Search Engine Optimisation (or SEO) quite simply is optimising your website to ensure a better position in the organic ads on a search engine (e.g. Google or Bing).
Organic Ads vs. Paid Ads
Search engine results pages can split into two sections – paid ads and organic ads.
Paid Ads or PPC ads, are ads that are created and uploaded onto an ad platform (e.g. Google ads), that will appear when a chosen keyword is searched. These ads are distinguished by an “Ad” box. The position of these ads is run by an auction, and is determined by the ads ‘quality score’ and how much the ad owner is willing to pay. If clicked the business pays an agreed CPC (cost per click) to the search engine.
For more info see Search Engine Pay Per Click Advertising.
Organic Ads are ads pulled together by the search engine. A Search Engine works by reading and reviewing all web pages on the internet and determining their relevance. When a keyword is searched it shows a list of relevant websites, with ads made from the websites content. The position or ranking is determined by the website’s relevance to the search, as well as what you could call an ‘organic quality score’. If a websites ad is clicked the website owner does not have to pay the search engine.
How to get to position 1 in the organic results?
No one knows exactly, and be weary of anyone who says they do. This is because of the ‘organic quality score’. Think of it as the secret sauce of a search engine. The search engines, to some extent, do give you a list of some of the ingredients for the secret sauce, but you don’t know how much of each to use.
Search engines tend to focus on two key areas, content and user experience.
Content has always been king, but now the focus isn’t just on what keywords are on your website. A search engine now looks at how engaging and easy to read your content is and how regularly it’s updated. They want to see how many external websites link to your site, and how many external websites you link to.
User Experience is important because the search engine wants to make sure it’s sending searchers through to a website that will meet their needs. They want to see easy to read webpages, that are easily navigated, with a stronger focus now on page load speeds and mobile-friendly websites.
Should I worry about SEO?
Yes, but it shouldn’t be all you focus on.
In 2022, Firstpagesage analysed the clicks that US Google search results pages received and found 39.6% people clicked on the top organic result. The second result received 18.4% and the third result 10.1%.
If you can get into the top spot of the organic results, the traffic your website will receive is huge, more than double that of the 2nd spot…but you need to get your website there.
One key thing to remember is that the organic listings are always changing. More and more websites similar to yours will be created each day, and the search engines regularly make algorithmic changes that can see you drop 50 places in the results over night. If you are a huge company with a dedicated SEO team you probably have the resources needed to aim for that top spot, but as a small business, working to get into the top position could take valuable time away from other areas of your business.
SEO Tips for Small Businesses
As a small business there are some areas of SEO that you should focus on.
When creating or optimising your website make sure that your website is easy to read and navigate. If you want a potential customer to get in touch, make sure they can easily do that. If you want someone to buy a product from you, allow them to do it in the fewest clicks possible, on a secure website and include a search bar so they can easily find what they are after.
Make sure to keep your content up to date, if appropriate to your business, consider adding a blog page and creating a new blog each week or month relevant to your expertise, or regularly add your latest customer reviews or case studies. Use your website analytics to understand what content works best and has the most engagement, and use these learnings to improve the content that isn’t working as well.
If you haven’t already, submit your webpages to Google and ensure they can read all of your relevant pages. You can find more information on how to do this here.
If you’re a local business make sure you have a local presence on the search engines by creating a Google Business Profile and a Bing Places listing. It’s free, you control the content and it will ensure your business appears on the local area map within the search results for a relevant search.
There are no guarantees for success with SEO. The most important thing you can do is make sure you build a website that’s focused on your potential customers and the user experience they will receive on your website.