Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Contents

1. How to use Google Search Console
2. SEO keywords and trends
3. Using links for SEO
4. Schema Markup
5. SEO checklist

What is SEO marketing?

Search engines, such as Google or Bing, are the main way people find websites. Google is the biggest search engine by far, handling more than 92% of all search queries, so it is important to become familiar with the way Google works – although most search engines work in similar ways.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the name given to the process of increasing the likelihood that your website will be seen and indexed (appear in search results) by search engines.

How to use Google Search Console

There are many different tools which you can use to analyse your site’s visibility to search engines, but one of the most useful is Google Search Console.

This is a powerful (and free) tool that charts all kinds of data about your website – including site traffic, keywords, popular links, broken links, visitor statistics, user locations and browser types, as well as more sophisticated information such as Core Web Vitals and Page Experience.

It also helps you validate your site map, and preview how your website will appear in search engine listings.

Back to contents.

SEO keywords and trends

Search engines use complex algorithms to rank websites (Google’s ranking algorithm has over 200 different factors – read Backlinko’s ‘200 Ranking Factors: The Complete List’ to see them all).

One of the most important SEO concepts to understand is ‘keywords’. Very simply, keywords are words on your site that match common search terms.

People searching for a B&B in Norfolk might use search terms like ‘accommodation in Norfolk’, ‘Norfolk holidays’, or ‘best places to stay in Norfolk’. If you make sure your website uses some or all of these keywords, it is more likely to appear as a result when people search for them. But your aim should be to provide useful, relevant information, rather than simply creating pages for SEO.

Google Trends is another useful free tool that lists popular search terms. You can refine this data by location, or compare it against other terms.

Google Trends can be useful in identifying seasonal trends and popular topics: for example, if you find ‘dog friendly accommodation Norfolk,’ is trending, you could tweak the wording on your site, or write a specific blog post, to target that specific search trend.

Back to contents.

Using links for SEO

Including links on your site can be helpful in making it more ‘visible’ to search engines. There are different types of links: ‘internal’ (links to other pages within your own website), external (links from your website to others), and ‘referral’ links (links from other websites to yours).

Having a good mix will help your search engine listings. However, broken links (links which result in an error page) can be harmful, so it’s important to fix them promptly: Google Search Console can be used to easily identify broken links.

Good reviews can help with the credibility of your business’ online presence: referral links from popular sites such as TripAdvisor, Google and Trustpilot and others can be a useful way for tourism businesses to improve their SEO and search visibility.

Back to contents.

Schema Markup

An advanced approach to optimizing content is to use Schema.org markup. Essentially, this means ‘tagging’ your content with specific terms to help search engines understand what the content is about. Known as ‘structured data’, this is a more technical aspect of SEO. For more information see Google Developers introduction to structured data in SEO.

Find out more about paid search advertising and pay-per-click (PCP).

Back to contents.

SEO checklist

1. Read as much as you can about SEO – there is lots of useful advice available online.
2. Install Google Analytics to monitor who is visiting your site and who you need to target your content towards.
3. Use Google Search Console to make sure your site is verified and preview how it appears in search listings.
4. Find out how fast your site is. Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights (slow sites can cause issues).
5. Consider consulting with a specialist SEO company for support or for more complex SEO projects.

Back to contents.