SEO Explained in Basic Terms

The term SEO is thrown around a lot in the online world. But for those new to running their own website, it is vital to at least understand the basics to get you started. In this blog post we explain what SEO is and give you a quick five-step crash course to optimising your webpages.

What is SEO?

SEO is a process that you must undertake to give your website a chance of appearing in search engine results. The better that this is done, the better the chances are that traffic will be driven to your website thus increasing your reach and customer base. SEO can be big and exhaustive – but there any may types of software and plugins (such as Yeost) that can make this succinct and manageable for you.

A Five-Step Crash Course to SEO

This basic demonstration forms the crux of SEO – matching the terms that you tag your page with to the terms that people browse for online. When these align, your website will be listed as a possible hit for the person who is browsing online. To start this crash course, we are going to create a hypothetical arts and crafts online shop called ‘Crayons and Cardboard.’ Imagine that you are the owner of this online shop and you want to promote your new delivery service. As such, the term you may want to promote is ‘art supplies delivery in Dublin.’

Step One – Title your page

Make sure that you have a dedicated page explaining your new delivery service. The title of this page should include the terms that you with to promote in the proper order, so: Crayons and Cardboard now offer art supplies deliveries in Dublin.

Step Two –Match your page URL to the Page Title

The next step is to mirror your page title in the page URL. This means that your key term appears twice before we even consider the content of the webpage. As such, the page URL may look something like this: www.crayonsandcardboard.com/services-we-offer/art-supplies-delivery-in-dublin

Step Three – Page Description

Let’s now ensure that the page description (i.e. the snippet of text that appears on search engine results pages) also contains your key terms. This is now the third instance of the key terms being associated with your website.

Step Four – The Page Itself

In the text of the webpage itself, again make sure that the term ‘art supplies delivery in Dublin’ is used at some stage in that exact word order. This can be even used more than once to increase what is known as keyword density.

Step Five – Alternative Text

A curveball step that can often be overlooked is to lastly add your key term to the alternative text of any and all pictures on the webpage. This again adds as many hits as there are pictures to your webpage.

In summary, the five steps that you have completed above mean that you are (at a minimum) linking your website five times to the term ‘art supplies delivery in Dublin’ when it is searched for online. Whelan Web Design can help you further understand the art of SEO in more detail so get it touch for a consultation to help you and your website register more hits online and to make more sales.