How can you improve your SEO
Is your website performing as well as it could? How can you improve your SEO so that in 2021 your website will bring you more business?
Make improving your SEO one of your business goals for 2024
“I know I want a Squarespace website and you came up on the first page of Google.”
This is how a conversation with a client started recently. It’s always satisfying to get a new client, especially when they seem to come out of the blue. This entrepreneur searched Google, found me and phoned me. But really this isn’t out of the blue, the reason she found me was because I worked to make sure that my website’s SEO (search engine optimisation) is working to bring me new business. Her phone call was the pay-off of the earlier work.
Wouldn’t it be great to regularly have new clients and customers find you? If your business goals for the year include increasing your client base then you need to make improving your SEO part of your plans.
Like any new resolution you need to start by taking stock of where you are and deciding where you want to be by this time next year. This will help you to develop an action plan to achieve your SEO goals.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimisation - or SEO- is a way of making sure that your customers can find you, and the solution you offer to their problems, online, easily. It makes your website appear in search results when a stranger is looking for a business like yours.
In the past, website owners resorted to tactics like keyword stuffing - adding important search terms to their website, photo captions and even hiding text in the same colour as the background. Google and other search engines have become much more sophisticated and now punish websites that don’t play fair. Google also ranks websites based on the quality of the information and the user experience. A few years ago Google introduced an EAT score (Expertise, Authority, and Trust), a set of quality guidelines to assess the credibility and value of online content. It emphasises the importance of expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness of websites and content creators. EAT signals to search engines that a website can be trusted to provide accurate and reliable information, resulting in higher search rankings.
In 2023 Google extended this to EEAT.
EEAT takes EAT a step further by considering not only the expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness of the content creator but also the extended expertise within the specific topic or industry. It recognizes that subject matter experts can have varying levels of expertise in different niches, allowing for a more nuanced evaluation of content relevance and credibility.
Features and Benefits of EAT and EEAT:
Credibility and Trust: EAT and EEAT help establish credibility and trustworthiness, making your website a reliable source of information in the eyes of search engines and users.
Higher Search Rankings: Adhering to EAT and EEAT guidelines can lead to improved search rankings, as search engines prioritise trustworthy and authoritative content.
User Satisfaction: By providing accurate and high-quality content, you enhance the user experience, fostering trust and loyalty among your audience.
Niche Authority: EEAT enables subject matter experts to showcase their expertise in specific niches, positioning themselves as authorities in their respective fields.
Competitive Advantage: Embracing EAT and EEAT principles gives you a competitive edge by demonstrating your expertise and credibility compared to competitors who may not prioritize these factors.
EAT, EEAT, and SEO:
EAT and EEAT are closely tied to search engine algorithms and play a vital role in SEO strategies. Search engines like Google consider EAT and EEAT signals when determining search rankings. To optimise your website for these factors, consider the following SEO practices:
Quality Content: Create well-researched, informative, and authoritative content that aligns with your niche and expertise.
Backlinks: Earn high-quality backlinks from reputable websites, as they validate your expertise and authority.
Expert Contributors: Collaborate with industry experts and influencers to enhance your website's credibility and expertise.
User Experience: Prioritize user experience by ensuring a user-friendly website design, easy navigation, and fast loading speed.
Social Proof: Leverage social proof, such as testimonials and reviews, to reinforce trust and credibility.
Consider an SEO audit to improve your business website’s SEO over the coming year.
What is an SEO audit?
An SEO audit measures how well optimised your website is at the moment. Think of it as checking your bank balance and the price of that fancy holiday before you draw up a budget and a savings plan. Your SEO audit gives you a starting point from where to set your targets and performance indicators for improvement. It will highlight the areas that need work and the ways you might have overlooked increasing your website’s SEO.
For example, a recent audit looked at all the keywords that a legal firm is currently ranking for on Google and those of their top three competitors. It was interesting to see that the law firm was ranking for their name but not much else. The audit showed that his competitors, two of whom have a good record of content-creation, are ranking on Google for keywords and phrases more much closely related to their area of expertise and the services they offer their clients.
Here is a snapshot of what the audit results look like:
Volume and Difficulty of certain keywords on Google
Suggested Content Creation Topics for the future:
Another element of the audit is to look at suggested topics for content creation going forward, based on the data we have gleaned from the keyword research. This gives you a series of possible blog posts or video topics to create as part of your strategy.
Once you’ve figured out where the gaps are in your SEO strategy you can start to address them. This might mean creating brand new content which answers questions that people search online for, or it may mean just tweaking existing web content to match search terms more closely.
So you’ve got your SEO audit, now what?
Once you have your SEO audit you can develop your SEO strategy. You’ll be able to decide on the performance indicators for your website. That way you can measure how effectively your strategy is working over time.
Then you can make your content creation more intentional and in line with your SEO strategy. You can use the information from your SEO audit as the basis for creating your content strategy for the year ahead. Instead of creating content on a whim, or about things that you think your clients are interested in, you can create content that your ideal clients are actually searching for. Often this will mean answering questions, or it could mean addressing a very specific angle of your business – one that you hadn’t realised people were searching for information about online. It will also mean that your website will have been checked to make sure that the less visible elements – such as metatags, titles and alt-text – are all SEO-optimised.
And then, you can get back to doing what you do best – running your business and meeting your clients’ needs.
Get in touch if you would like to discuss an SEO audit for your website and a content creation strategy for success.
