Crash course: To key to SEO success is to have a plan of action, and Phil Kelsey shares his experience with five steps you can implement to improve your business website.
Many websites seem to fall short of consistency and focus when it comes to their search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques, regardless of business size and industry. Why should you care about this? A significant proportion of traffic comes to your website through search referrals, most likely from Google, which covers almost 90% of the UK market. So any improvements you will make to your SEO will help your website rank better in search results, bringing more people to your website, all potential customers or people interested in what you do.
The key to SEO success is to have a plan of action, so I’ve put together five steps you can implement for your business website that, if followed consistently, will bring results. I’m also looking to make sure you have a better understanding of the things that you can do in-house to improve the performance of your website.
To improve your website traffic, you need to help search engines understand what your web pages are relevant for. For this, we use keywords, which are the short string of words (maybe one, two, three words) that a person types into the search box of a search engine. For example, if you look for a web design company you may type “web design Lincoln” into Google, and that phrase is the keyword. By using Google’s free Keyword Tool you can get an idea of what people are searching for within your niche.
Search engines give users two kinds of results: organic, results that most closely match the search query, also known as natural results; and paid results, which usually appear highlighted at the top of the page. Depending on the keyword, around 50% of users click the first organic result of a search, with the rest split between the paid results and other natural results.
You’re looking for the search terms that are less competitive but have respectable search volumes. You don’t have to always target the most popular search terms. It’s about choosing logically and not always gunning for the most popular search terms. I’ve written more about researching keywords on my website.
From the research above, you should now have a list of keywords for each page. Now, choose one or two focus keyword(s), but no more than that. Remember, this is all about focus and making it crystal clear to both your reader and search engine what your page is all about.
Once you have your focus keywords identified, log into your content management system admin area and start changing the following areas to increase that relevancy of your page. There are a range of plugins for each content management system, if you use WordPress, then I recommend the SEO Yoast plugin.
So, you’ve got this great website with all this really useful content – while waiting for the search engines to do their bit, you need it to be seen. You need to proactively draw attention to your site with the aim of getting linked to in order to build its authority and trust to help overall rankings.
You can start by being social. Share your blog posts within all your social networks and engage with those who respond. Also, be proactive and interact with those who are talking about your niche and offer a helping hand by referring them back to the most suitable and helpful content within your website.
Emails and newsletters still have their place – but you have to be clever with your techniques, content and selective about whom you send it to. Think about the message you’re trying to get across, don’t send it to everyone – just those who will benefit from knowing. This way you increase the likeliness of click-troughs as well as sustained subscriber numbers. Using a self-service like Mailchimp you can send some emails for free and then use their reporting tools to measure the success.
If you have something newsworthy, then you could use a press release to draw attention to your business. For example you may have moved or developed new premises, you may have just won an award for your work, or you may be holding a unique event that you want to talk about. Whatever you write about, make sure you have a detailed account of it on your website (normally within your blog). From this, write and send a unique, summarised and snappy overview to carefully targeted bloggers and journalists from within your niche. If they feel it will be of value to their readers, then there’s a good chance they will want to publish it on their sites. There’s certainly a skill to writing and managing a press release, but you can give it a go by using a service like PRWeb.
This can be a great little trick – if you’re consistent with it. Read a few forums that cover topics within your niche (look at UK Business Forums for a start) and then find things that you feel you can contribute to. If you have content published on your site around a specific question already, you can always refer people to it. This technique can also be used within LinkedIn discussion groups. Just don’t be too self promotional and make sure you offer genuine advice.
When marketing your website, the goal is to increase the relevance of each page and then build your site’s trust and authority within your niche. Being consistent and focused with this plan will give a lot of positive signals to the search engines that will help your traffic increase, as well as your background rankings.
Phil Kelsey is the Managing Director of Spiral Media, a Lincoln-based website and online marketing consultancy. Phil and his creative team create online strategies for their clients by combining their design, development and online marketing skills, which involves search engine optimisation to increase traffic and conversions.
A dramatic video shows a car engulfed in flames in the car park at Lincoln County Hospital on Tuesday afternoon.
An on-call crew from Lincolnshire Fire & Rescue attended the scene on Greetwell Road shortly before 5pm on Tuesday, April 13.
The crew used one hose reel to extinguish the fire and fortunately no casualties were reported.
The car is probably a write-off. | Photo: The Lincolnite
Dramatic pictures from the scene show the severe damage that was caused to the front of the car.
Fall in county infections but a Boston spike
There have been 50 new coronavirus cases and three COVID-related deaths in Greater Lincolnshire on Tuesday — compared to 58 cases and no deaths this time last week.
The government’s COVID-19 dashboard recorded 26 new cases in Lincolnshire, 19 in North Lincolnshire and five in North East Lincolnshire.
On Tuesday, three deaths were registered in Lincolnshire, none in North East Lincolnshire and -1 in North Lincolnshire. Fluctuations in data are usually due to some deaths in those areas being reallocated to other regions across the UK or a miscount. These figures include deaths both in and out of hospitals, as well as residents in hospitals outside the county.
NHS England has reported two new local hospital deaths at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust hospitals.
On Tuesday, national cases increased by 2,472 to 4,375,814, while deaths rose by 23 to 127,123.
In local news, people aged over 45 can now book their COVID vaccinations on the NHS website after the government reached its target of offering a first dose to the nine most vulnerable groups.
There were recently some technical difficulties for people accessing the NHS website, but vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said the issues have been fixed – book a vaccine online here and find out if you are eligible.
Over the weekend, Greater Lincolnshire’s infection rate has fallen, with a spike in Boston only.
Similarly, the England average has also seen a drop in infections, but still remains nearly half Greater Lincolnshire’s rates.
Lincoln has dropped by more than half over the weekend and now has one of the smallest rates in the UK, with just 9.1 per 100,000 of the population infected with COVID-19.
Here’s Greater Lincolnshire’s COVID-19 infection rates up to April 12:
Greater Lincolnshire’s infection rates from Apr 5 to Apr 12. | Data: Gov UK / Table: James Mayer for The Lincolnite
In national news, Boris Johnson has warned that the reduction in coronavirus infections, hospitalisations and deaths “has not been achieved” by the rollout of COVID vaccines.
The prime minister, speaking the day after the latest easing of lockdown restrictions, instead said it was the national shutdown that had been “overwhelmingly important” in driving down COVID rates.
England is giving out its first doses of the Moderna jab, the third COVID-19 vaccine in the nation’s rollout.
It will be available at 21 sites, included the Madejski Stadium in Reading and the Sheffield Arena.
Along with the Pfizer jab, it offers an alternative to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for under-30s, after concerns about a possible link to very rare blood clots.
Greater Lincolnshire includes Lincolnshire and the unitary authorities of North and North East (Northern) Lincolnshire.
58,772 cases (up 50)
2,184 deaths (up three)
of which 1,302 hospital deaths (up two)
4,375,814 UK cases, 127,123 deaths
There will be another Kill The Bill protest in Lincoln next week, rallying against a new government bill that diminishes protesting rights.
Protests have been rife across the country since the government’s proposed Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill was first discussed, with scenes turning violent in Bristol.
Over two hundred people peacefully took part in the city’s first march at Speakers’ Corner on April 3, including Extinction Rebellion activists and Socialist and Labour supporters.
| Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Now, after a post started doing the rounds on social media, another protest has apparently been scheduled for 2pm on Monday, April 17 at the same location on Lincoln High Street, as part of a national day of action.
A poster promoting a second event has been shared across social media platforms.
Protests are lawful once again after the government eased lockdown restrictions on March 29, but organisers are required to submit a risk assessment prior to any event.
| Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Organisers of the last protest were in close communication with police to make the event safe, and The Lincolnite has asked Lincolnshire Police if they have been made aware of another protest, but are yet to receive a reply.
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