Search Engine Optimisation Terms

Search Engine Optimisation 101

The goal of any business website is usually fairly simple, to be found in online searches and to generate enquiry and sales.

SEO is a complex issue, and results do not come overnight in a competitive market, but our experience has led us to strongly believe that there are many actions you can undertake to positively influence your Search Engine visibility and page ranking when you build, launch and maintain your small business website. Thereafter a commitment to regular updates and maintenance of your website content and copy will keep your site buoyant in organic search results.

Firstly, let’s look at some general SEO terms: 

SEO – Search Engine Optimisation:
The online activities that increase the likelihood of your website appearing higher up in the natural google results (includes keywords, title tags, page descriptions, listing on directories, blogging, article submission etc etc)

SEM – Search Engine Marketing:
Paid activity that results in your being seen in the paid or sponsored areas on Google ie: at the top and RHS of search results

Title Tag
The words you see at the very top of the browser that describe a page. It is also the link to your website in your listing on a search results page eg: go to www.ebay.com.au and you will see their home page title tag as “eBay Australia – Buy or sell practically anything on eBay the world’s online marketplace”. Search engines read these tags and so they should accurately describe your page content and contain your most important keywords. Maximum of 75-90 characters

Alt Tags
Keywords applied to photos and images on your site – you will have seen these on other sites – when you hover on a photo a small textbox with a description pops up. Again, this increases the keyword count on your page for SEO.

Page Description
Also known as the Meta Description. This is the 1-2 line description of your website that appears together with the title in the search results page. It is best to have a specific page description for each page on your site, rather than a general one to describe your site as a whole, as this allows more specific keywords to be used and provides more points of entry to your website ie: people searching for bathrooms V kitchens V laundries could find your site through different pages.
Maximum of 160 characters is displayed by Google though more can be entered

Keywords
Keywords are words that your customers would enter into a search engine to find your website. For example, customers who are searching for a renovation ideas might type in keyword searches such as ‘bathroom renovations', 'bathroom renovation ideas', 'new bathroom design' and 'bathroom renovation companies sydney' and we need to incorporate all such search terms into your keyword lists. Keywords are often unique to each page and must be reflected in the website copy.

Webbing
Links between internal pages of your site.

Copy
Congruent copy (that allows a match between what we list as keywords and what is actually on the page) and keyword density must also be taken into consideration when compiling your website messages.

Incoming Links
Incoming links from online directories relevant to your industry and audience can also assist your site ranking.

Static URL’s
Where the page name appears as an extension of your primary URL as visitors move from page to page eg: www.greatbathrooms.com.au/bathroomaccessories

Ideas Into Action can conduct keyword analysis research for your website and compile an SEO document that addresses all of the above elements to incorporate into your website development. We also recommend and can assist with ongoing activity to build and maintain your online visibility such as article submission and blog posts. Most importantly we will empower you, teaching you the basics of SEO so that you can choose to maintain your own campaign going forwards.