On Thursday 17th January I was honoured to be invited to speak at the Start Up & Grow event held at the Butcher's Bhoy for their regular networking event.
The following is a summary of the topics I covered, including my top 5 SEO tips for start-ups.
What's SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, which pretty much means getting your website found in search.c
Why should I bother with SEO?
A recent report detailed that positions 1-5 got 67% of the clicks.... So you get it, we've got to get you moving up the rankings.
What can you do yourself?
I could speak to you all day about SEO! but I'd only been given 5 minutes.
Here are my 5 top tips.
1. Get analytics set up
If you haven't already done this do it now! You can't know if your site is working if you don't monitor its performance. Look at the stats each month. Have a good dig around and see what you can learn about your audience. Things like:
- What platform they are looking on.
- Where they are located.
- Their gender.
- Age.
- Tons more "take a look“ you can't break it.
2. Get your content right
... from a copy perspective
- Write for people - not search engines.
- But... know what people are looking for and ensure that your copy contains some of those keywords.
- Google has a free keyword planner tool - part of AdWords.
- You'll be surprised what you think people are typing in. And what they ACTUALLY key in.
- You can show UK wide results or narrow it down to regions including Norwich or Norfolk.
- Collate a list of all the key phrases that fit your services and use them to help you write copy, but make sure it flows.
...from an image perspective
- Save your images down to be 72dpi at 100%.
- One of the biggest ranking factors is load speed - make sure you don't slow it down with hi res images.
- Save the images using keywords and add alt descriptions.
... from a video Perspective
Save videos to YouTube first and paste in an embed code to show the videos on your site. These are generated in your YouTube account, once again this is to make sure we don't slow the site down.
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3. Meta Data
All websites have got the amazing ability to add big flashing signs to google saying THIS IS WHAT MY PAGE IS ABOUT. All too frequently, these opportunities are missed.
These elements are:
- Page title (also known as a title tag or meta tag) - 50-60 characters long
- Meta Descriptions - 160 character
- H1 - only have 1 H1 per page.
Get these consistent for each page, you'll most likely see an increase in your rankings.
By the way if you have a 1 page website, with multiple services or products - I recommend that you change it to multiple pages ... or else it will be difficult to rank.
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4. Create links to your website
Google uses links to your website as a measurement of trust for your website and ranks heavily on it.
How can you create backlinks?
- Easy links - Directories - like Google My Business These give links and citation. Simply Google 'SEO Directories' and there are lists of them.
- Supplier testimonials. E.g. Our restaurant has been using Joe's Butchers for 3 years, they give great service and my customers love their sausages. Your name, Restaurant Name (links to your website). The supplier will usually be more than happy to display a glowing testimonial and you get your link.
- Write content and contact people to publish it for you. They don't have your technical knowledge to write the article and will be grateful for the new content in return for a link back to your website
- Digital Press releases - we've all used them for traditional media but can overlook sending them to websites. Don't forget to include a link back to your site.
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5. Drive Traffic through social media.
Find what engages your audience and entice them over to your website. E.g:
- news or blog teaser.
- Promotion.
- New product or service launch.
- YouTube is your best friend. Use it.
- Add share buttons to your content and add links to your footer or header and contact page.
What's the future for SEO?
2019 will see more voice search come in; watch this space.
If you'd like to know more, please call me on 07803 132650 or email me at rebecca@daybuildwebsites.co.uk
