Appeal to Searchers and Search Engines with SEO

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

In this blog we answer the following questions relating to search engine optimisaton, and how to rank higher on Google:

• What is SEO?
• How is SEO different from SEM?
• How do search engines like Google rank websites?
• Why should I optimise my website for both search engines and the people doing the search?

Ranking on Google – search engine optimisation ‘SEO’ & search engine marketing ‘SEM’

Although SEO and SEM sound kind of the same, they work completely different. While SEO stands for ‘search engine optimisation’, SEM is an abbreviation of ‘search engine marketing’.

SEO generally means making small tweaks to your website that might help it organically show up in people’s search results. It is more about improving your website to be the best search result it can be which is pretty crucial in the search game.

On the contrary, SEM means paid search ads. These usually show up at the top or bottom of the search results, and their ultimate goal is to help a searcher find what they’re looking for on the web. The owner of the ad has to pay every time their ad is clicked on (PPC).

Consider this: at least 95% of searchers stick with the listings on the first page of results. Therefore, the closer your listing is to that page, the better.

In order to achieve this, you need to know how search works. We will use Google, the most popular search engine in the world, as an example.

How to rank higher on Google – Google perspective

The ranking process starts with Google crawling the web using “bots”. The bots follow links from page to page, examining the content and collecting as much of the web as possible. Google then puts all collected pieces of content and pages in an index, sorting them by content and other features.

When someone does a search, Google ranks the results for them using algorithms (read about the most recent algorithm update) to figure out what the searcher is looking for. It then serves up the most relevant pages from the index.

Exactly where your website appears in search results is affected by the words you use on your website. Keywords help them understand the topic.

Other factors include how many websites link to yours (number of good quality backlinks), and how high is your domain authority score (quality and popularity of your website). Search engines can now also consider the searcher’s location, so a search from e.g. London will display a localised set of search results.

Google always strives to present the best quality results and for this reason, it looks for as much info as possible about websites. So keep in mind that not everything the bots find makes it into a search engine’s index. If, for instance, search engines find multiple copies of the exact same piece of content (plagiarised or duplicate content), located on different websites, chances are it won’t make it to the index.

In general, there are 3 main pieces to a search result (though search engines may change these elements over time):

1. Title – i.e. the name of the webpage and the company,
2. URL – the web address of the site,
3. Description – a short snippet (meta) describing the webpage content.

Search engines will see all of this information as part of a code. People, on the other hand, will see the information in their search results page. It will be organised and colour-coded with a clickable title and URL.

Because search engines and people see search results in different ways, you have to prepare your site for them in different ways.

The good news is, optimisation is usually about tweaking and improving rather than a complete site rebuild.

So, to get your site ready for search engine viewing, make sure it’s easily navigated and structured locally so it can be crawled and indexed accurately. It helps to know the following Do’s and Don’ts.

Do’s:

• Your page title should be original and accurate, but at the same time sum up your business in a short, info-rich phrase,
• Write different descriptions for every single page (especially if you have a lot of them),
• Choose a domain name that is easy to read and descriptive (best if it contains a keyword),
• Make subpage URLs easy to read: www.yourdomain.com/mysubpage,
• Don’t forget to add descriptive alt tags to your images.

Don’ts:

• Use a page title that’s creative but has nothing to do with the page,
• Use the default title or a vague one, like “Untitled” or “New Page” – these don’t help the crawlers understand what is on your page,
• Write a description that has nothing to do with the page’s content or is generic, like “This is a web page”,
• If you need to, use lengthy, complicated URLs: www.mydomain.com/prodid!4321.

How to rank higher on Google – client perspective

While not every person can be a copywriter, you can follow a few guidelines to help you craft better content.

First of all, make your text easy to read and follow. Don’t overcomplicate it.

Second, organise your content and keep it focused on the topic at hand. A text divided into logical, short chunks is better as it helps people find what they’re looking for faster.

Also, pay attention to your images. It is best to write a short caption below each image and put vital info in the text rather than in the image.

Make sure to regularly add new content. It keeps your supporters coming back and brings in new visitors.

Furthermore, people love to share great content with others through social media, blogs, emails, etc. Take advantage of it – organic wor-of-mouth may help you get more visits and repeat visitors.

In conclusion, you should make your site as attractive and original as possible to both a search engine and a searcher. Create good and more importantly, relevant content. It helps if you can step into the minds of both and see how they picture search results.

Optimising for search engine crawling is about tweaking words and URLs, while optimising for searchers is about crafting content. Create strong, engaging, and useful content in order to improve your search status and appeal to both.

Need More Resources on Marketing Websites?

Check out Intellistart’s other resources on great marketing strategies for websites:

• What is A/B Testing?
• How to Choose a Domain name and Hosting for Your New Website
• How to build a successful website from scratch in 2021
• Have you fallen into the free website builder trap? Check!