SEO top tips for your website or online portfolio

Did you know that plenty of businesses are still not making the most out of their websites? And that they're not reaching their full potential online?

Therefore, isn’t it the perfect opportunity for you to be one step ahead of your competitors? And start tapping into Search Engine Optimisation and all the things associated with getting your website, blog or online portfolio performing at its very best?

Search Engine Optimsation is of course the act of altering a website so it does better in the organic, crawler-based search engine results pages. By using SEO effectively, you could be up there with the big players. That's one of the beautiful things about SEO - everyone has a chance to be on the first page of the results pages for their search terms or keywords.

There’s lots of ways to boost your own website. To get you started, here are Creative Boom's top tips for SEO…

Content is king!

Content is the single most important factor of SEO. Writing relevant content for your website is key to ensuring it does better in the Search Engine Results Pages or SERPs.

When we say relevant, we mean you should think about your keywords or the ’search terms’ that people will type into Google should they be looking for your product or service.

You then have to include those search terms or keywords throughout your website, not forgetting your meta titles, descriptions and tags. Plus, think about those words that you might associate with your keywords and add those too.

By writing relevent and 'on topic' content, you’ll be pleasing the Google spiders that will crawl and index your site. But you must also remember to make it appealing to real people, i.e. potential customers. Just write within your area of expertise and you can’t go wrong.

Fresh and updated content

Next step, you need to ensure your content is constantly updated. That’s why an integrated blog is so important and why more and more websites are being built using systems like Wordpress.

Static content only works so far. By having an integrated blog, you’ll be launching your website into the stratosphere. As you know, each blog post is a new web page for the Google spiders to crawl so you won’t be relying solely on your home page to attract visitors to your website.

Imagine your website is like a web. And the bots that crawl your website to index it are of course spiders. If you have lots of juicy content stuck to your web, then you’ll have more for the spiders to munch on. Now because these spiders have an insatiable appetite, you’ve got to keep posting new content.

So remember, relevant and constantly updated web content is key. If you don’t get this right, think of all the potential customers you could be missing out on!

Keywords

Keywords are so important. They are the search terms people type into Google when looking for something they need. Think of Google as a phone directory and you’re having to put your business into it under a certain category. Well, think about what your potential customers will look for when searching for your product and service and then you’ve got your keywords!

When thinking about your keywords and how to optimise your website through relevant content, you should be aware that a generic search term such as ‘clothing’ is very difficult to compete against. If you search that word in Google, you get back over 236,000,000 results.

Therefore, when thinking about your keywords – try to find a niche. Find your speciality and optimise your site.

Using the right keywords are crucial and you’ll find that it’s an ongoing process. For instance, some keywords might not work so you’ll have to find others that do. It can be a trial and error process.

There are lots of free tools available to help you choose relevant keywords, including the obvious and very popular Google AdWords Keyword Tool.

Links, Links, Links

Building links is an easy way of driving traffic to your website. But did you know it’s about the quality of the links you share? And that less is more?

If your website has good links, i.e. with large and respected sites, they bring added value as well as attracting more visitors. More importantly, it’s better to have only a few quality links rather than lots of irrelevant links because it’ll weaken your site’s importance in the eyes of the Google spiders.

The next thing to remember is the relevance of those links. Do they share similar content and stay on the same topic? For example, if you're a designer then you should share links with websites that are within the creative field.

You can build links in various ways:

• You can share reciprocal links with similar websites, something that can prove difficult to achieve but very effective
• Think about online public relations! Send your press releases to online magazines and e-zines, like Creative Boom. Ensure that the editor or journalist hyperlinks your search terms or keywords rather than just a web address
• You can leave interesting and informative comments on other people's blogs
• Join forums and take part in online conversation, making sure your signature has a link to your website
• You can add yourself to relevant online directories.

Social Media Marketing

Social media is an extremely powerful and cost-effective marketing tool and it helps you to build a friendly, personable and transparent brand. By engaging in two-way conversation online, you will gain a name for yourself, network and even win new business!

What's more, social media marketing goes hand in hand with SEO. It forms part of your link-building strategy. It's all about blogging, getting involved in communities and forums and building a loyal following online.

Make sure you build links through your LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo, YouTube and Flickr accounts and get some social media icons on your website. There's lots of free icons available online. I personally love looking through '600+ Free Design, Twitter and Social Media Icons: A Collection Motherload!', courtesy of The Design Cubicle.

Images

Give every single image within your website a title relevant to your keywords or search terms, i.e. the things your potential customers might search for in Google if seeking your products or services. Many people make the mistake of just uploading an image and forget to give it a title, therefore it ends up having an obscure name like  'image23.jpg'.

Remember, ALL of your content has to be SEO friendly. Make the Google spiders love you. Give them lots of juicy content to gobble up. Don't neglect your image titles.

Plus people don't just search for websites. They search for images too. By applying SEO techniques to your image content, you'll also be increasing the chances of being found by potential customers.

Get yourself on Google Maps

People will naturally look for products and services on their own doorstep. Therefore, it's crucial you list yourself on Google Maps to support something that is referred to as 'Local SEO'.

When adding your Google Maps listing, don't forget to add some of your keywords to your title, along with your business name.

You must then optimise your site by including the name of your town, city or region within your web copy, meta titles, descriptions and keywords throughout.

Time and patience

You must remember that there is no magic trick to instantly make your website ‘number one’ in the SERPs. You can’t just wave a magic wand and it will be sorted. SEO requires time and patience.

SEO is a constant process. It’s lots of hard work and needs constant attention. Even then, it could be months before you see any benefit.

You see, Google make up the rules! And they are rules that are constantly changing and evolving. What applies today might not necessarily apply tomorrow.

But the things we do know are key. We know that Google loves relevant, fresh content and websites that are search engine friendly.

And Finally...

Still think a website is just a brochure for your business? Think again. By having a static website that isn’t search engine friendly, you are potentially missing out on thousands of pounds worth of business and unnecessarily pumping money down the drain.

SEO is crucial if you want to be found by potential customers online. After all, where do people go when they want more information about products and services these days? They look online. So, spend some time boosting your website and its content, take our top tips on board and you will start to see results. We promise!

In the meantime, check out the free web tools at We Build Pages to compare your website with your competition, assess your current site and see where you can instantly make improvements. You'll notice there's a cool 'Spider View' tool - this is great for seeing what the Google spiders see when crawling your website. You'll learn pretty quickly where you might be going wrong!

Plus, there's a very good website analysis tool at WooRank, something you'll find especially useful to see where improvements can be made.