Attracting visitors to your business website is important for the acquisition of leads and sales, it would seem almost pointless to run a business website without doing it. There are so many varied methods for the generation of traffic including those of both a free and paid nature which each have their own unique advantages. If you’re looking for quick results and an explosion of traffic then the ideal solution for you may be a paid advertising campaign through a specialised service like Google Adwords or a social media platform such as Facebook. However, if you’re looking for a longer term solution that can provide a permanent flow of traffic than it may be a much better option to look into search engine optimisation (SEO).

SEO is one of the most effective, albeit slower, methods of website promotion available to website and business owners and can prove an attractive increase in targeted website traffic.

What is Search Engine Optimisation?

Search engine optimisation, better known as SEO, is the act of increasing the position in which your website appears in search engines, such as Google, for search terms, known as keywords, relevant to your website or business. For example, if your business is located in Sydney Australia and sells party supplies, you would ultimately want your website to appear on the first page of search engine results for keywords such as “Sydney party supplies” or “Buy party supplies in Sydney”. This way, when an individual is searching for online party supply stores in Sydney, your website would be offered to them within the search results.

Although it sounds like a great traffic generation strategy, it can be confusing to some and prove to be a difficult practice due to the large amount of factors that determine just how well a particular website ranks for a specific keyword. On top of this, you also have to factor in the competition of other websites in your industry that offer the same products as you since you’ll be competing with them for the top search positions.

Search engine optimisation is split into 2 prominent parts, OnPage SEO and OffPage SEO.
OnPage SEO relates to ranking factors associated directly with what is on and behind your website while OffPage SEO relates to factors that are elsewhere on your web and not directly on your website.

The following is only a brief list limited to some of the more important factors that determine the search position of a website.

OnPage

• Quality Content
• Content Engagement
• Content Keywords
• Clean site and menu structure
• Sitemap
• Quick loading times (cached content)

• Meta Data (e.g: Page Title and description)
• SEO friendly URL structure
• Image ALT and Title text
• Structured Data Markup
• Mobile friendly
• Server/Hosting Location

OffPage

• Social networking presence
• Local business listings
• Natural Backlinks (Quality not Quantity)
• Backlink location
• Backlink anchor text

The above list is only small and barely scratches the surface of the abundance of search engine ranking factors. These are however the large and more controllable factors that play a larger part in your SEO campaign and can be the difference between low and high rankings.

Search Engine Crawlers

Crawlers are the core of a search engines, they constantly scour the web for new websites, new or updated content and a range of other important pieces of data. Crawlers aren’t just simple programs that run your website through a few tests, they’re an entire grouping of processes that contain thousands of algorithmic computations that matches your website and containing content through batches of associated data that has been stored and harvested previously. These algorithms allow the crawler to make accurate assumptions and decisions about your website which allows them to make a choice on the kind of ranking it is deserving of.

Setting Yourself Up For SEO Success

Search engine optimisation can be a complicated practice, although it shouldn’t be, and overly aggressive in many industries due to the abundance of competition and monetary value.

Often the most successful SEO campaigns are those employing a natural process without heavily investing in the acquisition of direct backlinks and keyword stuffed content. Without seeking the services of a search engine optimisation professional there are many tasks you can complete on your own which will naturally provide your business website with an ongoing SEO boost and long term ranking improvement. Simple tasks such as ensuring your websites content is unique, in depth and valuable to readers is a great way to both improve your standing within search engines and also provide your visitors with an enjoyable experience which also assists in SEO through various website metrics including visit duration and bounce rate. Another simple task to complete on your own is the optimisation of the speed in which your website loads, the quicker your page loads the better chance you have of surpassing your competitors whilst also improving your website usability.

Overall, search engine optimisation is an invaluable source of general traffic to your business website and, if implemented well, can provide a great chunk of targeted visitors for your products and services which can assist in alleviating the need for expensive advertising campaigns.

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