My top 5 tips for good SEO
“What do I need to do for good SEO results?”
This is a question I often get asked, and it’s a BIG topic. I also get really annoyed at SEO businesses who use the fact that people don’t know a lot about SEO to scare people into costly projects that are unnecessary. 5-10 years ago, SEO was a little scary, and to do it well often meant you needed to know how to optimise the code of your website. This is not the case any more. Let’s start by understanding what SEO is in 2023.
SEO is Search Engine Optimisation. Not to be confused with SEM, which is Search Engine Marketing (e.g. Google ads).
SEO is a long term business strategy, and it requires constant work. SEM is a short to medium term business strategy, and it also requires constant tweaks, reviews, and reporting. SEM can be an expensive investment, and should be done by a trustworthy expert for best results.
How do search engines, and search results work?
It’s important to understand this before we discuss my top 5 tips.
Google’s number #1 priority is to match search queries with information. And it has become incredibly smart at understanding an individual’s search intent based on your search term, your previous search history, and other websites you’ve interacted with, just to name a few. It knows there’s a difference between someone who searches for “best garden sheds” and someone who searches for “buy garden sheds online”.
The person who searches for '“best garden sheds” is probably in the research phase of their purchase journey. They are looking for information about sheds, and a comparison between available brands. A search result like “10 Best Garden Sheds In Australia Ranked” with an article with reviews and links to shed websites would be a good search match for this query.
The person who searches for “buy garden sheds online” wants a website that sells garden sheds and has an online checkout process. Google knows which websites have online shopping based on them having pages like /cart and /checkout.
Just because you ‘optimise’ your website with metatags and descriptions does not mean you will rank well in Google. You must have the appropriate content or services to back up the search terms you want to rank for. Also important to note that traffic isn’t valuable to you if it isn’t traffic of people who want your products/services/information. In fact, trying to rank and receive traffic for queries that don’t align with what you offer will lead to a higher bounce rate (people who click to your site and then leave without taking further actions), and this will negatively impact your SEO.
My top 5 tips for good SEO:
#1: A platform with well-scoring Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals are metrics used by Google to determine how user-friendly a website is. Currently, there are three areas a site can be benchmarked on: Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), First Input Delay (FID), and Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). Sounds a little scary, but here’s what they each mean:
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is where sections of the website shift as the page loads. Have you ever experienced loading a website and then attempting to click on a button but then more of the page loads and the button moves? That’s CLS, and it’s not a great user experience. Why might a website have CLS? Usually when the code tells a website to load all word content first and then images second, or where some parts are cached and others aren’t. There are some other benefits to this, but I wouldn’t trade a bad CLS score for a faster load time on content. Ideally, you want your CLS number to be as close to 0 as possible (meaning no shift).
First Input Delay (FID) is the time it takes for the browser to respond to an action (e.g. a click) that the user takes on the site. This does not include scrolling or zooming, and it is measured in milliseconds. The smaller the number, the better, but it matters more on pages where you have a desired action (e.g. book now or shop now) button.
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is the time it takes to show / render the largest piece of content (usually an image or video). This proves to Google (and the user) that the page is loading. Again, measured in milliseconds, and the smaller number, the better.
It’s really important that you resize images for web, without losing resolution. I very often see people uploading 5mb images and then wondering why the load time is slow or they aren’t scoring well with Google. All these metrics are something that can be tested and measured and tweaked. You can find out more about the Core Web Vitals report here.
#2: An easy to navigate website
Don’t make your visitors search for content! Have a home page layout that follows a logical order of information, and a menu that is easy to navigate. Make sure the action you want people to take is easy (e.g. bold Contact buttons or Shop buttons). If you have an online store, make sure your products are categorised and tagged well!
#3: Well written content, with relevant keywords included (but not stuffed)
Well written content is SO important online. Make your content easy to read, in plain wording (not too much technical jargon, unless your audience expects it). If you choose to write a blog or articles, make sure you write content that your audience would be searching for. For example, there’s no point in a web designer writing an article titled “The Cheapest Time To Buy Flights Online”. If you are stuck with what content to write, I always suggest creating a keyword strategy first. Here’s a great article on Hubspot on how to do SEO research for beginners.
#4: Use a consistent naming protocol and alt text for images
Google is smart but not quite smart enough to fully understand images (although the technology is evolving fast)! Image names and alt text for images means Google can ‘understand’ what the image contains and how it relates to the page of the website. An image name might be “Metta-Creative-Image-of-Website-Design-on-Shipify-Backend” - I’ve included my business name and a description of what the image contains. This image might show up in a Google image search and would link back to the page on the website that the images appears on. If you’re just using images to make the site ‘pretty’ then I would still recommend a consistent naming protocol, but alt text is less important. If you have product images or infographics, it’s always a good idea to implement alt text.
#5. Review your website and update regularly
It can be really tempting to create your website and then forget about it, especially if you are a sole trader with limited time. However, Google really favours websites that have new content regularly. A long-time client of mine who runs a wholistic health business has been adding a new blog article to his website once a quarter and also emails his database once a quarter. We migrated his website from WordPress to WIX in early 2017, and then completed a site design re-fresh in 2020. In 2017, his new customer split used to be 80% word of mouth and 20% Google Search. Now, after 5 years of consistently adding articles, and making updates to his site, it’s about 70% Google Search and 30% word of mouth. The word of mouth referrals haven’t decreased in number, but the overall number of clients has increased. He is often booked out for a few weeks in advance!
My final thoughts on SEO:
It can be difficult to be patient when you want your brand new website to be immediately seen and ranked with Google. So often we want the quick fix, and there are companies out there who will promise the world with SEO, and not necessarily deliver (or promise you something you don’t actually need).
I consistently see clients have SEO success when they have a well structured website that’s easy to navigate and provides users what they want (products, booking services online, and/or information). Building on this foundation with helpful articles or blogs helps improve their ranking and also their likelihood of conversion once they have visitors on their site, as you are building trust and showing that you know what you’re talking about.
If you would like advice on your website design, writing blogs, or help with business technology like online bookings, online courses, or email marketing to help your business’ SEO, get in touch today.