Breaking down SEO for Exeter Businesses
Last month, local digital marketing agency The Click Hub teamed up with Exeter-based web designers Doodlebug to give a seminar on SEO, design and illustration, social media and content as well as website design and development. There was a great turnout and the audience was full of lots of Exeter’s finest SMEs looking to gain some insight into the digital world.
For those that missed out this time, you can rest assured that The Click Hub will be holding more seminars in the future. But for now, here are some of the SEO secrets that were shared and questions that were answered on the day
1. What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) covers a whole bunch of techniques and strategies you can use in order to increase the amount of visitors to your website (we call this traffic). A website achieves this mainly by obtaining a high-ranking position in the search results page of a search engine.
2. What does it mean to be on Page 1?
- 93% of online searches start with a search engine (70% of which is Google)
- 70% of the links that Search users click on are organic
- 75% of users never scroll past page 3
3. What are they main SEO elements?
Google is pretty darn clever and uses over 200 factors to rank a web page and they won’t actually reveal these factors to users. However, digital marketers can be quite clever too sometimes, and have managed to work out a winning formula to please those google bots and allow your business to get the visibility and traffic it deserves. The main factors in this formula are:
- 1. Onsite changes (website design, user experience, content, keyword relevance)
- 2. Offsite changes (link building, social media - basically building your authority)
4. How can I get started? Are there any easy wins?
Yes! To begin with you can:
- 1. Carry out keyword research using a tool like Google Adwords Keyword Planner. Keywords are important because they are the search terms you want to be found for. Aim for a keyword with a good search volume but low competition for the best chance at ranking.
- 2. Optimise your site for your chosen keyword. Include it in the site title, domain name, description, tagline, page titles, and page content.
- 3. Start regularly updating your website content. No matter how good your product or service, not refreshing your website content is like having a shop window in a prime location but never changing the display. The easiest way to do this is through blogs or news articles. Content should be at least 350 words and should be fresh, engaging and optimised for peripheral search terms.
- 4. In-bound links are essential to SEO so you should start link building to increase your website’s authority. You can do this by pushing out your content on social media or by contacting other sites that might be interested in guest posts or just sharing your existing articles. You can also build links by engaging in your industry’s online community, commenting on blogposts and joining forum discussions.
- 5. Start tracking your progress using website analytics tools like Google Analytics. This is a very powerful tool because it allows you to understand how users are interacting with your website. It’s only by using analytics that you can see what’s working and worth it, and what’s not.
For more SEO tips and tricks to help with your Exeter business’s online presence you can visit The Click Hub blog, and be sure keep an eye out for the next seminar!
