Search engine optimisation guide

Why is SEO so important?

Search engine optimisation (SEO) ensures your business is visible when potential customers search on Google or other search engines.

It’s key to bringing more traffic, customers, and revenue to your business. If you do SEO properly, you could increase the number and quality of visitors to your website from search engine results pages.

How has SEO changed?

In the early days of SEO, the primary tactic was to include as many ‘exact match keywords’ into your content as possible. Nowadays search engines are much more advanced, understanding the context behind a visitor's search query and tailoring rankings based on how users interact with the results. This has made SEO much more about the holistic picture, beyond just keywords and covering both the content and technical elements of a website.

Despite this, keywords still underpin much of on-page SEO, and are still a very valuable dataset to consider when creating content.

What are keywords?

Keywords are what someone types into a search engine. You want to learn what customers are searching for, and deliver content and products that match those topics.

From a user perspective, seeing the same keywords on a page of content shows them they are in the right place.

Title tags

These appear to a user at the top of their browser when they’re viewing a webpage, and as the title in search results pages.

Always keep the title concise and accurate, it should be no longer than 70 characters and include the primary keyword or phrase. Add the name of your business at the end using a pipe or dash to separate it into two sections.

For example

Lodges & Cabins with Hot Tubs in Fort William | Business Name

Meta descriptions

This is the description that shows up with the title tag on a search results page.

Meta descriptions are where you sell your content - make it sound exciting and be clear about what it is so the customer can tell if it’s what they’re looking for. You have up to 160 characters (including spaces) and should include your primary keyword or phrase.

If you don’t have a meta description, a search engine will tend to use a line of copy from somewhere on the page, which might not be relevant.

For example

Find breathtaking lodges in Fort William, with a hot tub, at Business Name. Perfect for a relaxing weekend away with your loved ones.

URLs

This is the web address you use to visit a website and each page.

A URL is not just functional, it shows the user what the page is about. It’s important that every page has a unique and clear URL, so don’t include the likes of numbers and characters. Its best to keep them short and easy to read.

For example

https://www.businessname.com/lodges-cabins/hot-tubs must be accessed from:

https://www.businessname.com/lodges-cabins

Find more advice about URL structures.

H1s

This is the main title or heading on each webpage. 

Every page on your website should have one main heading (or H1). They should be short, descriptive and easy to understand. Always try to include your keywords.

It's not just the user who sees all this information on page. The search engine also reads it and uses it in different ways to decide what your website or webpage is about.

H1s are often like your title tags, but without your business name.

For example

Lodges and cabins with hot tubs in Fort William

Internal linking (links to your own webpages)

This is how you link between the pages on your website.

Internal linking is important for SEO and user experience, as it helps search engines to find your content and navigate through the website.

This is the main way search engines find your content. So, if there’s no links to a page, neither search engines nor your users will likely ever see it.

The most important links you can add to your site are from a child page to a parent page.

For example

http://www.businessname.com/lodges-cabins/hot-tub must be accessible from:

http://www.businessname.com/lodges-cabins

External or outbound links (links to other websites)

Normally, you want visitors to stay on your website and make a booking with you. But there can be occasions where you should link out to other relevant, trustworthy websites.

Doing so can help search engines and visitors understand more about what your content is covering by knowing who else you link to. It can also help to build trust if you link to other well-known and high-quality websites.

You might have a page that talks about what a customer can do in the area so it would be helpful to link to nearby attractions or experiences.