What is Search Engine Optimisation and why would I need it?

So what is search engine optimisation? SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is the practice of increasing your website’s visibility in the search engine results pages for related products and services that you may offer or sell on your website. The idea being that, when somebody searches for a product or service that you offer, if your site shows up highly in the results, there is a far higher chance that they will click on to your website and contact you. An increased amount of visitors to your website will usually result in more product sales or clients contacting you about your services.

Why would I need search engine optimisation?

Since the start of the internet it has grown massively in popularity, there are now over 3 trillion searches per year and this amount is growing rapidly. Because the Internet is easy to use and gives us instant results it is not surprising that it is most people’s first port of call when they are looking to buy a product or need a company to provide them with a service.

Search engines such as Google use advanced algorithms (mathematical equations) to work out how relevant a website is for any particular search term that is entered into the Google search bar. These algorithms are extremely advanced and use over 200 different factors to work out the importance of any web page for the search term entered, these are often referred to as keywords or key phrases.

If a webpage has not been optimised it has very little chance of being listed highly and therefore will not be found by your possible new clients or customers.

There is a joke that “if you wanted to hide a dead body it would be a good idea to do it on the second page of Google, this is because no one ever looks there”. This is not exactly true, and it often depends what people are searching for, but as a rule of thumb if your website does not show up on the first page of Google for the keywords you want to rank for than it is possible you will get very little or no visitors to your website – this will also result in little or no business being attained through the World Wide Web.

How do I go about optimising my website?

You have two options when it comes to optimising your website, the first one is to learn the art of search engine optimisation. The problem with this first option is that search optimisation is incredibly complicated and can take many years to truly understand how to do search optimisation safely and effectively. The saying ”a little knowledge can be dangerous” has never been more true when it comes to search engine optimisation as the search engine providers have stringent guidelines that must be followed and if these are broken it is very possible that your website be penalised or completely banned from appearing in the search engine results pages. You wouldn’t attempt brain surgery after reading a few “how to books or videos”. Of course we are not saying that search engine optimisation is quite as complicated as brain surgery but hopefully you get the idea!

A safer option would be to employ the services of a professional search engine optimiser, as they will have often spent many years researching and assessing exactly what will work and what won’t. Search engine algorithms change regularly and unless you are a search engine optimiser, whose job it is to be at the cutting edge of these changes then it is quite possible that your techniques could be out of date.

How much does SEO cost?

It is very difficult to give you a rough guide as to what SEO would cost. The reason for this is that each website will need a different strategy to give it a powerful online presence, just like a chocolate cake and a carrot cake need different ingredients.

The cost of SEO will often be reflective of how competitive your niche is and the keywords or key phrases that you would like to compete for. For example it would be far easier to get high rankings for a local plumber who lives in a small town or village than it would be to rank globally against hundreds of thousands of competitors.

Although it is important to get value for money just remember the saying that if you “pay peanuts, you get monkeys”. I am not saying that you go with a highest quote you receive but what I am saying is that it is important not to skimp on your search engine optimisation budget. If you get a quote from two or three different companies you will often be able to assess which is the fair price.

Summary

Search engine optimisation in the 21^st century is fast becoming a necessity for any business owner. You can gain a powerful online presence that can help your business to flourish and survive where others may fail. Contact the search professionals and make sure that your search campaign is carried out by people who know what they’re doing and this will keep you safe in the future from any search engine algorithm updates. If you would like to consider SEO CoPilot for your search engine optimisation then please contact us for more information!