Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) involves a variety of techniques designed to improve your website’s visibility on search engines like Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo, leading to higher rankings and increased traffic.

Modern search engines excel at selecting sites with the most relevant content. You can no longer rely on simply loading a few keywords onto your page. The key to success lies in creating high-quality content.

How much energy you should put into SEO depends on your reliance on organic search results and the strength of your competition. You might also consider paid search engine advertising, which delivers quality leads on a pay-per-click basis.

Clear, logical, well-written content with sequential headings is essential. Conducting keyword and key-phrase research helps keep your content on track. Approach your writing from the perspective of your target audience. What information are they seeking? What search terms might they use? How can you provide the highest quality content that meets their needs?

Identify your audience and provide informative content that represents great value, presented in an attractive and engaging way. Including internal links within your site and external links to reputable sites adds value to your readers and enhances your site’s SEO.

When external sites link to your site, these links are called back-links. Back-links are one way that search engines determine your reputation and are incredibly important for good S.E.O.

The subject of developing back-links is a study in it’s own right. The more reputable the external site, the more credibility their links convey to yours. For example, a link from the NZ Herald will be more valuable than one from your cousin Frank’s personal blog

In a competitive market, developing back-links can be more in the realm of an ongoing marketing campaign. Depending on how far you want to go down this track, you may wish to engage a specialist marketing organisation

Technical performance significantly impacts your site’s search rankings. As a minimum, ensure your site has:

• A secure connection using SSL (https://)
• No broken links
• An XML sitemap and Schema to help search engines index your site
• A custom ‘page not found’ (404) page
• Fast page loading speeds
• Minimal layout shift (CLS score)
• Optimised images with descriptive alt tags

I hope you’ve enjoyed this overview of Search Engine Optimization. For more detailed information, check out these resources:

For performance testing:

• Google Page Speed Insights
• Pingdom
• GT Metrix