The world we live in today makes getting your content to the wider community a quicker process. With the internet getting bigger and easier to navigate, the opportunities for getting your message across to a wider audience is a much easier process than ever before. 

One of the biggest contributors to the movement of more accessible content is Google.

With the search giant occupying over 90% of all search queries on the internet and answering millions of queries every month for internet users, it has become one of the best platforms for business growth available. However, as you are probably aware, it is only the top five or so listings on the first page which get immediate exposure when something is searched. Getting your content in front of your biggest audience will require that your content is specific and well optimised to ensure it is picked up as being the best resource for that search query online.

The art of ensuring your content is optimized for search engines is known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Here is a simplified three step process to help you on your way to a more optimised website.

Step #1: Finding your Keywords

This is fundamental. Failing to do this correctly may mean you end up optimising your content for keywords which get no search or are perhaps not as relevant to your target market as you anticipate. 

Steps to finding your keywords are:

1. Create a wish list of keywords you think are relevant to your website.
2. Add them into Keyword Planner (research tool for Google Adwords – http://google.com/adwords)
3. Determine what search volumes are associated with each keyword you have entered and check for other relevant keywords you may have missed in your wish list. 

After you have defined a list of keywords which have the best search volumes and you believe are most relevant to what you are offering, you can move to step two.

Step #2: Optimising your content

This step shouldn't be too hard. but it might require some more research to ensure you are achieving this properly (use the below resources to help with this).

Ensuring you have included your keywords in your page content is the most important way to ensure your website is going to be interpreted accurately by search engines. Do not assume search engines can work out what your website is about without doing this effectively. I.e How is Google going to know your website is about pink icecream, if you do not include those words on your page?

Here are page elements you want to ensure are optimised for your keywords:

• Page Title tags
• Page Heading Tags
• Page Images, ALT texts and captions
• Page content (the actual wording on the page, make this as targeted as possible without making it spammy or nonsensical)
• META description of your page (this is the snippet in the search engine results which is displayed under the blue clickable links)

Once you have your pages optimised, it's time to build some authority in Step #3.

Step #3: Build that authority

Search engines value what other websites say about your website through links.

This is one of the fundamental aspects search engines use to ensure your content is accurate and people like what they see on a website, and it makes complete sense. 

If your content is remarkable this process can even work automatically for you, however most of the time some effort on your part is required to make this happen in reasonable time frames. 

Building links to your website can be a hard task but my recommendations for this is:

• Finding niche related website directories where you can add your URL.
• Finding like minded bloggers you can connect with and establish relationships with (these could turn into links down the road).
• Help other websites / website owners out by adding content to their website. This can often provide an opportunity to syndicate relevant content on your website and provide a back link to the 'original source'.

A good SEO services provider will be able to help you with the process, however some self help can go along way too. 

Here are some SEO resources you can consider.

SEO Providers

• E-Koncept – SEO, NZ Company – New Zealand based SEO services company.
• Distilled – Smarter Online Marketing – Online marketing company.

SEO Blogs, Resources and Memberships

• Moz – Analytics software.
• Search Engine Land – Search Engine Optimization Blog.
• Backlinko – Link Building Blog.
• Point Blank SEO – Link building Blog

If you have questions, comments or opinions about my post on SEO and best practice, please feel free to add a comment below and I will try to get back to you.