SEO TIPS EVERY CREATIVE FOUNDER SHOULD KNOW
Enter the world of website ownership and one term will keep popping up over and over again: SEO. The term stands for Search Engine Optimisation, and although it has become common terminology in the digital world, it is often misunderstood and misused. Whether you’re a first-time website owner wanting to learn some SEO basics, or a regular artpreneur who has tried a few tactics but is still a bit confused, these are the straight facts you need to know about Search Engine Optimisation.
SEO BASICS EVERY CREATIVE FOUNDER SHOULD KNOW
What is SEO?
SEO is the practice of using various methods to make your website more visible and appealing to search engines so that they will rank you higher in their search results and connect you to your ideal audience. We all know that when we search for something on Google or other search engines, we’re most likely to click on the first links that come up on the first or second page. SEO can help you get closer to or even achieve those those coveted positions.
Why do I Need SEO?
By optimising your website, you make it easier for search engines to find you and understand exactly what it is you’re all about. Then when people search for terms or topics that are related to your brand, art or content, the search engines know to direct them your way. However, with so many sites out there, the search engines also need to make sure they are providing people with the best quality pages that are most relevant to their search. Therefore, you want to make sure that your website and content are at the top of their game.
What Makes Good SEO?
1. It’s All About the Content!
The first thing any good SEO guide or expert will tell you is that ‘quality content is king’, and it’s absolutely true. Your content is the bread and butter of your website and what is going to draw people in. The most important thing to think about is creating content that is useful, relevant and valuable for your target audience. Think about the people you are trying to reach and what they are searching for, then try to create unique content that they would be happy to find in their search results. This could be great writing with a new take on a trend-worthy topic, visually stunning pictures or information-rich videos.
SEO Mistake: Your content should be created with real people in mind, not the search engines. This means you should be creating original, thought-provoking and engaging content rather than copying and pasting duplicate content from other sites or publishing low value pages that are full of keywords and enticing descriptions but little or no useful information or resources.
2. Making Your Keywords Work For You
Keywords are definitely important in SEO, but it’s not just all about stuffing words related to your brand into your content. For example, as a photographer you may be tempted to use the word ‘photography’ as much as possible to rank for that term, but how many other sites also use that term? And how many serious buyers would simply type the vague term ‘photography’ into a search engine? Long-tail keywords solve this problem by combining keywords into phrases that hone in on your exact product, client and desired outcome. An example might be ‘black and white historical photographs under $100’, or ‘affordable black and white historical photography’.
SEO Mistake: Keyword stuffing is the act of using certain words or phrases as much as possible in your content to try and trick the search engines into ranking you higher for those terms. However, the search engines can see this a mile away and will penalize you accordingly. Make sure your keywords are relevant to your content and your readers, and used in a natural, non-spammy way.
3. Link Love
When it comes to ranking your site, search engines don’t just look at great content with relevant keywords, but also how useful your site is to other people. One way to determine this is how many links point back to your site. The idea is that if many high-quality sites are pointing other people towards your site, then you must have something good going on. The best way to get links back to your site is to create content that is worthy of being shared. Reaching out to other people in your field is another way to generate awareness of your brand and foster collaborations that could result in some great shared links.
SEO Mistake: Back in the day you used to be able to pay ‘link-building’ companies to place links on various websites back to your site. Today this practice is highly frowned upon and can even get you banned from the search engines. Now even the quality of your links matter, so if you want to rank higher, you have to make sure that the links pointing back to you are coming from trusted sites. You also want to make sure that your links going out send your readers to high-quality sources.
4. Descriptions Are Important
When it comes to getting your site out there to the world, you want to make sure that you are describing your posts, pages and various forms of content in the clearest and most concise way possible so that search engines and readers know how to find you and what to expect. Make sure that the url for your page or post is short, sweet and to the point with easy-to-understand words separated by hyphens. Use your Alt Text tags to describe your images and link them to your content, and be sure to fill in your meta descriptions with a brief summary of your page or post, and perhaps a call to action to entice people in.
SEO Mistake: The biggest problem people have with descriptions is simply not knowing or understanding where to put them. One tool that can really help with this is the Yoast plug-in. Once installed it will show you exactly where to add your descriptions, and even do half the work for you. It will also show you ways to improve your on-page SEO. Another great tool is Browseo.net. Simply plug your website url into their search box and it will show you what your site or webpage looks like to a search engine. This way you can see if you’re missing any important info.
5. Mapping Your Site
If you don’t already have an XML sitemap for your site, you definitely need to get on that now. A sitemap is pretty much what it sounds like: a map to your site that shows the structure, various sections, and the pathways that lead to those sections. Having a sitemap shows the search engine robots what to crawl, and it also alerts them to any new content or changes right away, so that they can index your content and make it searchable. There are many tools you can use to make a sitemap, like Yoast SEO or Google Webmaster Tools. After you create your sitemap, you can submit it to Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools.
SEO Mistake: Ok, so we know some of these methods may seem complicated, and in the beginning you may just feel like just throwing your hands up in the air and calling an SEO company or expert to do it for you. But trust us, you got this. We definitely do not suggest hiring anybody who says they can get you to the first page on Google overnight or give you results fast. SEO takes time and patience, and you’re way better off taking a bit of time to learn the basics yourself and then invest in a good developer, designer or digital marketer who can help you take your website to the next level.
