A guest post from Adam Driver, founder and MD of Authentic Communications (and all-round top geezer)

If you’re reading this blog and aren’t too sure what SEO is, then you’re in the right place.

It sometimes seems like a taboo of sorts, across all sectors. I’ve had corporate, e-commerce and sales businesses nod in agreement without knowing what SEO is or, even worse, why it is important.

So, with this quick run-through, I hope you’re able to understand a little more about how SEO can help improve your public sector communications.

Why should I care about SEO?

Search traffic accounts for around ⅓ of all traffic to most websites (see Hubspot research and breakdown here).

Ignoring ⅓ of traffic is, obviously, not a good idea. However, mastering SEO takes a great deal of expertise. It is a constantly-changing field, with multiple levels of confusing, semi-developer terms.

That said, knowledge is power. It’s always best to start by understanding how something works, so here are three tips for SEO beginners (and reminders for those who are SEO-aware). 

Three non-technical SEO tips for beginners

Know what your title and meta description are

On a search engine results page, the results look like below:

(Taken from this great explainer page on Moz – more information here)

The title is at the top, and can be different from the URL (in green above). The meta description is a longer-form explainer of what (c.160 characters is best).

You can use this cool meta description checker tool from MRS.digital to check what your proposed length of copy will probably look like.

Note that the title and meta description do not necessarily need to be on your webpage. As long as they are relevant to what people are searching for, this can be a good place for you to engage a particular audience and get click-throughs.

Remember – don’t keyword stuff. Make it flow and create an easy to understand sentence.

Write how people search – voice search is huge.

Voice search – think ‘Hey Siri/Alex/Google’ – has grown massively in recent years with the introduction of smart speakers. However, we’ve been searching in this way for a long time.

People want to find things out, so include elements of their questions in your SEO to maximise search results. For instance, you have a shoe shop in Bradford, so think about the phrases people are looking for. Could be great shoes, best shoe shop in Bradford, where can I find the cheapest… etc. Widen the net.

Think of the 5 W’s (and 1 H) every good journalist should start with – who, what, when, where, why (and how). 

Relevant content

Think about what people want to find out, attract them to your website with that content and, crucially, give them the answers (otherwise they will bounce). This could be relatively generic, that other sites give them, but it could be a route to you capturing more traffic.

Also consider monitoring for what is going on with your audience – what are their gripes this month, what are their challenges or successes? Write something about that, or at least keep up to date with relevant, useful topics.

Want to know more about SEO?

Check out Neil Patel or Moz for a range of free material (and paid-for services and training), or give me a shout.

Good luck on your SEO journey!

Adam Driver is founder and MD of Authentic Comms, a PR & marketing consultancy enhancing strategic, measurable communications through content strategy, digital marketing, SEO and social media.