Search Engine Optimisation – further tiptoes for beginners

We’re revisiting the topic of Search Engine Optimisation, and going in to a (tiny) bit more detail…

by Alex Marsh

19 July 2012

A while back, we published a very brief 'beginner’s introduction' to SEO. By necessity a broad-brush guide, it stressed a few key points: the dominance of Google, the need to avoid passing off SEO as ‘something for the techies’, the role of links and the importance of thinking in terms of specific search phrases.

We’re going to expand on the topic in two parts. This time round, the big question: 'for which search phrases do you want to rank higher on Google?'

The question’s more difficult than it sounds. 'As many as possible' is one answer – but you have limited time and resources. You also have to be realistic as to what you can achieve in terms of a high ranking for popular search terms, and you obviously want relevant terms that may lead to a 'sale'.

We’ll invent an animal charity for an example:

• "charity" as a keyword is very broad. Their chances of getting near the top of the results for this phrase are next to zero.
• "dog rescue charity" is more realistic. More so is "dog rescue charity in essex".

This charity offers a virtual 'adoption' scheme: people can pay to be sent photographs and updates from 'their' animal, and can give this as a gift.

• "Christmas gifts" is again, very broad. They’d be competing against big retailers.
• "Animal adoption uk" is better, aiming at people who know what they want to buy.
• "unusual gift for animal lover" is specific, and might bring in new interest from people who wouldn’t have considered the idea before.

SEO specialist love finding these phrases (known as the 'long tail') – very specific, targeted terms that will require less work to promote and that, whilst being seen by far fewer people, will balance that by a better quality of response.

You can get ideas for search phrases from a number of places. Adwords – used for organisations that wish to advertise on Google – can be a good source of suggestions based on criteria you specify. You don’t have to actually place any advertising in order to tinker with it.

Likewise, the Google Analytics and Webmasters utilities will identify search terms that people have already used to stumble upon your site. Install these if you haven’t already. The level of detail can be intimidating – but their reports will give you a solid base on which to build.

And then there is good old lateral thinking.

Having lots of text and pages on your website is an advantage – it helps you identify and benefit from search phrases that you simply wouldn't have thought of otherwise, and to see what is working well and what not so well. Many companies write blogs for this very reason – they can be as much to do with SEO as they are with 'engaging with the global conversation'.

So if you were the marketing manager for our charity you might:

• Set up a new web page entitled 'An unusual gift for the animal lover' (Google will ignore the extra 'the')
• Name the TITLE field in the HTML code likewise, and give the page a similar URL (yourwebsite.org.uk/unusual-gift-animal-lover)
• Use this phrase in the text, and include an image with 'ADOPTION VOUCHERS: an unusual gift for the animal lover' as its caption
• Link to this page directly from your own home page, which stresses to Google that you regard it as important
• Attempt to get some links from other websites to this page, and share the page on social media

And vitally…

Close the deal! Give people a quick and easy way to buy from you there and then. Don't spend all this time piquing their interest only to allow them to move on.

Next time, we'll be looking at links in more detail – different types, and how to get them.

If you missed our last article on SEO, click here.