SEO isn't rocket science!

Get into Google right now

One of the easiest ways to rank with Google is simply to do “all the Googles”. Tick the boxes for all the things Google likes and you’re more likely to come up in search results.

• To do a lot things on Google, you’ll need to start with a Gmail account. Better yet, if you don’t yet have a business email address, use Google Workspace to connect a custom domain for your business (e.g. studioclvr.com.au). Having Google Workspace set up does seem to make a lot of other connected Google services a bit easier to manage.
• Go to Google Business Profile and set up your profile. Be sure to include your physical address. Why? This will add your business address to Google Maps search results, crucial for local search.
• Sign up to Google Analytics and get your ID. This helps search engines index your site – something for the little robots to hold on to. You can also very quickly your site’s traffic and basic user dempographics.
• Google Search Console goes with Google Analytics but is a bit more hard-core. We’ll also be chatting about this down the road.
• If you decide to advertise to boost your traffic, you’ll also need Google Adwords – it tracks your ad spend.

Content, content, content

Your business provides customers with a product or a service but your website serves up content to potential customers. The quality of this content is king and quality content means more people will actively link to your site.

Your content needs to be informative, relevant and well written. Try to engage your customers with copy that is enjoyable to read. Do you fall asleep reading your website? If you do, then there is a good chance other people will do as well. You want people to stay on your page, read everything and then click to somewhere else on your site. Keep this in mind when writing blogs and page content.

Post articles (AKA blog posts)

A blog are where you can really add authority to your website and regular blogging is the big thing you can do for organic (i.e. without paid ads) SEO. Try to make your articles informative. Think about your website as a repository people will use and recommend to others looking for information in your area of expertise.

Make sure most of your articles are on topic and mapped to a content strategy crafted to bring in revenue. After all, if you were writing for fun, you’d be in a different line of work! Your writing should be mapped to revenue goals to make the very act of writing worthwhile—you have your true area of expertise to attend to, after all. Your content maps will usually be mapped directly to the actions you create for your clients. Google’s (and Bing’s and Yahoo’s, etc) web crawlers are programmed to rank human-made websites better than automated sites. Use AI to help with article outlines, but make sure you’re the one adding the oomph—a good story with real impact can bring people back to your site for more and help spread the word.

Keywords and key terms

Search Engine Optimisation is the art of being found on search results. These results are a combination of the search term entered and the ranking of a site for that particular search term (or subject area). You can improve your search results by researching what people are typing to find your services and then applying those keywords to your website’s content.

• What individual words best describe your products or services? If your customers are regular consumers, are they words or names that the average person or prospective customer would know? Write them down, and check your site content. Are they in there? This suggestion might sound silly, but you would be surprised by how often a proper description is neglected.
• If you were going to search for the product or service your business offers, what would you type into the Google search box? Without leading your thoughts too far down the path, research shows that most people don’t just type in one word when looking — they will use a term that is generally three to five words. For example: ‘management consultant Sydney’ or ‘highest tax returns Melbourne’. Again, write these down and check your content.
• Is your business location-based? Location information is extremely common in search phrases. Just remember to keep all of your content unique (no duplicated pages for all of your different locations—this won’t fly with Google these days)

Adding keywords to content

Look at ways of incorporating keywords and key terms into your page content. Synonyms are a great way to say the same thing twice and still have readable content. Keep thesaurus.com in your bookmarks – it can also help overcome writer’s block!

Remember that the quality of your content is king and must be written for humans. Don’t write page or blog content like this:

“We provide graphic design solutions to businesses needing help with design. Let us help you manage your brand with our proven graphic design techniques, go to www.graphicdesign.…”

This is called keyword stuffing and is a big no-no. When adding keywords and key terms, make sure it is done in a way that reads naturally. A loose rule is to have one mention in the main heading, a couple in the initial stages of the copy and at the end of the page.

Meta descriptions

Meta descriptions themselves don’t directly affect search results, but if your page comes up in a search, it will appear below the page link. It is still well worth having, and well-written Meta can help you achieve more clicks.

Another valid point to consider is if you have thought about what people will see in search results you have thought about your site’s content.

The problem with meta descriptions is that you only have 160 characters to describe the page/site. This brings us to the next points about metadata:

• Every page and every blog on your site should have a meta description associated with it (sometimes called a page description).
• When you write metadata for your page, don’t try to describe everything your site does but, if possible, sneak in your core message/term.
• Describe what the page is trying to tell people – summarise and make sure to include keywords in the summary. But don’t stuff it.

Distribute your content and start tracking!

Lastly, share your blogs to help get more eyes on your content. Depending on the growth engine you’re using in your business, sharing content could be through an email newsletter, or via social media to help boost your search strategy.

Track your content in Google Analytics/Google Search Console or a keyword tracking tool. Once you can see what is and isn’t working, you can tweak content accordingly.

Ready to go deeper on SEO? Read our big reveal on how to Increase Google ranking thanks to the 2024 algorithm leak.