What is SEO?

By utilizing broad keywords, you can reach wider audiences. For instance, if you are writing about a specific niche, you can expand this content to the wider audience by using broader terms. For example, “bakery and wedding cakes” instead of the narrower focus “gluten-free ornate wedding cakes”. This can be through mentioning the industry as a whole, using the most popular keywords associated with the chosen topic and most searched terms relating to that keyword. There are lots of keyword research tools available. Whilst this is good to attract the audience initially if the content is irrelevant to their searches, it may lead to low retention and low conversion rates which impacts how your site is shown in search engines results pages (SERPs).

By understanding your audience and assessing their needs and wants; you are able to determine or guess the type of terms they may use to search for your content or product. It is important to get to know what their goals are because you can then tailor the content to meet their objectives. If you know they want to buy, use keywords and phrases that encourage selling. If it is for informational purposes, then use words and terms that encourage awareness and education.

You can target niches audiences by using narrow search terms which, may attract fewer people initially, the people who it does reach will stay on the site for longer and will mean greater conversions. This positively impacts your search rank meaning your site will rank higher in SERPs (search engine results pages) to the people who are looking and want what you offer. This is often the best tactic to grow a steady and reliable audience, however if your site is new and starting out it is advisable to boost niche targeted traffic from other sources.

SEO is a collection of small technical actions that all amount to the larger impact of increasing your site/content in searches across the internet. Some actions have a greater impact than others, but collectively they work well as a team.

For simplification, I've broken SEO down into nine core areas and methods that will help you reach new audience.

Effective copywriting signals quality and relevance to the searcher’s query. This helps with rankings, engagement and conversion. Effective copywriting signals quality and relevance to the searcher’s query. This helps with rankings, engagement and conversion.

There are many tools that you can use to assess the strength and popularity of keywords such as utilizing Google search terms, keyword discovery tools and search volumes, frequency and other relevant criteria. (Tip: If the term is popular consider first who you are competing with). If you are new perhaps locality and narrower keywords might be more beneficial. There are many tools that you can use to assess the strength and popularity of keywords such as utilizing Google search terms, keyword discovery tools and search volumes, frequency and other relevant criteria. (Tip: If the term is popular consider first who you are competing with). If you are new perhaps locality and narrower keywords might be more beneficial.

The process of creating metatags and alt tags is crucial as it helps search engines access the relevancy of your web pages and content (and actually all kinds of content). It is usually a good idea to make these metatags and alt tags persuasive and descriptive so they reflect the search terms your target audience might use and help show up in SERPs.

Using links that are related to the topic, product or service is helpful because it usually provides the reader with more insight. It is a good way to generate more traffic, encourage credibility especially if the backlinks support the premise of the content.

Improve the readability and accessibility of your website, natural navigation, pages and content by ensuring the best html coding practice to improve SEO success.

Design page titles to entice a potential reader. Review the title length, keywords, uniqueness and authenticity (does it read well?). Always write for a human before considering the search engines. Design page titles to entice a potential reader. Review the title length, keywords, uniqueness and authenticity (does it read well?). Always write for a human before considering the search engines.

After you’ve titled your post you can change the title URL to be more search friendly. Generally, the URL should be informative, close to the title or summary of the content. Remove dates, random strings of words or letters that do not give the reader or the search engine a good understanding of what the piece or post is about.

In conclusion, the number one rule, is always design for humans first so that the content is user-friendly and people want to read and return again and again. This data is collected and let’s search engines know that the site/content is relevant, on topic and of value to like-for-like people, which in turn sends it up and out to reach even bigger targeted audiences.