There are many ways you can optimise your site for search engines and many of them are what we call “the bare minimum – we do them anyway!”.

For any business with a website, SEO (search engine optimisation) allows your website to be easier to find for search engines and equally, if done right, for visitors to understand.

Things we always do

• Including “metatags” – hidden keywords in the pages that match what you want to be found for
• Being listed on directories relevant to your business
• Making sure all images are properly labelled – with more hidden words and phrases that make sense for those images
• Making sure each page has a relevant and unique “TITLE” tag – this shows up at the top of the browser and is one of the things search engines look out for
• Regular healthy activity on social media
• An active well written blog which talks about the topics people might be searching for.

But, wait, there’s more!

We’ve been working with many of our clients on some more “advanced” techniques, aided by our SEO partner Tom. Here’s a brief rundown of the three we’re using a lot!

Remarketing

Remarketing is an excellent to connect with visitors to your website, who may have not purchased anything or signed up for a newsletter. It allows you to situate adverts (through text/or image display formats) in front of these defined audiences, whilst they browse the internet. A good example of this when you look at a pair of shoes online and then for the rest of the week they follow you round news websites. It is a very cost effective form of advertising for reminding potential customers of your offerings and therefore growing brand awareness.

Rich Snippets

A “Rich Snippet” is a small sample of the websites content, which is visible on a search engine results page. So when you do a search, instead of it just being a link to that page, you see some of the content. They are used because they improve the value of your search listing and do not effect the appearance of the website. They are particularly useful for showcasing reviews, recipes and events, so that the information is presented quickly to the user and therefore increasing likelihood of click-throughs.

Google Event Tracking

Google Event tracking allows you to monitor the traffic on your website more specifically. You can set in motion various marketing strategies on your site – for example “Download an ebook” or “sign up for a newsletter” and then work out which methods are working and which aren’t. It can be used to track downloads, mobile ad clicks, gadgets, Flash elements, AJAX embedded elements, and video plays. Monitoring these visitor activities using Google Event Tracking means you can see where your strongest audience is or what method works best for your brand.
By using these 3 SEO tricks you will greatly enhance the chances of your website working harder for you.