WEBSITE OPTIMISATION

As with any business, you must attract the highest level of custom possible in order to maximise your profits. Online, it’s all about striking the right balance between:

- attracting the search engines = maximising traffic to your website through search engine optimisation

- attracting people = maximising the conversion of visitors to customers through web copywriting

This is just the same as a traditional store – to attract the greatest number of customers, you must be located on the busiest shopping street, with highly visible signage and an eye catching window display.

Once inside, shoppers need to be encouraged to stay, browse and receive any help they need to make finding and paying for their purchases as easy as possible.

Stand Out From the Crowd

A high search position is important – 80% of people use search engines to find products and services. The majority of these don’t look past the first page of search results, and if they do it is extremely unlikely that they will click past page two.

If your site does not feature prominently in these results, it is the same as placing your store in a quiet back street on the edge of town, with no signs and all the lights off.

No one passes by and very few even make it through the door to see what you have to offer.

Understand Your Customers

To make your website more attractive to the search engines you must begin with knowing your customers, and more precisely, how they search online. Once you know what people are looking for and how they are looking, you can start to optimise your website.

It is not just a matter of including the right words (keywords) on your site. The search engines favour sites that are relevant, and that feature fresh and unique content – which is exactly what your visitors will want.

Start Networking

The search engines also place a great deal of emphasis on sites that are trusted.

They gauge trust by the number of sites that link to yours. They see the fact that others wish to link up with your business as testimony to the quality of products or services you supply, the same way people may recommend a traditional business on its level of customer service or high quality workmanship.

The greater the number or quality back-links your website has, the higher it will feature in the search rankings.

Quality Content

To prevent people from exploiting their methods, the search engines work around a set of rules that penalise those that abuse or spam the system.

A website with content that is stuffed with keywords, full of random links and irrelevant information will not do well in the search rankings.

This method would also not work as a site that people would want to read.

Complete Process

In order to complete the SEO process, all of the techniques must be incorporated into a site that engages visitors and has the power to convert them to customers.

Effective website optimisation can therefore only truly be achieved when it is woven into a website’s design, further strengthened by insightful copywriting and kept updated through creative marketing and development.

Talk to us about optimising your online business.