A Comprehensive guide to SEO - Costa Del Sol
Here is a comprehensive guide to SEO for Costa Del Sol. SEO is crucial if you want to have a strong online presence. So make sure you use it.
If you’re like most business owners and marketing and sales leaders we talk to, you already know that organic traffic is essential to building your brand. It’s the difference between getting more visitors and converting those visitors into buyers.
75% of internet searchers don’t scroll past the first page of search results, so it might seem difficult to do. The key to organic search success is ranking high in the results for as many user queries as possible.
Higher rankings and organic traffic are great; however, they’re not enough to grow your business. You need to do more than just get more traffic. You have to get more leads!
Focus on quality over quantity to rank for more qualified prospects who are ready to buy. In essence, you need to target the keywords that are relevant to your business so that the traffic coming to your website will be more likely to be your targeted audience.
Perhaps, you have already tried some SEO. Writing some blogs that you thought would interest your target customers. Most probably you saw very little increase in traffic and most likely you gave up on the idea.
SEO is not short term – SEO is measured in months or years, so you have to go into SEO with this mentality in mind. The rewards will be great but they will take time to appear. This is the no.1 thing you have to accept about SEO.
The most important step if you want to succeed in SEO
Businesses that want to see success in SEO must first do something.
They need to have an SEO specialist, who is solely responsible for all the SEO of your company.
The reason for this is very simple.
If you treat SEO as a part-time pursuit. At best, you will get mediocre results.
Why is this?
Because in a company there will always be more immediate concerns, deadlines to fulfil, clients to pursue which will lead to short term gains. And as SEO is long term it will be pushed more and more to the side.
There is one thing we advise all our clients to do before any other step that consistently catalyzes their incredible SEO growth.
When you have one person who is solely focused on creating content for your brand, he/she will be extremely dedicated to its success. If a single writer has the ability to create high-quality content that’s engaging for users, then it’s a huge benefit to your brand because the writer will do whatever it takes to make sure it’s successful.
Your content team is not just responsible for content production, it is also responsible for content maintenance. It is important to know that Google wants to see regular, fresh content on your site, so don’t let your team get away with just publishing content occasionally. They must produce content regularly and they should also regularly review the past content.
Another very important factor is to monitor the organic search performance in order to ensure that the SEO is being successful.
Your SEO must be comprehensive - SEO Costa Del Sol
In order to succeed in SEO you need to know your target customer inside out.
You need to determine every single aspect that affects their buying decisions.
SEO is all about answering all the questions that your customer will potentially ask.
So when they go online to do a search for their questions, they will find the answers to those questions written by your company.
It is essential to build a “customer persona” of your business and go in-depth as much as possible on their needs and wants.
You can achieve this by asking customers themselves, or by interviewing the sales staff. Basically, it´s a set of questions that customers always want answers to.
What are search engines and who uses them?
Search engines are tools that help people find information on the web. They are also great at sorting through a lot of unstructured data to find that which is most relevant. In other words, they do their best to understand and interpret the words that people use to describe things that are happening, and to find those things that are happening.
There are hundreds of search engines to choose from, and most people use Google, which is distantly followed by Microsoft Bing, Yahoo!, and Baidu, among others.
Since Google has the most users and is deemed the most effective of the bunch, most businesses develop their SEO strategy with it in mind. The main focus of a search engine is to connect people with the information they are looking for.
People use search engines for three main reasons:
- To research information that will provide answers to their questions or solutions to their problems. This is one of the main reasons why information retrieval systems are so important. The ability to search the Internet and find pertinent and quality information are very powerful.
- To learn about products and services before making a purchase.
- To find new and innovative ways to pursue their interests or be entertained.
A search is a common form of communication on the Internet and in life in general. People use search engines every day to find information and communicate ideas.
How to understand search engine results - SEO Costa Del Sol
There are multiple ways search engines offer up a searcher’s results and indicate which type of result you’re looking at.
Here, we break down how Google indicates different result types and what they are.
Paid search results - SEO Costa Del Sol
For every search result, you will typically get 2 to 3 paid results at the top and also usually at the bottom of the page.
The good thing about investing in paid ads is that it allows you to get in front of your customers first; however, keep in mind that ads only work when you are paying. If you stop paying, you will lose those visitors immediately.
Organic search results - SEO Costa Del Sol
Organic search is your company’s chance to get out in front of potential customers. In fact, when you build a quality organic strategy, you’re crafting the perfect long-term marketing plan.
There are 10 organic search results on the first page and a few ads. Most people will stop here if they want to find what they are looking for.
local packs
This feature pops up when the user is asking for something localised, for example, supermarkets near me or Petrol stations in Cambridge.
In order for your business to potentially show up in these local packs, you need to have a Google My Business of your company. This is very powerful, so make sure it is optimised. Please read here for more details.
What search engine optimization is and how it works
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is about improving the quality and usability of your web content by better aligning it with search intent. This means you’re making it easier for visitors to find and navigate your site.
You can improve your website’s organic search performance not only by creating relevant, helpful content that features keywords used by search engine users, but also by making sure your site:
Creating relevant helpful content is key to SEO but there are also other factors. Your website should also be optimised for SEO, so make sure that your website:
- Loads as quickly as possible.
- Has easy-to-follow navigation.
- Is created with the end-user in mind.
Why search engine optimization is important for your business
The majority of people today search online before making a purchase. This is especially true because of the growing popularity of mobile phones and the effects the Coronavirus had on purchasing habits.
In fact, online purchases have grown by a huge amount and will keep on rising.
So when you are optimising your website to rank well on search engines there is a much higher chance of these online searchers finding your business.
So SEO, is a vital marketing strategy for the long term.
There are two types of search your prospects will likely use to find your business:
- Transactional
- Informational
Transactional searches are search queries by people looking for products. For example, “I want to buy something, where can I find it?” or “How do I make a purchase?”
Informational queries When buyers want to learn more before they make a purchase. These are the people who know they have a problem but may not know the solution. They also know the solution, but want to compare their options before they buy.
Your website should give users the most relevant answers to their questions, no matter how they arrive. It should provide all the information they need, but should only focus on the queries that the majority of users make.
Making your website centred around SEO
SEO is all about answering your potential customer’s needs or problems.
So when it comes to designing your website it should ideally be also centred around answering these questions.
So as well as being user friendly the content should be laser-focused on what your customers want to know or need.
That means that right from the start when a user enters your homepage you should be providing them with the essential knowledge and answers that the user requires.
So for example, in the hero section of the homepage i.e. what most people will see first you should state clearly what you do and what you offer.
On the services page, you should be very specific about what you offer and have a FAQ section.
You should also do keyword research for your industry and find out what people are searching for in your particular industry. This will help shape the content of your website to provide answers to these questions.
Best practices for search engine optimization
We’ve outlined the steps to take to ensure your site’s SEO strategy is in place and your content is being found. Once this is done, it’s time to dive in deeper and explore some best practices that you can apply too to boost your traffic!
Keyword research
Keyword planning is a critical element of an effective content strategy. However, it is also a difficult part of the content creation process. When writing web content or articles, it is important to first know which terms are most likely to be searched for by users and which will be the most effective way to attract them.
Writing effective on-page copy
High-quality content can get your customers to visit your site – but only if it contains the right keywords, and in the right places. The key is to focus on providing your visitors with a relevant, unique experience while keeping them on your page for as long as possible.
So it´s not just a case of writing good content in terms of SEO, it also has to appeal to the user and keep them interested. For that, you need to be an effective copywriter. You can read more about this here.
Internal linking
Your readers are already coming to your site, and they’re interested in what you’re writing. In order to capture that attention, and to encourage them to continue reading, you’ll want to make sure you’re linking to relevant pieces of content.
It’s this linking structure that tells Google that you are providing in-depth coverage on a topic.
There are no strict rules about how many links you should use on a given page. However, one thing is important: link with intention. That is, make sure that you link to useful content on another site, not just because it’s a link you can get by.
This tells search engines that there is a link from the current page to a particular webpage.
On-Page SEO
Every page that you are trying to rank for should be optimised. This will improve the chances that the page will rank. There are many factors involved including:
- Image optimisation
- Using proper page structure
- Mobile responsiveness
- Page speed
- and lots more
Conclusion - SEO costa del sol
SEO should be a part of every business long term marketing strategy.
It does take time to achieve results but it is well known that SEO is one of the best strategies to use if you want your business to have an optimal online presence.
As you can see, SEO is highly technical and complex because there are so many factors involved. So it really should be done by a professional SEO expert.
