“In January I received only 600 visits, but with a blog post every day for the next month, I could make that 5000.”
And here’s an example of a better goal:
“In January my site received 600 visits. With the guest post I have scheduled and a couple solid blog posts, I hope to achieve 650-700 visits in February”
There’s always the case of a website that starts up, posts a bunch of content, and attracts thousands of visitors right away. But this is the exception not the rule, so plan accordingly, and set small, attainable milestones.
A good way is to determine which keywords you’d like to show up for, and then assign page view targets to them. For example, “I want to achieve 10 hits per day from searches containing the keyword ‘dishwashers’.
Assess your competitors
You can learn a lot about how to improve your SEO performance by looking at what your competitors are doing. After all, they’re the people you’re competing with, so they must have some edge to be ranking higher than you.
Gleaning info from your competitors is dead easy. You can start by entering search terms into Google similar to what your ideal customers would be searching, and then exploring the websites that are ranking higher than you.
See what kinds of blog content they’re putting out, the overall structure of their site (eg. page organisation, length of copy, main keywords, etc) and any inbound and outbound links. Sometimes it’s painfully obvious why some sites are ranking higher than others – more relevant keywords, the right length of copy, pages that resonate with the user, more informative blog posts, etc.
Then see what your competitors are not doing to identify a gap in the market. For example, maybe a lot of people are searching for the best energy efficient lightbulb, but none of your competitors are stressing energy efficiency in their copy/content. This gives you the opportunity to be the first to do so and appeal to more visitors.
Do your keyword research
Keywords are the number one thing a search engine will look at to figure out where your site belongs in the search results. It’s why when you search for a table lamp you don’t see links to baby formula.
If you speak the language of your customers and use the right jargon, Google will know who you’re trying to reach and pair you up with visitors who are searching for what you offer. Keyword research ensures you know which terms to include in your content and copy to improve your chances of being seen in potential customers’ searches.
For example, if you’re selling exercise drinks, you’ll want to use terms like “nutrition”, “energy”, “best workout drinks”, and so on, as future customers will be Googling these kinds of things. There’s plenty of free and paid keyword research tools out there that’ll tell you what your ideal customers are putting into Google.
Understand user intent
If you understand user intent and tailor your content and website to your ideal customer, the right people are more likely to come across your site.
There are four types of user intent, and you need to tailor specific content/pages to each group of web visitors. The first is informational intent.
People searching with informational intent are looking to educate themselves on the product or service you’re selling. Reach them with explainer blog posts, product comparisons, guides, etc. Being genuinely helpful and leaving a good impression on these people is super important as they could turn into customers/clients later on.
The second type is navigational intent. These are people looking to reach a specific site. Someone searching for “Claudia’s Cakes” will likely not care about any of Claudia’s competitors, but she should still do a good job ranking her site for this search term so she doesn’t miss out on the customer!
Next is transactional intent. People searching with transactional intent want to get the best deal with the best quality, and usually have specific requirements in mind. They can be easy sales if your site ticks the right boxes – so make sure to use keywords that fit common customer needs.
Lastly is commercial intent. People searching with commercial intent have a rough idea of what they want, but are yet to pick a specific brand/model/service. You can win these visitors by being informative about how your offering is stronger than your competitors, and providing information that sways potential customers in your direction.
User intent is important because it means you can tailor different pages to different types of visitors. This will mean people stick around for longer, respond positively, and let Google know to send you similar viewers.
Create SEO-friendly content
Having a user-friendly site with the right pages and keywords is good and all, but content is what gives your SEO strategy energy. Content gets you seen by visitors, it keeps your site relevant, it tells Google you’re legitimate, and lets search engines know who to recommend you to.
Blog content is still the main form of online content – and don’t let anyone tell you “blogging is dead”, because it’s not true. What do you do if you need a new fridge and don’t know what to buy? Where do you go when you need an expert review of a particular product model? You get the point.
There’s a method for content writing and a few key strong points you’ll want to hit to give your article the best visibility. Other than engaging, helpful content of course, you’ll want a strong intro hook, relevant keywords, and a short but friendly title. This will ensure Google picks up your blog post and serves it to the ideal reader.
Breaking your article down into subheadings and sections will make it more accessible for the user and increase read time. Word and sentence length is important if you want to keep your reader’s focus. Internal links help you direct traffic around your website, telling Google that people are engaging with your site. External links make your site more favourable in the eyes of search engines, and give them more information to work from.
Every element is critical and increases your chance of being seen in the search results. It’s better to post quality articles on a less consistent basis than to pump out low quality content.
Pushing your site up the rankings requires effort and strategy that not everyone has time for. As a Hampshire-based digital marketing agency, our team of expert consultants can handle the challenging parts of SEO for you, so you can focus on improving your business. A strong SEO campaign goes a long way in growing your company. Reach out and let us take the SEO weight off your shoulders.
