What Is SEO? A Business Introduction
SEO stands for search engine optimisation: the work that helps search engines understand your website and people find relevant pages through unpaid search results.
If you are asking “what is SEO?”, start with your audience: what do they need, and how can your pages answer their questions? A useful website gives optimisation a clear purpose. SEO work includes two complementary areas:
- On-page or on-site SEO, including useful content, relevant keywords, internal links and the technical structure of your website;
- Off-page or off-site SEO, including relevant mentions and editorial links earned from other credible websites.
Both of these types of SEO are crucial. Search engines use many different factors to determine page rankings, so you’ll want to ensure you’re doing everything possible to get noticed.
On-page SEO: content and website structure
On-site SEO is all about structuring your website design in the most effective way, so that search engine “bots” can easily scan your site, and understand what it’s about. The important thing here is the use of keywords- deliberately chosen words that are relevant to what your site provides. Use relevant terms naturally in titles, headings and helpful page copy. Google’s SEO Starter Guide explains how clear content and descriptive links support discovery and understanding.
This isn’t as easy as it might appear, however. Simply using your keywords over and over again on a page will actually have a damaging effect on your page rankings, since search engine bots regard this as spam. Use language that answers the reader’s question clearly, rather than repeating a phrase to reach an arbitrary keyword-density target.
Dreamkatcha considers search visibility as part of website planning and development. We’ll work alongside you to choose the right keywords to get you noticed, and then carefully research the best ways of implementing them. This provides a foundation for ongoing improvements, but no design or SEO service can guarantee a particular position in search results.
Planning your SEO scope: a website build and an ongoing search campaign involve different work, so agree what is included before a project begins. Ask whether your quote covers keyword research, page titles, descriptions, content preparation, technical checks and measurement. In a competitive market, further content development and regular reviews may be needed after launch. Set priorities around the services and customers that matter to your business, and discuss the budget available for maintaining that work. Any specialist support should have clear responsibilities, reporting and realistic expectations. Please enquire about the options for your project so that the website brief and any continuing SEO work can be considered together.
Off-page SEO: relevant mentions and links
SEO is not just about your own site. Links from relevant websites can help people discover your work, but quality and context matter more than collecting a large number. Publish useful resources that others have a reason to reference. Avoid buying links for rankings or arranging excessive reciprocal links: these practices are covered by Google’s link-spam policies.
Search visibility should support useful business outcomes, such as relevant enquiries, rather than a single promised ranking. Review the search terms that bring visitors, the pages they reach and whether those pages answer their needs. Results depend on the website, competition and the work carried out over time. Before appointing a provider, read our guide to web design SEO mistakes, ask what will be changed and agree how progress will be reported. A clear scope makes proposals easier to compare and helps you decide where to invest your available time and budget.
Contact Dreamkatcha today to discuss a startup business, professional web design or logo design project.