TOP TIPS FOR - Generate UK...Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a fundamental part of every digital marketing strategy. Through this whitepaper, Generate UK will share with you some

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TOP TIPS FOR


These days, digital marketing is very powerful. If online businesses wish to increase their online presence, they must ensure that they have a comprehensive digital marketing strategy in place.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a fundamental part of every digital marketing strategy. Through this whitepaper, Generate UK will share with you some simple SEO tips that can help your business to become successful in the digital environment.

SEO helps to improve and promote a website’s search engine rankings in order to increase the number of online visitors and conversions on a daily basis. Mainly it’s about making your site better for users and compatible with search engines.

Every search engine contains algorithms that review all SEO elements on the website, and this directly affects where the website appears in search engine results.

02WHAT IS

SEO? (SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION)

WHY IS SEO IMPORTANT?The main importance of SEO is to make your website easy for users and search engine robots. SEO helps search engines figure out what each page on the website is about so it can display the most relevant page to the user when they search. Therefore content plays a big role in the SEO world.

SIMPLE TOP TIPS FOR SEO SUCCESSThere are two different SEO factors:

01 On-page Optimisation.

02 Off-page Optimisation.

CONTENT: KEYWORDSSearch engines feed on keywords; these are the queries that users type into the search bar when looking for a website about a specific topic. You want to make sure you are appearing to your audience with your most relevant con-tent, and also optimise your site with the terms they may be using to find you. Therefore, one of the first steps in SEO is to conduct keyword research to discover the online opportunities and competition.

Top tip - tools such as Google’s Keyword Planner can give you an estimate in the amount of average monthly searches your selected keyword receives, making it a useful tool when choosing the right keyword.


03ON-PAGE

SEO FACTORS

CREATIVE AND QUALITY Once you have completed your keyword research, you need to review the creativity and quality of your page content. Some questions to ask yourself include:

Are your pages well written?

Is your content of good quality for your users?

Are you adding valuable and relevant content on your site?

Is your content optimised for your chosen keywords?

Top tip - don’t over-stuff your keywords in your content, Google recommends writing natural articles sprinkled with your chosen keyword, which benefit the user experience rather than include your selected keyword at every opportunity.


META TITLESThese are one of the important SEO elements, and are also useful for users when pages have been bookmarked as a favourite in their browser. Meta titles should be concise, informative and optimised to reflect the content of the page. Google calculates the pixel width of the characters used in titles, with a limit of 512 pixels, which is approximately 60 characters.

Top tip –The nearer the keyword is to the beginning of the meta title, the more weight Google gives it.

META DESCRIPTIONS These are particularly important to help users understand what your page is about and they should encourage click through. They need to be unique for every page and should contain targeted keywords. Meta descriptions are used by search engines to create a snippet displayed beneath the meta title in the search result page listing. The recommended length of the description is 156 characters.

Top tip – always include a call to action within your meta description tag, as it will help encourage users to click-through to your website.

04ON-PAGE

SEO FACTORS

HEADERS (<H1>, <H2>, <H3>) Headers are used to represent headings and subheadings throughout your page. They are used by search engines and are usually a strong indication of the pages’ content. This element is considered as a strong ranking factor, therefore the main keyword within the header can have a positive impact on the on page optimisation.

Top tip – ensure each page on your website has an optimised H1 tag. The H1 tag effectively acts as a newspaper headline, letting search engines algorithms know what your content is about.

Heading 1 <H1>Heading 2 <H2>Heading 3 <H3>Heading 4 <H4>Heading 5 <H5>


STRUCTURED DATAYou are able to expand your listings with structured data called “rich snippets,” this is a listing that includes additional information about your business, such as reviews or ratings. This may not be a direct ranking factor, but it is a factor that will help to improve your click through rate.

Top tip - identify the highest value structured mark-up or your page, based on its content. Decide whether it needs to be marked-up, such as a product, an event or an article.

SITE CRAWLABILITYSearch engine algorithms crawl through your website, going from one page to another, trying to understand the structure of your website. They then store your website in an “index” – a library for websites. Search engines will be looking for elements such as page errors, internal links structure.

Top tip - make it easier for search engines to crawl your website by submitting a sitemap.xml document using the search engine’s webmaster tools.

05ON-PAGE

SEO FACTORS

SITE SPEEDThis is a key signal to search engines, as they only want to list sites in the search engines result pages that gives users the information they need quickly. This is an important factor, not only for search engines, but also for conversion and bounce rate. Is your website speed quick enough?

Top tip - One way to increase your site speed is to optimise your images so that they possess the exact number of pixels to fit the page. For example, if your page is 550px wide, ensure your pictures are the same size.

MOBILE FRIENDLYMore than 50% of all searches on Google come from mobile devices. As a result Google has placed more weight in search results for sites that are mobile friendly. Responsive websites have gone from being an optional extra to a must have for all companies, with Google now beginning to warn users if a listed website is not mobile friendly. SEO will continue to be impacted by the increasing use of mobile devices.

Top tip - keep the content short and sweet. Unlike desktop users, mobile users have notoriously lower levels of engagement on a website. Make sure you hook users in, and get your message across, quickly.

URL STRUCTUREThis is considered to be a ranking factor by search engines, so it’s very important that the URL is technically sound and search engine friendly. Every URL should be as short as possible, written in lower case and contain one of the main targeted keywords.

Top tip - where possible, aim to match your URLs to your page title/H1. This will make it easier for users to understand what a page’s content is about before clicking on a link.


06ON-PAGE

SEO FACTORS

http://www.example.com/category/ sub-category/descriptive-name#top

Protocol Folders/Directories

Subdomain Page

Domain Named Anchor

Top-Level Domain

01 02 03 0104 05

070605

01

02

03

04

05

06

07


LINKS, AUTHORITY & TRUSTLINK CITATIONS in the past, links were a high-ranking factor for search engine results. As a result, many businesses were purchasing and linking to low quality websites to gain higher rankings. The search engines responded with new algorithm updates to counter this, and so these days it’s about the quality and relevancy of the links over the quantity. Low quality link citations will now actually harm your website, which can cause your website to completely disappear from search engine result pages. It’s very important that instead your website gains quality links naturally from trusted and authoritative websites.

Top tip - it’s worth ensuring your partnerships are using backlinks to your site. If you’re lacking in these, see if you can do some guest blog posts on external sites.

AUTHORITY & TRUST - these two elements are extremely important for all websites. Search engines are looking at history of the website, including how many years the domain has been around, where it is hosted, and your social presence. It’s important to build your brand awareness- is your website authoritative and trustworthy?

07OFF-PAGE

SEO FACTORS

Top tip - while getting high quality external links is a good way to build up brand awareness, internal linking can be just as beneficial in building domain authority. Frequent internal links can help search engines navigate your website. This is especially important for content heavy sites, where search engines will need to crawl a large number of pages.

SOCIAL MEDIASocial strategy is a key part of the off-page SEO. It’s important for every online business to build their social presence and also to build the audience who will in turn share and link to your content. Always ask yourself these questions:

Who is your audience?

What is interesting about your brand?

Top tip – invest in a social media management platform to help manage your accounts. A good platform will allow you to quickly monitor relevant keywords, as well as tagged and untagged mentions of your brand to ensure you’re engaging everyone that mentions your company.


LINKS, AUTHORITY & TRUSTLINK CITATIONS in the past, links were a high-ranking factor for search engine results. As a result, many businesses were purchasing and linking to low quality websites to gain higher rankings. The search engines responded with new algorithm updates to counter this, and so these days it’s about the quality and relevancy of the links over the quantity. Low quality link citations will now actually harm your website, which can cause your website to completely disappear from search engine result pages. It’s very important that instead your website gains quality links naturally from trusted and authoritative websites.

Top tip - it’s worth ensuring your partnerships are using backlinks to your site. If you’re lacking in these, see if you can do some guest blog posts on external sites.

AUTHORITY & TRUST - these two elements are extremely important for all websites. Search engines are looking at history of the website, including how many years the domain has been around, where it is hosted, and your social presence. It’s important to build your brand awareness- is your website authoritative and trustworthy?

08OFF-PAGE

SEO FACTORS

Top tip – while getting high quality external links is a good way to build up brand awareness, internal linking can be just as beneficial in building domain authority. Frequent internal links can help search engines navigate your website. This is especially important for content heavy sites, where search engines will need to crawl a large number of pages.


Summary

It’s important to remember that every SEO strategy will take time and is a long term commitment; especially if your website is new, or the domain name has changed. However the hard work will pay off and your website will start increasing its search engine visibility.

About Generate UK

Generate UK is an award-winning full service marketing agency, with specialists in design, development, social media, video and animation, analytics, design for print and digital marketing. Generate UK is an accredited Google Partner.

Generate UK offer a range of SEO services from keyword research to technical audits and link analysis. We take the time to understand your SEO needs, and are happy to advise you on how to increase your organic footprint.

09WHAT IS

SEO? (SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION)

At Generate UK, we strive to provide our clients with high

functioning, unique marketing solutions that deliver real results.

Alongside our exceptional customer service, we offer a solution driven approach

that and excels expectations and challenges the status

quo at the forefront of digital transformation.

MISSION STATEMENT


TOP TIPS FOR

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TOP TIPS FOR - Generate UK...Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a fundamental part of every digital marketing strategy. Through this whitepaper, Generate UK will share with you some