Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

What is SEO?

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is about pulling in targeted, non-paid traffic to a website from search engines. A solid SEO strategy means creating quality content, using the right keywords and building backlinks — or bringing in an SEO consultant to handle it. 

How search engines actually work

When you search for something on any search engine like Google, its algorithms work to deliver the best possible result. Google ranks websites based on:

Relevance

If you search for "roast chicken recipes" you clearly don't want pages about dog breeds, so Google uses searches linked to those keywords and surfaces the most relevant pages at the top.

Authority

Google measures a site's authority by the number of other sites that link to a page. These linked pages are known as backlinks. The more backlinks a page has, the higher it tends to rank. You can also combine SEO and SEM.

Usefulness

You can have relevant, authoritative content, but if it isn't useful, Google won't rank it at the top. The difference between quality content and useful content is this: quality content offers exactly what you're looking for, but it can be disorganised and hard to read. Content is useful when all that information is easy to understand and genuinely clear.