What is Search Engine Optimisation?

Search Engine Optimisation or SEO, in simple terms is a set of methodologies used to get websites higher up the search engines in the unpaid search results also known as the organic search results. Common sense suggests that the further up your website is up the search engines, the more visitors you will receive, the more visitors your receive, the greater your profits.

Why is SEO needed these days?

These days the internet is so competitive. If customers looking for products and services find what they need from the top few positions on the search engines, they won’t go past the first pages. The main aim of SEO is to get your website as high up the search engines as possible. Why? I hear you ask, well I don’t know about you but I don’t often go beyond the first page when I’m looking for something on the internet, and I hardly ever go beyond the second page. I tend to find what I need Ii from the first few websites don’t you?

Well if that’s the case for everyone, there’s no point having a website at all if its not at least on the first pages of the search engines.

One thing you must remember however, which many folk seem to forget [stupid really!] is to make sure you get found for terms people actually search for! There’s no benefit being at the top of Google for a keyword no one searches for at all. It might look good for a bit of self gratification, but is it really going to make you any money?

What types of SEO are there?

There are two main types of search engine optimisation; local SEO and national SEO. Local SEO is where a business targets search terms with a location attached to them such as Accountants in London, Accountant s in Surrey etc. These people tend to be local people, live nearby and have a local or regional target market. If I was a window cleaner in London, I wouldn’t want to target people looking for window cleaners in Edinburgh now would I?

National SEO however is where a business aims to get their website found for search terms without locations such as ‘football boots’ or ‘work gloves’. This tends to be the case when the location of a potential consumer doesn’t matter. If I was looking to purchase a pair of football boots online, I just want to know who is the cheapest and how long will it take to get them delivered, so long as they were based in UK somewhere, I wouldn’t be bothered.

How much does SEO cost?

The cost of SEO can vary immensely. Every single SEO campaign is unique so every price or cost for SEO should be too. The amount of time effort and budget required for an SEO project is usually determined by several factor, here are just a few things to think about:

1. What keywords that you are targeting?

2. How competitive are your chosen keywords?

3. How much time and effort have your competitors spent on SEO?

4. IS your website SEO friendly?

5. How much budget do I actually have?

One thing to be sure about, SEO can be a real tricky and complex subject so if you don’t know what you are doing when it comes to SEO, I’d suggest you call an SEO expert or an SEO Agency.