How to build an SEO-friendly website

When setting up a website, many business owners leap into pay-per-click advertising, before spending time on what’s known as Search Engine Optimisation or SEO. And while paid for campaigns are a great tool for bringing people to your website, they can also come at great expense to your business. Which is why it makes good business sense to do what you can with SEO.

Good SEO is in many ways the gift that keeps on giving. Once your site ranks well, it should remain a constant source of leads for your business; providing you take the time and effort to maintain your website.

Selecting the right keywords for natural listings

First of all, let’s explain what we mean by ‘natural’. Natural search engine results are the results that appear in the main search listings when you conduct a Google search. Paid for results appear either in a separate box at the top of the web page, or down the right-hand side. When you ‘optimise’ a site, you’re doing it for those results, rather than the paid for ones.

Many people prefer natural listings, as they are ranked based on your website content, rather than something you’ve paid for. So they’re seen as a more trustworthy set of results.

The problem is that ranking well for relevant keywords in the natural listings is a tall order. Many search terms are highly competitive, with hundreds of companies attempting to rank for the same keywords. So it’s important to get into the specifics when choosing which keywords to optimise on your website.

As people have become more web savvy, they’ve changed the way that they conduct web searches. Instead of putting a single word into a search engine and then scrolling through pages of results, people now put their search term into a search bar and then refine the results by adding more detail. This is termed the ‘long tail search’ and ensures that truly relevant results come back as you narrow your search using key phrases rather than key words.

If you’re a local business then you can use geo-targeting i.e. incorporating a location in your keywords, because location is a differentiator between your product and/or service and the rest of the providers in the UK. So for example, if you’re a sports masseuse in Glasgow, you might want to focus on the keywords ‘Sports massage Glasgow’ or ‘sports massage in Glasgow’.

Where location is less relevant, for example, if you’re a software house, then you need to think of other ways to define your keywords. You may need to think about specific features or industries that people may be using in their search terms, rather than just the broad search term. So rather than just ‘CRM software’, you could opt for ‘CRM for small businesses’ or ‘CRM for manufacturing’.

But don’t just guess at it. Use tools like the Google adwords keywords tool to help you find terms that are well searched for https://adwords.google.co.uk/select/KeywordToolExternal

Do bear in mind how competitive a keyword is. The keywords tool will indicate the level of competition for each search term, so try to focus on ones that are less competitive to help up your rankings.

And treat keywords as separate entities. For example, ‘blinds in Birmingham’ is a completely different keyword phrase to ‘blinds Birmingham’, so if you want to rank for both then you need to use both in your content and behind-the-scenes.

Keyword-rich domains

Keyword-rich domains can be very useful for getting your site ranked well for relevant keywords. When we talk about a keyword-rich domain, as opposed to a branded domain, we mean the difference between a site called ‘plumberworcester.co.uk’ (keyword-rich) and a site called ‘AJPlumbing.co.uk’ (Branded).

Using keywords in your web address is useful, because the more relevant keywords you use in your site and the more prominently you use them, the easier it is for Google to pick up on those keywords and rank your site accordingly. If you can find a domain that has your exact keywords then don’t water it down with other words. For example marysmeatpiesbirmingham.co.uk will have less of a chance of ranking well than meatpiesbirmingham.co.uk. Have a look on sites like 123-reg.co.uk to see what’s available and stick with .co.uk and .com domains, as these have a much higher value than other suffixes, like .net.

But keyword-rich domains aren’t a silver bullet. They must be used in tandem with keyword-dense content and behind-the-scenes work, like meta descriptions. Always ask your provider what they’re doing to help you in this area.

You may also want keywords included in the footer of your website and/or as a ‘tag cloud’. Tag clouds draw on the content on your website and then list the keywords they see alphabetically. A tag cloud can help to increase the instances of keywords on your site, but it also provides a good visual aid to people who are visiting the website. There are varying schools of thought on the usefulness of tag clouds, as over-use can be seen as spam. But when used appropriately i.e. on select pages on your website, they are a great SEO aid.

Opt for clean and clear site design

A classic mistake is to go overboard with site design: peppering websites with impressive flash banners and other images that make the site difficult to crawl for Google and other search engines. Search engines only read the words on your website and its associated documents, therefore images have no impact on how well your site ranks. Of course this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t spend time on the look and feel of a website, but it must be done in conjunction with keyword-rich text.

Think of it this way: you have 2 audiences, human and non-human (search robots) and you must optimise your site for both.

What’s more, the less cluttered a website is, the easier it will be for site visitors to understand and navigate: increasing the likelihood that people will stay on your website and take the time to enquire/ buy from you.

Links

Sometimes companies will approach you with what looks like a quick and easy solution to your ranking problems: buying links from other websites to your website, in bulk and at low cost. But this is unlikely to help you improve SEO. This is known in the industry as ‘black hat’ methodology and is frowned upon by Google. If Google finds that your website is indulging in ‘spam’ levels of link building, it will simply ignore your back links (both ‘paid for’ and ‘natural’) and rank your site purely based on its content.

Back links are a valuable way of improving site rankings, but they must be added gradually and naturally, if they are to be effective. If you suddenly add 20 links to your site, Google is likely to pick this up as bad practice and take action accordingly.

Take a natural approach to link building by speaking to business partners and others in your industry, who may be willing to endorse your company via a back link. And try where possible to submit articles and news items to online industry publications; requesting a link to your website as part of this. Most publications will do this as par for the course, but it’s worth checking anyway.

Directories can be helpful, but often these are dismissed by Google and other search engines, when it comes to your rankings. Use them but don’t rely on them.

It’s equally important to be specific about the text you want to use with the link. When a web developer adds your link to a website they will create a name for the link that appears when you hover over it. Requesting a particular keyword for your link text can make all the difference to the usefulness of the link.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that reciprocal links are no longer viewed as favourably as they once were. You may need to offer a reciprocal link to achieve a back link with a partner, but it won’t boost your rankings any further if you do so.

Google analytics

Once you have your website, use Google Analytics to tell you where traffic is coming from and which search terms people are using to find your site. Then tailor content accordingly, so you can increase instances of important keywords.

How easy it?

Unfortunately, SEO is hard to achieve and increasingly so for the more competitive search terms. You should do all you can to build up your SEO naturally, but there may come a point when you need to include pay-per-click in your web strategy.

What next?

Now you’ve SEO-ed your website to the best of your abilities, it’s time to start thinking about what you can do with your website in the long-term. Have a quick read of our paper ‘So you’ve got a new website..?’ for some great hints and advice.

About the author

Rosie Heptonstall is Clever Business Websites’ marketing manager. She loves websites and working with small businesses, and has spent many years learning about what makes small businesses tick. Rosie also believes that a small business is more interesting and more fun to work for than a large corporation. But that’s just her personal opinion...

For more hints and tips on marketing your business, or to find out more about Clever Business Websites and what we do, just give Rosie a call on 01865 989 899 or email Rosie on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.