What is Search Engine Optimisation?

what is search engine optimisation

It is absolutely crucial that your business has an online presence, as this allows you to gain access to a new market. To build a strong online presence, you can use a number of digital marketing strategies. In this article, we’re answering the question – what is search engine optimisation? 

What is search engine optimisation (SEO)?

Search engine optimisation is often referred to as SEO, which involves using various methods to improve your website’s ranking on major search engines. 

Generally, the higher your website ranks on the search engine, the more organic traffic you will gain. This results in an increase in website traffic, but other metrics for success can be bounce rate and leads. 

If your website provides users with the information they set out to find, you will have a lower bounce rate. Likewise, if your website encourages users to purchase products or interact with a service, you’ll hopefully get more leads. 

As search engines go, Google is the most popular, although there are other search engines that websites may look to rank on. 

How does SEO work? 

Search engine optimisation works through bots that crawl websites to find relevant content and information. This information is stored and ready to be provided when a user searches for a relevant query. When these users visit your website, they are referred to as organic search traffic. 

If you want to become more visible online, you have to understand how search engines work. It’s not as simple as just creating relevant website content, and you need to consider many ranking factors. 

Many mistakes can be made when it comes to search engine optimisation, such as keyword stuffing. This can involve using keywords in places where they don’t make sense or offer anything to the reader. Google regularly releases updates to penalise websites that appear to be over-optimising. 

Google released its helpful content update just a few months ago. This update was designed to crawl website pages and reward content that was deemed truly helpful. Any content that was labelled unhelpful was penalised. Unhelpful content could be content that is the same as everyone else’s or promises information it cannot provide. 

Regular updates have a significant impact on search engine algorithms, which can affect search results and your search rankings. When this happens, you should look at your Google Analytics and assess your SEO strategy. 

Google Analytics tool

 

What are SEO ranking factors? 

There are so many SEO ranking factors that search engines use to determine your website’s visibility. There are around 200 signals. 

Here are some of the top-ranking factors:

  • Page speed
  • Mobile optimisation
  • Domain authority 
  • Keyword optimisation 
  • Website structure 
  • Website security 
  • User experience 

When it comes to SEO, you can’t just do one thing well; you must do everything well. This means that SEO is a long-term strategy rather than a quick marketing fix. 

Due to the way that Google’s algorithm works, you may not immediately notice improvements from your SEO efforts. Despite the search engine bots constantly crawling, it still takes time for them to assess your website’s position.

What is local SEO? 

Local SEO is used by many businesses to attract local customers. Local SEO plays a vital role in search queries that use the phrase “near me” and is one of the reasons why your business may show up on the search engine results page. For example, you may search ‘SEO agency Dubai’ in which case the search engine should only show you results in Dubai. 

As well as optimising your website to rank for a location, your Google Business Profile can support your local SEO. You must keep this up to date so that users can contact you and visit your website easily. Many users will head over to your competitor if they cannot contact you. 

Search engine optimisation examples 

There are many SEO strategies that you can implement due to it covering so many aspects of marketing. It is worth noting that search engine optimisation is always best performed by a specialist SEO agency. Without expertise and attention to detail, it can leave you spending a lot of time and money with little return on investment. 

Our digital marketing agency in Dubai can support you with all aspects of SEO, including website optimisation, keyword research, copywriting, content creation and generating backlinks. We believe in transparency, so we provide each client with live analytical data reports at the end of each month. 

There are many search engine marketing strategies that can be implemented. They are generally filtered into categories, such as on-page optimisation and off-page SEO. 

tools for website analytics

 

Website copy 

Your website copy holds great importance and should persuade users to consider your business over your competitors. Your website copy is anything that is written on your website. This includes your homepage and product descriptions. 

It’s important that your website copy is clear and tells users what you expect from them. This can be supported by other design elements, such as call to actions and the inclusion of internal links. 

Our copywriting team in Dubai can perform keyword research and create powerful copy that portrays your brand’s tone of voice. 

Content marketing

Search engines reward websites that are updated regularly, and we’re not just talking about maintaining your website; we also mean adding new content! Having a blog on your website allows you to add news, advice and other business information. Your blog is a great way to showcase your expertise and provide support to your website users. 

Blogs are an important marketing tool that can often be shared easily. You may share the blog on social media sites, supporting your social media marketing, or you may find others sharing it on other sites themselves. Images should support each blog post to help keep the reader engaged. You should include a meta description tag when you create content and add it to your blog. 

Website optimisation

Website optimisation plays an important role in your business’ ranking position. A well-optimised website should have a low page load time and run efficiently, creating a positive user experience. Users form negative emotions towards slow websites and can often leave to use someone else’s. 

Another key aspect of website optimisation is how it displays on a device. Nowadays, most website traffic comes from mobile rather than desktop. This means that it’s more important than ever that your site loads correctly on mobile devices too. 

Just a few years ago, Google announced the Mobile First Index. This indexing means that Google will show the mobile version of your website over the desktop version.

Website security 

The security of your website is fundamental, and if it’s not up to standard, it could be the reason you’re missing out on valuable customers. Many users will be reluctant to enter information on a website that isn’t secure. 

Website security issues can be reduced by using a high-quality hosting provider that will regularly update your website. These updates include backups, plugin updates and system updates too. You should also ensure that the SSL certificate has been purchased for your domain name, which informs users of your security. 

website SSL certificate

 

Do you want to rank higher on the search results? Our SEO agency in Dubai can support you with all aspects of SEO, including finding relevant keywords, creating quality content, generating external links from reputable sources and, above all, making your website appear in a Google search. SEO is the best way to improve search engine rankings. 

SEO works well with paid search methods, such as PPC advertising. This type of advertising can be completed through Google Ads, which allows you to match your site’s pages to the user’s search intent. Find out more about our PPC service in Dubai

Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions regarding search engine optimisation; we’re always happy to help. 

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