Search Engine Optimisation Research

One of the things that we have been asked to research for this project is SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation. This is interesting as it is a huge part of web design nowadays and is something that people are employed solely to consider and carry out. It can be difficult to summarise and explain but, here goes. 

SEO is including certain elements and pieces within your website to try and ensure that your site is pushed to the top of the search results when people search related topics on websites such as Google. It is analysing Google's algorithms and assessing your target audience and trying to make it so that certain phrases and key words are included in your website in a certain order.

Google itself defines it as:

"Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's "natural" or un-paid ("organic") search results."

So that means that it is basically tailoring the content of your website to respond well to certain phrases and search terms to push it high on the results page for those phrases without paying money to do so. 

Google goes have a system where you can pay for clicks. You can put down a certain amount of money for each click you get through Google and for that money they ensure that your site is at the top. This is a fairly precarious business practice though as the space goes to the highest bidder and prices have the potential to get out of control.

This can be done by eye, making sure that you include certain key words in the body text, URL, metadata and various other places. There are also programs to help you along. One that is relevant for me in terms of Wordpress is Yoast:

Source: https://yoast.com

Yoast have created a plugin for Wordpress that handily and engagingly checks your SEO in realtime. It has a traffic light system referenced against certain points and it is a simple, engaging way to ensure that your site has good SEO at a glance.

One thing that it is important to consider with SEO is what your target audience is going to be searching for. In my case people may not be searching for "NAMM show 2015" as they might not know the name of the show or that it exists. Some people might be searching "Guitar show 2015" or "Music conference". Also some people might just be searching for specific products or people that may be attending the show.

It is important to think about what you think people will be searching for and optimising your site accordingly.