5 Tips To Optimise Your Position in Search Engines

I wanted to share these 5 simple tips here with you because very few recruiters understand what SEO is, what the basic optimisation techniques are and why it is critical to use them.

What is SEO?

So, what us this SEO thing?? Search Engine Optimisation is nothing more than a set of techniques that can optimise the natural or “organic” position of a website on search engines. The objective here is to position or index the site in the search engines according to certain keywords corresponding to the main themes of the site in question.

For example, for the REC it would have a good positioning for keywords such as “recruitment”, “recruitment qualifications” and long tail keywords such as “how to start a recruitment agency”.

By natural or organic ranking, I mean the search results that are displayed naturally by the search engine not the sponsored links which is located most of the time at the top or on the right of the screen (PPC etc).

Once you understand the concept of SEO, it’s important to know how these optimisation techniques can help your business perform better according to your specific goals. My clients’ goals are always one four aims, most often a mix of goals; increased revenues; reduced overall marketing spend; saving time; and/or improving their brand awareness. So that in mind, what are the benefits of investing in SEO services for your business?

How to use SEO techniques to help your business perform better!

What are the benefits of investing in SEO for your business? (SEO is hands-down an investment NOT a ball ache expense!).

Knowing that 90% ish of Internet users use a search engine to find products and services they need, you can easily understand why effective SEO is important to generating leads and extra deals.

According to a marketers in the know, 91% of Internet users would only consult the first page of search results. This drops to around 5% for the 2nd page of results, to around 2% for the first 3 pages and only combined 3% for 3 pages and more.

You can see the how important it is for your site to be in a page 1 position for your chosen keywords. Choosing keywords is vital, but that’s a different conversation for a different day – the secret is in the competitor analysis!!

So, what steps can YOU take to start rubbing Google’s belly to start recognising you and your site as a player in your chosen field?

5 SEO Tips To Optimise Your Search Engine Positioning

So let’s check out the 5 SEO tips that will help you better index your site in the search engines.

DISCLAIMER – SEO is a fairly complex and evolving discipline so this is far from being a comprehensive guide!

These 5 techniques can help you make a few small changes to your site so that it is better positioned in the engines. SEO takes time to show traction, this we (should) already know, and these 5 techniques are a tiny part of technical SEO. So don’t expect page 1 results (unless you’re already there), but it’s a start!

1. Structure your URLs correctly

My first tip is to make sure the URLs of your site are structured so that the search engine robots index them more quickly and easily.

I see this ALL the time – http://www.yourbusiness.co.uk/1136_en?900_%76.html. This is incorrect structurally.

2. Rewrite your URLs

The above URL doesn’t help the indexing of your pages in the search engines. It’s better to write your URLs by using your page’s title or very specific and relevant keywords to the very content of your page such as: http://www.yourbusiness.com/services/clients/retained-search.

So, Google will understand that this is a page about retained search services and search engines will index your pages more easily. You can use a Mod rewrite module to optimize the writing of your URLs easily or if you use a CMS (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal etc.), you can just look in settings/permalink to change the URL of the pages from numbers/dates to page names/categories etc.

3. Add content and update your site frequently

You’ve heard this loads no doubt: “Content is King”, I’m guilty as charged for throwing that phrase around like a rag doll! But it is an easy win when improving the indexing of your site.

The more often your site is updated, the more search engines will tend to index it to a higher level. In fact, search engines value new content more than content that has not been changed in a long time, so you’ll benefit from updating your site frequently.

Don’t get it twisted, I’m not just talking about blogging. A major mistake literally 90% of recruiters I talk to are making – not updating/removing jobs on their jobs page. If it’s filled – bin it. If it’s been live for a long time, refresh it. Trust me. Also – don’t forget to add blog posts at the very LEAST every 2 weeks. If you’re stuck for time/inspiration – click me!

4. Avoid duplication of content

Avoid duplicating your content. Search engines penalise sites that have duplicated content. It’s important to make sure that you don’t have two identical pages for example, on your old domain and your new domain name or two duplicate blog posts or job postings – even if the URL for both is different.

5. Make sure you have quality links pointing to your site.

I’ve said this before and will continue to do so “not all links are created equal!”

The old belief system was that the more links you have linking to your domain from another domain then the better off you will be in the SERPS (search engine results pages) is defunct. Like most things, quality presides over quantity.

Look for certain metrics on a site you want a link from; age of the domain name; the credibility of the site in the search engines; its page rank; trust score; and citation score.

Remember this: SEO is a VITAL part of your marketing strategy. You might think that you don’t need to invest it in now as all your works come from existing clients etc, referrals…so on. Great, all it takes is for one or two of those clients to fall out with you or find someone better and BOOM, you’re on your way to being on your arse.

Bearing in mind SEO takes typical 3-6 months to begin to be effective, the best time to future protect yourself is now.

As always, happy to answer any questions so drop me an EMAIL or give me a call on 07486 571 264.