1. What is it and what is SEO´s purpose?

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the process of developing organic traffic (unpaid, as opposed to an advertisement) to a website, meaning, what we do so that our business comes up with the best possible result in a query carried out in a search engine.

It's a great way to bring more traffic, customers, leads, and revenue to your business. For free, which is even better. In fact, 81% of people performing a Google search, click in organic results. The purpose of SEO is achieving rank as high as possible on your website, ideally, appear on the first page of results. There's a well known joke in this business: if you kill someone, the best place to hide the body is on the second page of Google results. Surely no one will look there.

2. Hey, I´m here!!!

Content is important (we'll get there in a minute), but first and foremost, Google needs to know you exist. Quoting Woody Allen, “80% of success is just showing up.”

Google will automatically add your website to the search index but this can take some time, since the process is not automatic. However, you can do something about it: submit the website to Google, or even request crawling and indexing of the pages, pushing an indexation on Google Search Console.

3. Set search expressions (keywords)

First of all, define the expressions that will potentially drive users to your site. What kind of searches will your potential customers perform? These expressions must be frequently, namely present in the titles and texts of your website. A tool named Google Trends can help identify trends. Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs and Moz are also popular in this field. However, these expressions should appear naturally in the texts of your website, and not as simple lists of keywords.

4) Title: what´s in a name

When you create pages or articles on your website, be sure to title them in a manner that solves a problem or arouses curiosity. For example, show sense of humor, use numbers or practical lists (example: “Ten commandments of E-commerce”), emojis, something that sets you aside from the crowd. Offer something unique, and if you do so, your reader/client will compensate you with his time and interest.

5. His Royal Highness, Content

Now that we´ve come up with an appealing title, let´s move on to the core text. In order to achieve the objective of high Google ranking , it is essential to create content that appeals to your potential readers/customers. If you offer something useful to your reader, they'll stick around longer, look for more of your content, and hopefully, come back. The important thing is that your content offers value and/or solves a problem. If so, the dice are set for an upcoming return, or even make a purchase next time!

Pro Tip: specifically about online stores, make sure to enrich the description of your items, including everyday situations where they may come in handy. For instance: lightbulb “XYZ” is perfect for Christmas decorations.

6. Land ahoy!

Meta description is an elevator pitch of what you can offer, compared to the competition, in two or three lines. Amidst the search engine results page jungle, your summary announces what the reader will find on your page. And it has to be convincing. Each time you carry out a search, the sites appear with the respective title, address and that short summary, which will ideally have to be unique and add value for your target audience.

7. Eyes eat first

Images amount to over 20% of Google searches (2022 data). Already convinced? First of all, you should consider the size and loading time that they will involve (the heavier, the worse). Will the image catch the attention of your potential reader? On the other hand, always fill ALT text in your images. It´s all about a few words that will help Google identify image content and make it noteworthy, therefore contributing for SEO enhancement.

8. Need for speed

We talked previously about loading time, and speed is a very important topic. Every second counts (really!) when 40% of consumers wait a maximum of three seconds before abandoning a site! Tragically, it can be over before it even starts, since Google recommends 2 seconds to fully load a website of E-commerce. You can come up with the best title and content in the whole world and work hard to bring the potential customer to you. But if he has to stay outside your shop for a long time, he'll check out what the shop next door has to offer. We don't want that, so hit the gas pedal!

Need a little push? We´re here to help: https://www.iflexi.pt/