SEO FAQs – frequently asked questions answered
SEO is a crucial component of any inbound marketing strategy for getting your website found in Google’s organic search results. And, whether you’ve heard a little about SEO and its advantages, or you already know you want to use it in your marketing, but don’t know-how, you’re in the right place with our SEO FAQs!
So, we’ve answered the common SEO questions put to us by our clients. This FAQ is your first step towards understanding SEO and how you can make it work for you.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation and is a digital marketing strategy which helps your website to rank higher on search engine results pages. In other words, the closer your site appears to the top of someone’s search results, the better your SEO.
93% of online experiences begin with a search engine, and SEO works by improving your website’s visibility in search engines such as Google. And the higher your site ranks in the search results, the greater the chances of your potential customers clicking on your links.
How does SEO work?
SEO has two main processes:
The first is creating webpages that Google prefers. When Google answers your question by returning a bunch of search results, it prioritises the most relevant, useful, and quality content.
The second is making it easy for Google to find your content, and this is where keywords and phrases are essential. If you do your research and choose keywords and phrases that people are most likely to use in a search, the better your chances that Google will find it.
What is organic search?
Organic search refers to visitors finding your website on search engine results pages, without you paying for online advertising such as pay-per-click (PPC – read our PPC FAQs here.)
The type of traffic is often dependent on Google’s algorithms, which chooses which content is seen first by search engine users. SEO improves your results in organic searches.
Will SEO attract more qualified visitors to my website?
SEO can improve your website’s traffic over time. If you follow the general tips within this blog and regularly update your website pages with fresh, quality content, SEO will creep upwards. It usually takes up to six months, so it’s not a quick fix, but it’s a free and sustainable marketing tool for your business.
If you’re identifying relevant keywords that your target audience is using to search with, then you are effectively targeting your products our services at website visitors who are interested in what you have to offer. You can’t get much better than that if you want good quality leads.
Does including links to other sites help my SEO?
Adding internal (your website) and external (someone else’s website) links to your content improves its SEO.
- Internal links help search engines index your site and improve the page rank of the pages to which you link back.
- External links also help search engines identify your keywords. And, they help you increase incoming links from other websites – it’s polite to link back to someone who has linked to you if the content is relevant.