SEO is, in one word, a minefield.

Sadly, this is due to most people overcomplicating, misrepresenting and misselling what it actually is.

SEO like any form of advertising or marketing takes thought, planning or risk and most importantly understanding of your customers. So, the objective of this article is to demystify the topic and give you a few tips to help you with your own SEO work.

1. Just like the good old fashioned traditional marketing you need to know your customers. In SEO this translates to "what keywords do your customers use".

You can ask them, you can use tools like the Google keyword tool, Google trends, your own analytics among other tools to help you identify what they are searching for online. Make a list of these terms, think about content you can create around these terms.

2. Once you have your list of terms, ensure that you are using them within your page titles, meta tags and on page content. Now, don't go down the road of pasting the keyword list to the bottom of each page of your site and then hiding it by making it the same colour as the background… this isn't big, or clever and Google will be very upset. (2.a Don't upset Google!)

Google loves fresh new content. It shows them you are in business!

Use these keywords logically, and usefully within the content on the page. Ensure that it is legible for users. After all, it isn't just about the search engines, You have to also convince the users to trust you. That is the balance, and striking that balance is key.

3. Encourage people to link back to your site. Provide them with content in exchange for a link, ask them to review your products etc. Think of ways to engage with people in your sector who have big powerful website. The more authoritative the site the better the value of the link back.

4. Keep updating your site. Google loves fresh new content. It shows them you are in business! The web is full of companies that no longer exist but have still got websites live. Google tries to factor this in its calculations and promotes sites that add content more regularly.

5. Share new pages via social media. Google actively uses social signals to help it find new pages, and new content. Make sure you tweet out or post new content you create to the social channels as this is quickest way to help Google find them.

In summary, SEO is all about balance. There used to be quick ways to succeed in SEO. People found ways to game the system and trick Google in order to help them rank higher.

Google does not look kindly on this approach these days. Remember tip 2a…! The only sure fire way to stay in Google’s good books is to adopt a balanced approach to SEO.

By working on a combination of regular, keyword optimised content, linking, blogging, social media you will show Google you are a legitimate business and they will reward you for your efforts.

There, not that tricky is it?! In principle the concept is pretty simple, obviously there is a lot more detail about the hows and whys but this is a good starting point.

Good luck!

Sleeping Giant Media are a fast growing search marketing agency based in Kent. Our core services centre around Pay per click (paid search), search engine optimisation, search training, mobile marketing, analytics, social media marketing and online reputation management.

www.sleepinggiantmedia.co.uk

If you have any questions, please feel free to post them below or alternatively check out our blog for more, similar articles and resources.