Carrying on with my quick blogs on various topics with website design, I’m often asked about search engine optimisation (SEO). What is it and is it something that needs to be done? Don’t all sites just get picked up by Google and show in Google anyway?
Firstly, what is SEO and is it something that needs to be done?
Search Engine Optimisation, SEO, is crucial to many businesses who realise the importance of their online web presence. Essentially it’s about helping Google, and other search engines, realise how important your website is for the search terms that people are typing into Google.
For example, if you are a landscape gardeners who operate in Hampshire. Then you would want to appear on page 1 of Google for landscape gardening related searches within Hampshire (e.g. Landscape gardening Hampshire, or landscape gardeners in Hampshire, or even Hampshire Landscape Gardeners, etc.). SEO helps Google realise how relevant your website is for these keywords and will start pushing you up the rankings.
Secondly, do all web sites just get picked up by Google and shown in Google anyway?
The majority of websites, as long as they request not to, do indeed get indexed by Google and other search engines. The trouble is though, there are over 40 billion websites within Google’s index (that’s right, over 40,000,000,000 websites!). Whilst they aren’t all focused on your service/products/area, they are still all trying to get on page 1 of Google. With only a maximum of 10 possible sites listed on page 1 of Google, you can hopefully start to get the picture of why it is very important to make sure your website and pages are clearly optimised for your target market and your target keywords. Otherwise, there are plenty of other websites, ready and waiting to take your place.
One thing to note though, SEO is not a quick-win solution. It can take a few months for results to really start showing.
If you recognise the importance of SEO and would like to talk to me more about your website, please get in touch.
