Recently, we wrote a post called “5 SEO Things That Every Business Leader Should Know". As soon as we finished it, however, we thought of how much more we could add to it. SEO is an essential component for businesses, and it is extremely difficult to list all the essential points which business leaders need to understand if they want their efforts to really make a difference to their site's search-friendliness.
As we've said before, Google is an extremely busy entity, and undertakes more than 40,000 searches every single second. Ensuring that your web-presence is optimised to allow it to be easily found by this massive audience is hugely important when it comes to growing your business through the exciting opportunities that the internet can provide.
Another 5 Things That Every Online Business Leader Should Know!
- Device-Friendly And Responsive Sites Will Thrive – It wasn't too long ago that Google made the decision to favour websites which were enabled for a variety of devices. Whilst Mobilegeddon, as it was dubbed by SEO doomsayers, hasn't had as great an effect as might be expected, nearly half of non-mobile friendly URLs dropped in rank. With the number of people accessing the internet on mobile devices has drastically increased over the past few years, it is now more essential than ever to offer a mobile-friendly online presence.
In fact, in the UK alone, 2014 saw an 8% rise in the amount of people accessing the internet on their mobile devices – reaching the heights of 57% over the 49% of 2013 – wilfully ignoring this audience could be one of the worst decisions that a business can make.
It is becoming more important than ever to offer users an experience which they can engage with on their mobile devices as if they were using a desktop computer. As web searches become more device-driven and intelligent, it is likely that web pages themselves will become smaller and smaller. This could inevitably mean that a site in fifth or sixth position, even on the first page, will drop down to the second or even third pages on mobile devices.
- They're Easy To Make Than You Think! – Whilst most business leaders will see the words “mobile-friendly" and immediately panic, it is actually much simpler than they might think to create a site which looks fantastic on a range of devices. There are several options for mobile-friendly web design and they both offer different advantages to both the business and the end-user.
A dedicated mobile site, which offers a separate URL when being accessed via mobile device, allows flexibility as you can create a new site from scratch, and create and optimise its content without having to modify your pre-existing website.
A responsive design option also allows you to rebuild your website so that the content itself will move depending on the size of device used to access it. This can offer users an optimised experience on every device and can reduce the amount of content that you will be required to create, as you only need to offer a single website for your users.
- Google And SEO Aren't Enemies! – This is one aspect of search engine optimisation that we have heard many business leaders misunderstand. In the early days, when SEO was primarily concerned with getting rankings through underhanded methods, this might have been true, but modern SEO and Google certainly aren't at war! In fact, both work to offer the same thing – a positive experience for the user. Modern and white-hat SEO works alongside Google's efforts to improve the overall quality of the web.
However, that doesn't mean that SEO experts don't live in a wary state when it comes to Google. At a moment's notice, Google can introduce algorithms which change the effectiveness of certain techniques, as what they define as 'useful' for the end user evolves.
It is important for business leaders to understand that at no point has Google ever said anything along the lines of “don't do SEO". However, Google really don't like it when businesses employ black-hat techniques which are designed to manipulate their algorithms. At the end of the day, SEO should add value to a website, it shouldn't be used to manipulate.
- It's Always Better To Start Out With SEO – It is much harder to implement truly effective SEO after the website has already made wrong moves at the start of its existence. If you're creating a new website, you should always consider search engine optimisation in your primary content efforts.
SEO exerts can be seen as something like project managers, particularly if you choose to enjoy consultancy services. The SEOs need to be involved from an extremely early stage, so that they can offer an effective framework for your content creation efforts and place you on the right track right from the start.
For many experts, search engine optimisation is all about creating a positive UX and eliminating risks. The more planning that you do beforehand, the much quicker the overall execution will be.
- There ARE Other Search Engines Out There… - We've talked about Google a lot, and with good reason (Google's share of the UK market alone is thought to be around 88%), but there are other search engines available. It can often sound patronising, but if your target demographic is likely to be older, then it is worth optimising for an engine like Bing, which is more likely to come pre-installed on a computer
Of course, when you're optimising for Google, you're essentially optimising for all search engines, but there are differences. Whilst Google might prefer you to offer better content, Bing is more concerned with the structure and navigability of your site.
Industry-Leading SEO Agency In Reading
Here at Promote, we are proud to offer a diverse range of services, ranging from SEO training to comprehensive digital marketing strategies featuring search engine optimisation, PPC and CRO efforts. We are proud of our record as the leading SEO Agency in Reading which shows us helping businesses of all shapes and sizes to make a success out of their online efforts.
For more information, feel free to get in touch with out friendly team of industry experts on 0118 380 1002. Alternatively, you could email us directly at hi@promote.agency, and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.
