Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Basics

Not everyone has the budget to employ a high-flying search engine company to get their website off the ground. Below are our tips on what YOU can do to get your website SEO ready. If this all seems a bit too much and technical for you, 543 Designs can certainly help out and give you the boost you need.

GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE
This is a simple but important first step. One which 543 Designs are more than happy to help you with. If you want to do it yourself though - here are your instructions:

1. Head over to Google Webmaster Tools and sign in to your Google account (or create one). 
2. Click the 'add site' button and enter your website's URL. You will then by asked to verify that you own the website. 
3. To verify your 543 Designs site do not use the google recommended option, rather, locate the HTML Tag option to verify. 
4. Click the HTML Tag option and copy and paste the code that Google gives you into your homepages header code (found in your 543 Designs backend - Settings > SEO > Header. 

Once you've verified your website lets submit a a sitemap in Google Webmaster Tools. This lets google constantly check your site for updates to its structure, and tells Google where everything is on your site. After a few days, Google will start indexing your site.

1. Click 'Sitemaps' from your Google Webmaster Tools dashboard. 
2. Click 'Add/Test Sitemap' 
3. In the URL box that appears just type in 'sitemap.xml'
4. Click submit sitemap. 

Alternatively, from the Google Webmaster Tools dashboard, click the drop-down menu called 'Crawl' and then select 'Fetch as Google'. Enter your URL, click 'Fetch' , submit the result to the index and the site should be indexed in minutes. 

If you want to be truly thorough, you can also index the site with Bing Webmaster Tools. It is a similar process, but Google covers so much of the internet traffic it's more a "value add" than a necessity.

ANTI VIRUS VERIFICATION
This is an often forgotten step, but verifying your website with Norton and McAfee can be very important. Put simply, people are more likely to click through to a safe site, and Google will push you up the search rankings if your site is acknowledged as safe. 

To verify your website with Norton:

1. Go to Norton Safeweb and sign in/sign up. 
2. Go to your profile and under 'Site Dispute' click 'Add site'. 
3. Enter your website's URL. 
4. Select to use the 'Meta Tag' verification and paste it into the 'Header Code' section of your homepage (located in Settings > SEO > Header. 
5. Publish your website and click 'Verify Now' on Norton Safeweb. 
6. To get your website rated, click 'Rate My Site'. This process may take several weeks.

BACKLINKS
Backlinks help search engines know that your website is popular. You should try and get as many people as possible to link to your website. Aim for quality links, if you have links to your website from other websites that Google sees as reputable, your search ranking should jump up. Similarly, if you have links to your website from disreputable, spammy websites, Google will penalize your website. Ask around common companies and websites and ask to have your website included in exchange for them including yours.

Major databases like the Yellow Pages are a good place to start being listed - have a search for relevant databases and directories to be included in.

543 Designs will generally link to your website as an example of our work, and in return include a link in the footer of your website back to us! 

SPEED MATTERS
The 543 Designs team have done what we can for you in terms of speed. Check out our blog on Images to make sure any uploads you make are helping the cause, and our blog on Cloudflare as a little extra step you can make to get the site super speedy.

KEYWORDS
Keywords' refers to words that people tend to search for. To find out what people tend to search for in your subject area use the Google Adwords Keyword Planner. 

1. Click 'Search for new keyword and ad group ideas', fill in the drop down menu however suits the topic of your website and click 'get ideas'. 
2. Click 'Keyword ideas' instead of 'Ad group ideas'. 

Once you have established what people search for in your area, add some of those words and phrases anywhere into your website, whether it's in your text or heading tags. Avoid huge amounts of content and files - and Google will reward you.

LOCATION TARGETING
Be sure to list your company with Google Business and claim your address to pop up in any local area searches. This is how you get on "the map" when an individual search for something in a particular area in Google.

SEARCH FOR SEO TIPS & SEO TOOLS
By no means let this blog be total gospel and the only SEO research you do! Hit the web, google SEO tips and see what some of the pros have to say. You might be surprised at how easy it is to take simple actions that pump up your search result and help out your businesses profitability.