Search Engine Optimisation, or praying-to-the-Google-overlords as we jokingly refer to it as digital marketers, is a misunderstood practise. It is often described as "getting your page to rank 1st on Google", which is akin to the promises of certain ads you see on TV when you’re feeling vulnerable at 4am... yikes.
The confusion around SEO stems from people trying to understand it as a distinct process in the marketing and development of a website. The key to remember is that SEO is not a separate action, it infuses your strategy with optimisations to help people (and search engines) to be more likely to enjoy and recommend what you offer them.
So… do you need it? That all depends on whether you want to be found! Without proper SEO you could be producing or selling the best content/product/ideas in the world, but if no one can find them,…what is that worth?
To get started on a holistic SEO strategy, it helps to think of your website as a person, for example an up-and-coming celebrity or a candidate for public office. Think of the criteria that makes you more likely to vote for or recommend this person to your family, friends or peers. The criteria for a successful website in an SEO’s eyes are very similar! For example, when you are preparing your content, you need to ensure the writing quality is exquisite, and that it will enrich the experience of the user. This will not only make your content more successful, but also more likely to get recommended by search engines to your audience! It’s really a win-win situation where the outcome is a high-quality website, content strategy, and web PR, that happens to also be well on the way to becoming a respected authority for its subject in the eyes of search engines. Of course, SEO isn’t just content, it’s also about creating a technically polished website where users (and search engines) can intuitively find all this content.
Sounds good, right?
That’s the power of successful SEO.
In my next blog post, I’ll share with you my top 5 tips to create amazing SEO.