Getting on Board the SEO Train

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Getting on Board the SEO Train

The acronym ‘SEO’ is becoming an increasingly mainstream part of our business terminology. Whilst not quite up there with the BBC, CIA or FBI, nearly everyone involved in running any kind of a business that involves a website (hands up!) is at worst on vaguely familiar terms, and at best intimately involved with search engine optimisation.

But unless you work in an SEO marketing agency or your parents are SEO marketing consultants, how do you find out just what drives this runaway train, and how much of the journey do you need to embark on? Do you need a full-on season ticket to ride, or will a day pass to the next station be enough to get you to where you want to be? At the end of the day you will only get out of SEO as much as you put in. How involved you become will depend on your requirements and the results you want to achieve, as well as more tangible factors such as budgets and time constraints.

In order to understand SEO it is really only necessary to understand a few fundamental principles. Just like our metaphorical train, a successful SEO strategy has individual components that make up the sum of the whole. Without each part of the strategy working in conjunction with the other you cannot expect optimum results; but the good news is you don’t need to be an SEO marketing consultant to comprehend the basics.

Site structure – SEO (Spell Everything Out)

The very first thing you need is to ensure that your site is visible to search engines. Site structure is like the station your train departs from. If no-one can find it, how are they going to get on board? Make sure that there is nothing which physically creates a barrier to the search engines. This doesn’t have to be as scary as it sounds and most of the time you can retain all your bells and whistles with just a few small changes. A good SEO marketing agency will be able to advise you what alterations need to be made.

Keyword Research – SEO (Strategy Eschews Obfuscation)

Ok stop panicking! If you’ve never heard the term ‘eschew obfuscation’, all it is, is a deliberate irony which means avoid baffling people by being intentionally difficult to interpret!

Keyword research is like the timetable your train needs in order to continue successfully on its journey. In SEO terms, the strategy of your keyword research is simply determining just what battle it is you want to win. Keyword research is a crucial part of SEO and most of the planning that follows is based on this. No matter what you do, there’s no point being number 1 in Google for a phrase nobody’s typing in!

Keyword Enhanced Content – SEO (Say Everything, but Elegantly)

Once you’ve chosen your key phrases for your page, the next step is to optimise the copy on the page using those phrases. There is an art to making your copy rich enough to be of SEO benefit, but to also keep it relevant and easy to read. An SEO marketing agency can help you with copywriting services and will ensure that all your text and meta tags are correctly enriched and not ‘overstuffed.’ When Google sees that your page is indeed relevant to the keywords you are fighting for, it will appear higher up in the rankings when someone searches for them.

Link Building – SEO (Significant External Onus)

The last component in your SEO train journey is the fuel to keep it going. A link building campaign is an essential part of any successful SEO strategy. Links are like votes from your peers, telling Google that your site is relevant and reputable. The best way to achieve good, quality links is by providing great content. Online press releases, articles and anything interesting or controversial that people might want to link to can work. A good SEO marketing agency can assist you with your links campaign and, as experts, they will know what works and what doesn’t.

You don’t need to be intimidated by SEO. Follow the basic steps and it can be So Easy to Optimise! A bit of planning and some careful research and implementation could see your business reap the rewards as your Site Enters Orbit!

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