As a website designer, I am often asked about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and whether I can help get my clients website to number 1. in a Google search.
The sites I make are made using WordPress. Wordpress, by default, is set up to be SEO friendly. HOWEVER, this is dependant on content being added and updated regularly. A static site will be seen less by Google’s indexing technology and in time, lose ranking due to this inactive behaviour.
Content is KING!
Writing fresh regular content is crucial and adding appropriate alt tags to your images also enhances the visibility in searches. You should be ‘owning’ the Google image search for your images.
I give it a BOOST!
I do add a plugin to my sites, which gives this an extra boost by sending notifications to the search engines EVERY time you make an update to the site telling Google & Bing to come and have another good look at the new content and index it for future searches.
Once your site is live and I have notified Google and Bing with the first report of your sitemap, your site will begin to rank appropriately for the relevant search terms within 10 days or so.
Your WordPress site is a powerful framework to promote your content BUT you must keep it active and up to date to remain in the top few pages of relevant search results.
CASE STUDY
When I created a new website for Angela Hahn RMT (Registered Massage Therapist), she was frustrated to find that within her small town of Lethbridge, Canada, there were 35 massage therapists listed on Google!
Angie decided to make it her mission to move her website up from page 8 in the Google rankings by writing a monthly blog and getting her address listed in Google.
The site went live in August 2015 and she has stuck to her guns, writing a blog every month and occasionally adding new testimonials to the site. In this short period of just 5 months, she has managed to move her website from page 8 to page 2 in Google and has now had several patients making appointments as a direct result.
A shining example of what can be achieved in a very short time if you put your mind to it.
Well done Angela Hahn!
No time to blog?
Spending a little on Google Adwords will always help/enhance you visibility especially if you want to be appearing in appropriate results for specific words or short terms.
Still need more help?
This is pretty much all I can advise (I can show you how to do all of the above, including adding suitable tags to your posts and images) but if you want more advice, my friend Colin Gilchrist specialises in this kind of thing and I believe he’s pretty darn good and reasonably priced! Find him at: www.socialtailor.com
To sum up…
Your WordPress site is a powerful framework to promote your content.
You must keep it active and up to date to remain in the top few pages of relevant search results.
You may need spend a lot of advertising money to appear on page 1 of Google for just one popular search term, such as ‘Painter’ or ‘Photographer’. Something like ‘Edinburgh Landscape Painter’ will be much easier to get results for.
Think about what your target audience may actually type in to Google to find you and write these terms into the content of your pages & blog posts.
My husband Colin came up with a good analogy…
I can design a gorgeous leaflet for you that will certainly showcase your work, attract more attention to your business and give people confidence in what you do… but you still need to get it out of the door and in to your customers hands!