Search Engine Optimisation – Why Your Website Needs To Be Optimised

Darren Stuart — Tue, 09 May 2017 08:00:19 +0000

Help people find your site from anywhere.

Search engine optimisation is one of those terms you hear often, but it seems to change so often that you might wonder if you really need it at all.

The answer is a resounding yes! There’s a reason WordPress has built-in SEO features (though a little more optimisation is always a good thing).

One of the most cost effective website marketing tools that also has a high ROI is search engine optimisation. If you’re still one the fence about implementing it, let the following reasons convince you to start today.

Gain Organic Traffic

Imagine spending a few minutes marketing and then getting traffic again and again with no additional work. SEO gives you something that other marketing methods fall short on – minimal time for optimal results. For instance, if you write an optimised blog post for your site, it could help you rank in search engines for years to come.

Some even call if free traffic because it comes as a result of something you were doing anyway, such as adding product description or updating your site’s content. Organic traffic comes from real people searching for what they need. It’s just one of the many reasons this type of traffic is so valuable.

Reduce Marketing Time

Social media, ad campaigns and email lists all take time. With search engine optimisation, your site is doing the marketing for you. All it takes is the time you’d already be spending uploading new content and maintaining your site. While the other types of marketing are important, wouldn’t it be nice to get results even when you don’t have the time or budget for other types of marketing?

Target A Specific Audience

When you think of SEO, you probably think of keywords. This is an important part of search engine optimisation and it still works well as long as it’s done right. The key is to forget about keyword stuffing and consider user intent instead. You can still focus on a keyword (for instance, this post focuses on “search engine optimisation), but work in common phrases naturally, such “optimise a website,” “SEO” and “website marketing.” By focusing on natural searches and long tail keywords, you optimise your site for a specific audience.

Out Rank The Competition

Search for your site’s basic purpose on Google and see how many results are there. For instance, I just searched for “WordPress developer” and got over 26 million results. So the problem is how to become more competitive and land on those first few pages of results. This is where a search engine optimised site is key. For instance, I don’t just optimise my site for WordPress development, I also geo-target by my location along with using other SEO tactics, such as:

Using cleaner code
Optimising page load speeds
Updating content regularly
Using a variety of keyword phrases based around user intent

The right SEO can help you out rank your competition.

Make Your Site Easier For Google To Find

Sitemaps aren’t covered much when it comes to optimising a website. However, they’re vital for helping Google and other search engines find your site. Think of them as a way for search engines to “read” your site and understand its structure. This leads to better rankings.

Become A 24/7 Store Front

The more important reason your website needs to be optimised is so it becomes a 24/7 store front for your business. With optimisation, it’s going to be difficult for anyone to find you without direct marketing. When you’re sleeping, SEO continues to draw in traffic for you. After all, this is the entire purpose of your site – to work for you, even when you can’t work.

Search Engine Optimisation Tools To Try

While you can do search engine optimisation on your own, WordPress has this great feature called plugins. As you may have guessed, WordPress has plenty of SEO plugins to choose from to help you out, such as:

Each has its own benefits. You can also check out some of my favorite overall WordPress plugins.

Ready to optimise your website? Contact Darren today to get started with an optimised WordPress site.

Image: Maliha Mannan

Stuartmedia