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SEO & SEM - Best Practises, Checklists & Measuring Performance

Updated: Feb 19


 





Introduction


Dig deeper into what SEO is, how it compares to SEM, the costs involved, and how it can benefit your business; whether you’re a seasoned business owner with decades of experience or just launching a startup.


What is SEO and how it works


SEO (search engine optimisation) is the process of optimising your website so search engines, like Google, can easily understand it and assign authority - resulting in higher in search result rankings for targeted keywords. However, it’s not just about hitting keywords - Google’s algorithms reward helpful, well-structured websites that deliver value.


SEO checklist


  • Set clear and relevant page titles, and ensure your page titles are keyword-rich and describes your business accurately for search engines.


  • Add compelling meta descriptions to each page encouraging users to click from search results, again make sure your target keywords are mentioned.


  • Add relevant, keyword-focused content to each page that clearly explains what your website or business offers. Do not overstuff keywords in your content.


  • Make sure search engines can index your homepage so it appears in search results. This can be managed in your page settings.


  • Ensure your site is fully responsive and optimised for mobile devices.


  • Connect your site to a custom domain builds trust and enhances brand recognition.


  • Link your site to Google Search Console and request sit indexing to track performance, identify issues, and improve your SEO strategy.


  • Add alt text to all images.


  • Make sure you have plenty of internal links to various pages on your site.


  • Make sure you also add plenty of external links to various pages outside of your site.


  • Structure your onpage content in a way that is easily understood by search engines, by including relevant target keywords in your headers, and providing a hierarchy for sub headings

    • e.g. "what is a digital marketing agency" (H1)

    • "benefits of working with a digital marketing agency" (H2)

    • "SEO tools and tips" (H3)


  • Increase site speed by formatting images into AVIF or WebP and compressing images them to small files if necessary.


  • Add a logo and favicon to your website. Make sure your page sharing descriptions and images are also set.


  • Add links to your social media profiles and vice versa. Post regularly from your social accounts, with links to your site.


  • Create a blog and regularly post with relevant, helpful content.


  • Create backlinking opportunities by setting up profiles on relevant business directories, review sites, and requesting mentions in other industry related blog articles. Write guest blog posts on other sites that point to your site.


  • Create a Google My Business profile and link back to your site.


  • Ensure your business info like address, and contact details are all consistent across your site, Google My Business profile, social media profiles, etc.

  • Set up Google Analytics to measure performance.



what is seo


What is SEM?


SEM (search engine marketing) is auction-based paid advertising on search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo to ascertain traffic from search result pages (SERPS) by bidding on various targeted keywords and demographics.


SEM is a great way to get traffic to your site quickly while you develop your organic authority. It's also a great way to test for keywords, audiences, content, and to collect data to measure and optimise performance.


SEM checklist


  • Create an account on Google Ads (or alternative search engine), and create a conversion goal.


  • For optimal data and conversion tracking, set up a Google Tag Manager account and integrate it with Google Analytics. Install a Google Tag to your site, and ensure it's correctly receiving data.


  • Perform keyword research using Google Trends, and by searching for your keyword on search engines to identify similar search phrases as indicated from the 'People Also Search For" section on SERPS. Use the keyword planner on Google Ads to get volume and history.


  • Create ads; narrow down your target audience, keyword list, and optimise campaigns as you regularly.


Conclusion


SEO is a must have for any website that wants to grow organic traffic - but it does take some time to achieve high SERPS. Go through our SEO checklist to make sure your site is up to speed, and pair it with SEM to achieve valuable short term results.




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