Strategic Guides

How to use SEO to ensure your content is discoverable

Search remains an important way to drive users to your site or to download your app. This strategic guide written by Pugpig’s James Kember for the Mobile Matters community covers SEO best practices.

17th September 2024

Photo by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash

Welcome to this Mobile Matters guide on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). SEO is the art and science of enhancing a website’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) through organic methods.

Search has become a crucial source of traffic, often surpassing social media in importance. A well-executed SEO strategy not only improves your site’s visibility and user experience but also provides a cost-effective way to gain a competitive edge and deliver measurable results. In this guide, we’ll delve into the essentials of SEO, including on-page, off-page, and technical optimisation strategies.

What is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)?

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the practice of improving the visibility and ranking of a website in search engine results pages (SERPs) through organic, unpaid methods. The goal of an SEO strategy is to optimise a website’s content and structure to increase its relevance and authority for specific search queries, with the ultimate goal of driving more organic traffic to the website.

Why is it important?

In recent years, search has become a more important source of traffic for publishers, eclipsing social, and traffic from search tends to be less volatile. SEO strategies ensure that your content is discoverable and drives traffic organically to your site. A good strategy:

Increases your visibility and traffic. When a website ranks higher in search engine results pages, it is more visible to potential readers.
Improves the user experience. SEO involves optimising a website’s structure, content, and navigation to improve the UX. This can lead to higher engagement, longer dwell times, and better conversion rates.
Rewards good site performance. One of the signals that Google uses for its rankings is its Core Vitals score. This measures the load time and other performance and user experience metrics of sites on web and mobile devices. Faster loading sites that don’t have intrusive ads that cause the site
Is cost-effective. Unlike paid advertising, which requires ongoing investment, SEO efforts can have long-lasting benefits without needing constant marketing spend.
Gives a competitive advantage. By optimising a website, publishers can gain a competitive advantage in a crowded media space. This can attract users who were unaware of your brand but enjoy your content.
Provides measurable results. Your efforts should be measured using a variety of tools, such as the Google Search Console, to track changes in website traffic, rankings, and other key performance indicators. This allows you to make data-driven decisions and continually improve your SEO strategies.

The three types of SEO

On-page SEO looks at individual pages of a website for specific keywords and phrases. This includes evaluating the content, title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, and images – such as making sure to include alt text for images – among other elements.
Off-page SEO evaluates external factors that can affect a website’s ranking, such as building high-quality backlinks from other reputable websites as well as social media marketing, influencer outreach, and online reputation management.
Technical SEO involves assessing the technical aspects of a website to improve its ranking and user experience. This includes improving site speed, fixing broken links, ensuring proper indexing, and optimising the website for mobile devices.

While each of these types of SEO is important, a holistic approach that incorporates all three is generally the most effective.

Key steps to developing your SEO strategy

Conduct keyword research. Keyword research is the process of identifying the words and phrases that people search for when looking for your content. A keyword research tool can help to identify relevant phrases to focus on.
Evaluate your site’s performance. Use on-page SEO techniques to optimise your website for the keywords and phrases you have identified. This includes analysing your website’s content, title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, and images.
Ensure technical optimisation. Make sure your website is technically performant for search engines by improving site speed, fixing broken links, ensuring proper indexing, and optimising the website for mobile devices. Using Google’s Light House tool or its Search Console, which includes a Core Vitals reporting tool, can help identify ways to improve technical SEO performance.
Monitor and measure results. Use analytics tools to monitor the performance of your website and track changes in traffic, rankings, and other key performance indicators. Use this information to continually refine and improve your SEO strategy.

Conclusion

It’s important to remember that SEO is an ongoing process that requires continuous optimisation and monitoring. By following these steps and investing time and effort into your SEO strategy, you can improve your website’s visibility and drive more organic traffic.

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