Key Takeaways:

  • SEO can increase your website visits
  • You don’t need to be professional to implement SEO on your website

So you’ve registered your business and domain name. Plus, your e-commerce website is up and running. All you need to figure out now is how to get more customers to your website to increase your bottom line and grow your business. 

We’ve got good news for you! Getting more eyes on your website is as easy as ABC, or rather, S-E-O. Yep, Search Engine Optimisation is still the golden key for increasing website traffic for far less money than paid search. 

If you’re new to running your own website and have no idea what SEO is, Moz.com offers a concise definition;

“SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” It’s the practice of increasing both the quality and quantity of website traffic, as well as exposure to your brand, through non-paid (also known as “organic”) search engine results.” 

In short, SEO helps get more eyes on your site. When a potential customer types a search query on a search engine like Google, you want to be number one or at least on the first page of results for keywords that are relevant to your business. 

The great thing about SEO is that it is FREE. All you need is to do is dedicate a little bit of time to your SEO and implement these tips below: 

5 SEO Tips to help boost your website traffic:

Complete (or set up) your Google Business Profile

Before you do keyword research or optimise, the first thing your brand needs to do is to claim your free Google Business Profile. This profile is a free listing that appears on Google search results. Google Business Profiles give the customer relevant information about your business like; location, website, business hours, and more. 

Start by creating a Google Business Profile and then optimise by adding the following information:

  • Business name, address, and phone number
  • Website
  • Business hours
  • Business category
  • Good quality photos
  • Description of what your business offers 

 

Conduct SEO keyword research 

Keyword research is crucial for SEO. Search engines understand user intent based on the keywords the user uses. This also applies to websites. You tell search engines what your business is about with the keywords that you use on your website. Google will then show your website on the relevant search results. 

Here’s how to start conducting keyword research:

  • Write down potential keywords according to what you would search for 
  • Use a keyword research tool like Ubersuggest and Keyword Tool to help you identify, manage and group your keywords
  • Search your keywords to get more suggestions
  • Do competitor analyses and see which keywords your competition ranks for 
  • Identify and rank keywords by order of importance and incorporate them into your website content

 

Page optimisation 

You now know which keywords you want to rank for, and the next step is optimising your website pages. 

  • URL: Keep your website URLs simple. Add relevant keywords that let the audience know what the page is about 
  • Title tag: Your title tag is the title of your page, and it appears on Google search results. Give information about the page and include relevant keywords. Keep your title tags less than 60 characters so google doesn’t automatically cut them off.
  • Meta description: The description offers a summary of the page and appears below the title tag on Google search results. Keep the description less than 155 characters and incorporate more keywords.  
  • Image alt tag: Image alt tags are important because they act as short image descriptions that help Google rank your images.
  • On-page optimisation: be sure to include relevant keywords throughout the content of your website. 

 

Incorporate internal and external links

Linking is essential for SEO. Internal linking refers to linking from one page of your website to another relevant page. Internal linking helps users navigate your website better and establishes a page hierarchy on your website. It lets Google know which pages are the most important. 

Another important part of linking is external links. Linking to external websites and getting links from other websites is known as link building. If you link to high-quality websites and they link back to you, that tells Google that you know what you’re talking about and establishes authority in your field. 

 

Make your website user-friendly 

Mobile is everything, especially in South Africa where the majority of the population surf the internet using mobile phones. Ensure that your website is mobile-responsive. Most web builders offer a responsive function that automatically adjusts the view to suit the screen.  

If you want to get into more depth and read all about SEO, get free SEO tools and expert tips and tricks, then visit the Moz.com blog daily to sharpen your SEO knowledge. All it takes to improve your SEO is consistency and patience. It’s not a sprint, so you have to keep at it and try new things.

 

FAQ:

Can I do my own SEO or should I hire a professional?

Without a doubt, you can perform SEO on your own. Anyone can learn how to perform SEO for their business with a little research and lots of experience.

Where can I find SEO keywords?

Once you have decided on your niche, you can use Google Keyword Planner to research keywords. Pick a few to describe your products and services.

Which keywords should you focus on for SEO?

Long tail keywords are lengthy search queries that users enter into Google and other search engines (often 4 words or more). Additionally, they typically have a lower keyword complexity compared to “head terms” of 1-3 words. Long tails are therefore typically the greatest keywords to start with for those who are new to SEO.