What is Search Engine Optimisation?

Search engines provide users with a fast and convenient means of finding information online. They aim to deliver users the most relevant results as soon as possible.

Search engines index pages online and rank them based on various criteria, including content quality, backlinks and keywords.

Keywords

Keywords are integral to search engine optimisation as they allow your website to attract relevant traffic and inform search engines of what content your page entails so they can place it among the top results when someone searches for something related.

Search engines use multiple signals besides keywords to evaluate whether or not a webpage is relevant for a given query, such as user intent, page relevance and aggregated interaction data.

Users with high intent tend to stay longer on pages and purchase goods or services from them, making the right combination between content and keywords highly influential in boosting profits. Therefore, it is imperative that your keyword strategy account for this fact.

When choosing keywords, pay close attention to which search queries your target audience would likely use when researching something they want to purchase or learn more about. It is also wise to look for terms used by experts familiar with your product or service in their queries.

WordStream’s Free SA SEO Keyword Research Tool offers many tools that will enable you to conduct this research, such as its keyword search volume information and industry and country-specific data that allows you to select keywords that will work well with your business.

As part of your keyword research process, it may be helpful to peek at competitor websites ranking for similar terms. It can provide valuable insight into which keywords they’re using on their sites to optimise them, giving you a glimpse into how you might compete against them.

Step two in optimising keywords is creating high-quality content tailored to their needs. It requires producing original, insightful articles that match the search intent of potential customers while including relevant keyword phrases in appropriate spots.

On-page optimisation

On-page optimisation refers to modifying your website to enhance search engine rankings, such as optimising its content, title tags and URLs to rank better for specific keywords.

The page content is an essential element of SEO and should focus on meeting user needs and answering their inquiries. Doing so will create high-quality, engaging material that website visitors and Google search bots will appreciate.

Use keywords naturally throughout your text when writing page content to make it easy for search engines to recognise and match your web page with relevant searches, leading to higher organic search traffic. It will result in higher organic search visits.

Utilising images in your content can be a compelling on-page optimisation strategy. Images can help break up long articles with text-heavy paragraphs, provide a call to action for readers, and boost search engine visibility.

Meta descriptions are another integral element of on-page optimisation that can affect search engine rankings. They appear underneath your title in search results and should briefly summarise what your page covers, with particular attention paid to keywords you wish to optimise for.

To maximise the effectiveness of your meta description, keep it concise – no more than 160 characters long – to avoid many keywords that would work against you and damage search engine rankings.

Your content should utilise relevant long-tail keywords to stand out in search engine results, and conducting keyword research using tools like Ahrefs, AnswerthePublic, and UberSuggest is essential.

Include links within your page content to drive more visitors to your website and create connections between pages. This strategy could increase website visits while strengthening relationships among them.

On-page optimisation may seem overwhelming, but the effort can pay off if your website attracts a lot of online traffic and has a focused target audience. Optimising on-page elements also improves organic search engine rankings and can generate new leads for your business.

Link building

Link building is an SA SEO technique that involves linking from other websites back to your own, aiming to improve search engine rankings and increase traffic quality to your website. Linking from various sources increases search engine rankings while improving traffic quality.

Link building can help your brand increase brand recognition and establish your expertise within your niche through various techniques like content creation and outreach.