Confused by how SEO all works? Let’s break it down.

Search engine optimisation or SEO for short, is a process that helps your website rank higher in search engines. SEO accounts for what pages are on the site and how they’re formatted to make them more attractive to search engines.

The two main things to know about SEO are understanding how it works and knowing what you need to do for your website in order for it to rank better!

SEO also includes external factors such as link building and social media marketing. SEO can be broken down into On Page SEO and Off Page SEO.

On Page SEO:

Focuses on how content is formatted and what words are used to attract the search engine crawlers. Keyword density, meta tags, site structure, heading tags (H tags) and webpage speed all contribute to SEO for your page.

Off Page SEO:

Focuses on factors outside of your site that can help it rank better. This includes link building, social media marketing and press releases.

Factors that affect SEO

Now let’s take a look at all these important factors, what they are and how to use them effectively.

Keyword Density

As the name states, these are words that people type into search engines to find your site or content. Keywords should not exceed 15% of the total words on your page and there should be a balance of SEO keywords as well as more general content.

Meta Tags

Meta tags are snippets of text that describe a page’s content. Meta tags help your site rank better but it’s important to use the right ones to be effective. SEO meta tags contain keywords and details such as your website name, contact information, description of the website content etc.

Site Structure

Index pages give search engines an overall idea about what’s on the site. It should include a mix of SEO keywords with general webpages in order for the index page to rank higher. SEO site structure should also include H tags, title tags and meta descriptions.

Headings (H tags)

H tags are SEO headers, created by using the HTML heading tag (H) and should include SEO keywords that your page is about.

Webpage Speed

Slow webpage speed can be a big factor in ranking your blog lower than you would like it to be. It’s important to optimise the loading time of your website as much as possible by making sure images are compressed correctly. You can also ensure that other technical aspects such as SEO plugins are running properly.

Webpage Speed - Gerald and Rose Blogs

Link Building

SEO link building is the process of getting other websites to link back to your website. This can be done through guest blogging, social media marketing or press releases (PR). It takes time for links to rank higher so it’s important that you update when new pages on your site go live so that they will also be linked to.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing (SMM) is the process of gaining followers and shares on your site through different forms of social media. This could be on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram etc. Having the right SEO in-place such as keywords and H tags, is extremely important in ensuring your SMM is effective. You can also use SEO in conjunction with other online advertising methods like paid search engine ads or banner ads. To find out which social media platform is best for your business, check out Social Media Platforms – Which is Best?

Press Releases (PR)

PR is a process of getting news about your website, business or product published in various publications such as newspapers and magazines. PR can be done by sending out press releases to the media but it also includes guest blogging which has become more common for SEO purposes.

SEO Tools

Whilst it’s good to know what factors impact On & Off Page SEO, it is more important to understand how to improve your SEO and what tools can assist you in this. Some of our favourite tools include:

SEMrush

This SEO tool is great for the on and off page SEO of a site or to see what your competitors are doing in terms of SEO!

SEO Toolbar

Is a free browser extension is perfect for both on and off page SEO and allows you to analyse your competitors too and did we mention its free?!

SEO Spyglass

Great for monitoring, analysing and comparing backlinks providing you with all the data you need for safe and effective link building!

Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Screaming Frog is perfect for onsite SEO and helps you improve on-page SEO by extracting data and auditing for common SEO issues while allowing you to analyse the results in real-time.

Google Adwords Keyword Tool

Google Adwords is an SEO tool great for finding keywords related to what people search in Google.

Hopefully this article clarifies everything, however if you have any further questions about SEO, or wish to know more about our web design, graphic design services and SEO management services for local businesses; please visit us at www.geraldandrose.com.

Gerald and Rose is a digital marketing and website development agency based in Surry Hills, Sydney. G&R as we call ourselves was formed when the founders continued to have bad experiences with other providers. 

Marketing, Social Media and Websites need to be simple, well priced and reliable. Business owners hate surprises, we know, we run small businesses. We can assist you with the right social media channels for your business, so drop us an email at sales@geraldandrose.com