So there’s a lot of us out there probably wondering what actually is SEO, how do we optimise our workout and most importantly do you even need it?

So let’s start with the basics. Google being the search engine that everyone uses is how I will explain Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
Google has a complicated algorithm designed to rank websites. They search your website and determine how valuable your website is using their crazy little google-bots. We as marketers and web designers need to keep those google-bots happy to master the art of SEO.

google-bots.jpgIn order to master SEO and keep the google-bots happy there are a few things you need to do.
First, you need to have your own domain with original content. But don’t just have writing, put in photos, videos, even podcasts, you need to make sure your website is interesting.
It’s like going to the mall for sushi, there’s often 5 different sushi restaurants, but you don’t want the mediocre one. You want the sushi restaurant that has variety, is fresh, is a nice venue and has tasty food. This is the same with your website, you need to give something valuable to the google-bots to keep them happy and therefore recommend
you to others on their search engine.

So is SEO actually important?

In a word, yes. SEO is important for a few reasons.

  1. Traffic: The difference between being the number 1 search result and number 10 can be thousands of visitors a day, or even hour. Here’s a crazy fact, your website traffic drops 57% if you are not on the first page of Google.
  2. Revenue: If traffic doesn’t interest you, revenue should. The more popular you are the more money you make. Search into Google right now “Best burgers in Melbourne”. Huxtaburger is the first result that shows up for me as well as several articles naming the best burgers including Urbanlist which I click on. Urbanlist has made a fortune providing relevant, valuable content for users like myself trying to find where to eat, which in turn has led to them earning big dollars of sponsored posts. In comparison timeout, even though it has been in existence longer, has less valuable and relevant content and now makes less revenue in a year compared with Urbanlist.
  3. It is easy to measure, if you need to look at growth, success and how you are tracking compared with your competitor SEO is a great tool.

So as a marketer, yes, SEO is important and here are a few key starting points:
-Be mobile friendly
-Have valuable, in-depth content
-Get other people linking into your website (external links)
-Ensure there aren’t holes in your links
-Use keywords in headings, page titles, names, the URL and image tags

Now go keep the google-bots happy, and let me know if you have any other useful tips.