Table of contents
Chapter 1: SEO Basics
What is SEO?
SEO is when you make changes to your website with the intent to rank higher in search engines like Google.
Definition: SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the process of optimizing your website to improve its visibility in search engine results. This involves both technical and creative elements to drive traffic and increase your site’s prominence.
There are many reasons you might make changes to your website. You might want to improve your design, raise your conversion rate or add special information about you and your business. However, SEO is when you specifically make changes aimed at ranking your website higher in Google Search.
There are technical and creative elements to SEO and it’s broadly broken down into 3 parts;
- Content,
- Link Building and
- Technical SEO.
We will cover each in depth in later parts of this guide. Part 1 of this guide will serve to introduce you to SEO and the concepts within SEO as an overview.
Why engage in SEO?
People engage in SEO primarily to gain business. The first position in Google for any keyword gets the most clicks. More clicks means more visitors to the site. Businesses care about this because, the more visitors for a relevant keyword to your business, the more customers you can get.
Better SEO = More Visitors = More Customers.
Why is SEO important for Brisbane Businesses
Google traffic is some of the most direct and target traffic
When people search in Google they look for the things they want to buy or research using keywords that are directed toward that aim. For example “Fibreglass Pools Brisbane” or “SEO Agency Brisbane” or “Chinese Restaurants”. All three of these keywords indicate an intent to buy something – a fibreglass pool, SEO services or Chinese Food.
Imagine that each of these keywords gets at least 100 people per month searching for them. 36 people could be hitting your website each month from this one keyword alone.
Most web pages, when optimised properly, will rank for ten to twenty keywords. So multiply that 36 visitors by 10 and just one page on your site can net you 360 visitors per month. Most websites are more than one page so you can see how the numbers stack up.
We’ll look at this in more detail in Chapter 3 on keyword research.
Population
The population of Brisbane is huge and growing adding SEO to your marketing stack can be vital in getting you in front of a growing population
There are approximately 139,000 businesses registered in Brisbane as of 2022-2023 and roughly 1.3 Million people living in the area. So, that’s a lot of competition but also a lot of potential customers also.
Getting even 1% of the population of Brisbane to come and buy from you is almost 14,000 people. SEO is an important part of making that happen especially when you consider the above keyword metrics I mentioned.
A long-term solution
SEO is a long-term solution unlike other channels like social media, ads or radio
Finally, SEO is a relatively stable, long-term solution when compared to other channels. Ranking your website in Google for keywords related to your business has more longevity than a radio campaign, billboard or letterbox mailer.
Google traffic is also easier to maintain than ads or organic social media content. Unlike social media which you have to post on daily and engage with followers. With SEO you post your content once and only update it one or twice per year.
1.2 How Search Engines Work
Search engine algorithms are complex systems used by search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo to determine the relevance and ranking of web pages in response to user queries. Here’s an overview of how these algorithms work:
Definition and Purpose
A search engine algorithm is a set of rules and calculations that guide how search engines evaluate and rank web pages. Each search engine has its own unique algorithm, which is designed to sift through vast amounts of data to return the most relevant results based on a user’s search query.
The algorithms assess various factors to determine the importance and quality of a web page, helping users find the information they need quickly and efficiently
Search engine algorithms evaluate numerous factors to determine how pages rank, including:
- Relevancy: The algorithm assesses how well the content matches the user’s search intent, often focusing on keyword usage and placement within the text.
- Quality of Content: Algorithms look for signals of expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T). High-quality, well-structured content tends to rank better.
- User Engagement: Metrics such as click-through rates, time spent on the page, and bounce rates can influence rankings, as they indicate how users interact with the content.
- Backlinks: The number and quality of external sites linking to a page serve as a vote of confidence, impacting its authority and ranking.
- Technical Factors: Elements like page speed, mobile-friendliness, and secure connections (HTTPS) are also critical in determining a page’s usability and overall ranking.
Continuous Updates
Search engine algorithms are not static, they are continuously updated to improve search results and adapt to changing user behaviours and technological advancements. For instance, Google updates its algorithms multiple times a day to enhance the relevance and quality of its search results, which can significantly impact website rankings.
In summary, search engine algorithms play a crucial role in how information is retrieved and ranked on the internet. By understanding these algorithms and their key components, businesses and content creators can optimize their websites to improve visibility and attract more organic traffic.
Crawling, Indexing, and Ranking:
Search engines operate through a systematic process involving three primary functions: crawling, indexing, and ranking. Here’s a detailed breakdown of how these processes work:
Crawling
Crawling is the initial stage where search engines send out automated bots, known as crawlers or spiders, to discover new or updated content on the web. These spiders navigate the interweb by following links from one page to another, gathering information about each page they encounter. When we say Google “crawls the web” or “crawls your site” this is what is meant.
Google sends automated bots to pages on your website to retrieve information about it. To use a library analogy think of it like a librarian with reading every page of every book in the library. That is the first step in being able to recommend the best book or passage of a book to you.
Indexing
Once a page is crawled, the next step is indexing. During this phase, the search engine organizes and stores the information gathered by the spider in a massive database known as the index. Think of Google’s index as a digital library, cataloguing details about each page, including keywords, content type, freshness, subject matter and more.
In our librarian example that would be like a physical librarian recalling perfectly every page and passage in their mind.
Not all crawled pages are indexed; only those deemed relevant and of sufficient quality are stored for future retrieval.
Ranking
The final step is ranking, where the search engine determines the most relevant pages to display in response to a user’s query.
When a search is performed, the engine retrieves relevant pages from its index and ranks them based on various factors, such as relevance to the query, authority, and user engagement.
The result is a list of search results presented to the user, typically ordered from most to least relevant. That is what we are familiar with today.
Search engines are like big digital librarians that crawl the web (read every book), index content (remember what’s in each book and what page), and rank it (create a list of recommendations) to provide users (like you) with the most relevant information quickly.
Understanding these processes can help you think about how your website is found, added and ranked in Google’s search results.
1.3 The Key Components of SEO
Every website has three main components of SEO and some have a fourth. The three main categories or components are;
- On page SEO,
- Links (or off-page SEO) and
- Technical SEO.
Each of these elements has its nuances. Lets briefly cover what each is and what it entails when practising SEO.
On-Page SEO
On-page SEO (also known as on-site SEO) is the practice of optimizing individual web pages to improve their search engine rankings and drive more organic traffic. It involves optimizing various elements directly on your website, such as content, HTML tags, and user experience.
The key Elements of On-Page SEO are;
Title Tags
The title tag is the HTML element that specifies the title of a web page. It appears in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and at the top of the browser window. An optimized title tag should be descriptive, relevant to the page’s content, and include target keywords.
Meta Descriptions
The meta description is a brief summary of a web page’s content. Although it doesn’t directly impact rankings, it can influence click-through rates from SERPs. A compelling meta description can encourage users to visit your site.
Headings
(H1, H2, H3, etc.): Headings help structure your content and make it more scannable. Using relevant keywords in your headings can help search engines understand the page’s topic and relevance.
Content
Creating high-quality, valuable content that matches user intent is crucial for on-page SEO. Incorporate target keywords naturally throughout the text, but avoid keyword stuffing.
Internal Linking
Linking to other relevant pages on your website helps search engines understand the structure and hierarchy of your site. It also helps users navigate and discover more content.
Image Optimization
Optimizing images by using descriptive file names, alt text, and compressing file sizes can improve page speed and make your content more accessible.
URL Structure
Using clean, keyword-rich URLs can make your pages more readable for both search engines and users
Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO, also known as off-site SEO, refers to the strategies and activities conducted outside of your own website to improve its visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). This approach focuses on enhancing the perception of your site’s authority, trustworthiness, and relevance through various external factors.
Key Components of Off-Page SEO
Link Building
The most critical aspect of off-page SEO is getting backlinks from other websites. Backlinks act as endorsements or “votes” for your content, showing to search engines that your site is credible and valuable.
The quality and relevance of links significantly influence your site’s authority and ranking. If you get too many links that are of low value your site will be seen as spammy.
Social Media Engagement
Social media signals don’t directly impact search rankings, but they play a role in increasing brand awareness and driving traffic to your website.
Engaging content shared on social platforms can lead to more backlinks and mentions, indirectly benefiting your SEO efforts.
Brand Mentions and Citations
Mentions of your brand or website across the internet, even without direct links, can enhance your site’s authority. Positive online reviews and citations on reputable sites contribute to building trust and credibility with both users and search engines.
Influencer Marketing
Collaborating with influencers can help amplify your content and reach a broader audience. Influencers can drive traffic to your site and generate valuable backlinks, enhancing your off-page SEO efforts.
Content Marketing
Creating high-quality, shareable content can naturally attract backlinks and social shares. Effective content marketing strategies, such as digital PR campaigns, can significantly boost your off-page SEO by earning links from authoritative sites
Technical SEO
Technical SEO refers to the process of optimizing a website’s infrastructure and backend elements to enhance its visibility and performance in search engine results. This aspect of SEO focuses on improving the technical aspects that affect how search engines crawl, index, and render a website.
Key Components of Technical SEO
Crawlability
Ensuring that search engine bots can easily access and navigate your website is crucial. This involves optimizing your site’s structure, using a clear URL hierarchy, and creating an XML sitemap. Crawlability is an important part of geting your site indexed. If Google can’t crawl your website it effectively cannot “see” your website to rank you.
Indexing
Once crawled, pages must be indexed correctly. Technical SEO involves addressing issues that might prevent pages from being indexed, such as duplicate content, no index tags, or improper use of canonical tags.
Page Speed
Fast-loading pages are essential for both user experience and search rankings. Technical SEO includes optimizing images, leveraging browser caching, and minimizing JavaScript and CSS files to improve load times.
Mobile-Friendliness
We spend a ridiculous amount of time on our phones. It’s no surprise that having a website that is mobile responsive is important. Any site built using a modern CMS like Squarespace, Weblow, WordPress and others will likely have some form of mobile-friendliness. Meaning it will it incorporate a responsive design that will resize your website and move elements to make them fit on mobile screens as well as on desktop, notebook and tablet screens. This may seem odd as a ranking factor but, on many websites, mobile visits are between 30 and 50% of all traffic. Imagine if half of your customers couldn’t access your site because it was not mobile-friendly?
Security
Security boils down to implementing HTTPS on your website. HTTPS is vital for protecting user data and improving trustworthiness. Search engines favour secure sites, which can positively influence rankings.
Structured Data
Structured data or “Schema” as it is called in the SEO business is special code that can be added to your pages. Using schema markup helps search engines understand the content of your pages better, potentially leading to rich snippets in search results.
Error Management
This is a big catchall for just finding any problems or broken areas on your site and fixing them up as you go. Regularly checking for and fixing broken links, 404 errors, and server issues is a standard part of ongoing SEO tasks for maintaining a healthy website.
Local SEO
Local SEO is a special branch of search engine optimization focused on improving a business’s visibility in local search results only. Usually in the immediate area they operate in. That could be a suburb, town or city. Local SEO is what most local businesses should engage in. Large parts of local SEO are the same as above, such as onpage SEO, off-page SEO and technical SEO.
The difference lies in the focus on producing content and optimising links and technical SEO with the aim of ranking a business number 1 in its local area and not the entire country or the world. For example;
Babalu Hair Haus is a local hair extension parlour operating within the heart of Brisbane. Because they are a physical business and cannot provide hair extensions to people living in Sydney from their location their SEO will focus on keywords like “Hair extensions Brisbane” instead of “Hair Extensions” or “Hair Extensions Australia”. Local SEO to rank in Brisbane is applied here.
Key Features of Local SEO
Local Search Results
Local SEO aims to improve rankings in local search results, such as Google’s Map Pack, which displays a list of local businesses relevant to a person’s search.
For example, when someone searches for “restaurants near me,” local SEO helps ensure that relevant restaurants near the person’s search location appear first. You wouldn’t expect to see a steakhouse in north Brisbane show for a search if you were in the Redlands for example.
Google Business Profile
An important part of local SEO is optimizing your Google Business Profile (GBP). Your Google Business Profile allows you to manage your online presence across Google, including Search and Maps.
For this reason, accurate and complete information on the GBP, such as business name, address, phone number, and operating hours, is an important first step for any new local business.
NAP Consistency
NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP). Google looks at mentions of your website across various online platforms and directories (like Yellowpages, Facebook, Hotjar and other) to verify your location and contact information. Inconsistencies in this can confuse search engines and harm local rankings.
Local Keywords
Local keywords are just keywords that contain a local element relevant to where you operate. For example; a pool builder like MFP Easy operating in Brisbane would want to rank for keywords like “Pool Builders Brisbane” or “Pool installer in Herston” the keywords in these phrases are “Brisbane” and “Herston”.
Incorporating location-specific keywords into website content, meta tags, and headers helps search engines understand the geographic relevance of your business.
Customer Reviews
Online reviews play a significant role in local SEO. In general, businesses that have more positive reviews in Google Maps will show above other businesses that do not.
Positive reviews enhance a business’s reputation and influence its ranking in Google’s local SERPs but also in its map search results. Encouraging satisfied customers to leave reviews can improve visibility and credibility.
Local Citations
Local citations are just mentions of your business on other websites, including local directories, local blogs, and social media. Consistent citations help establish authority and relevance in local search.
An example would be getting mentioned on your local Chamber of Commerce website in Brisbane , being featured on a local charity website that has a Brisbane chapter or adding yourself to the Brisbane business directory. All of these are local citations and help to reinforce not just your address but your participation in the community.
Conclusion
Above we’ve looked at all the SEO basics quickly in the upcoming posts we will go deeper into the details of each. Explaining exactly what each part of SEO is, how it functions and how you can make changes on your business website to help it rank better for your goods and services within Brisbane.