I recently was contacted by a new client who found me by typing in a few words in Google: Freelance graphic designer UK. My SEO was working!

So - what is SEO? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of those buzzwords you’ve probably heard a lot in the last couple of years. But the real question here is: does it really matter? Can it help your business grow, or is it just another over-rated technique not worth your time and effort?

So stick around for 5 minutes and find out what you can do to your website.

In all honesty, the answers to these questions mainly depend on who you ask. Many professionals will argue that SEO is dead and doesn’t deliver any measurable results. However, I beg to differ!

In my opinion, SEO plays a crucial role whether you're a small business owner or you run a FTSE 100 company. I’ll put it this way: if you want any other person besides your best friend to see your website, then you need SEO.

SEO is the best way to rank for what your target customers are searching for online. Other benefits may include:

·      SEO helps you rank higher on the search results pages

·      It gets you ahead of your competitors

·      Well-optimized pages create an enjoyable experience for users

How to use SEO on your website

It can be challenging to determine which SEO strategies to stick with and which you can safely ignore. So, in this section, we’ll how to use SEO to effectively rank your website.

1. Keyword Research

Find what people are searching for on Google. Think about which words are more likely to get people to do what you want and focus on those. As a beginner, you can also seek assistance from a keyword research tool.

There are plenty of options that you can choose from like- Google Keyword Planner, SemRush, and Ahrefs. The most important thing is to focus on relevancy when choosing keywords.

2. Provide High-Quality Content

Content is a big deal in SEO. So, the next major step is creating SEO-friendly content. But first, try to figure out why someone searched for the specific keywords you compiled from the keyword research tools. Do they maybe want to buy something?

Or are they just looking for information on that specific thing? Whatever content you provide should give your audience answers to their questions. Also, strategically spread out some of the keywords in your content for maximum impact.

But at the same time, don’t stuff keywords. Let your content flow naturally. Also, update your content regularly to keep it fresh and maintain relevance. That will signal to the algorithm that your website is active and authoritative.

You can add keywords to your blog or pages on your website.

3. On-Page SEO

Now, you need to optimise your web page around the keywords you found earlier. Some of the places you need to add the keywords include:

·      The Meta Data- including the page title, meta descriptions, and meta tags

·      The Page URLs

·    Images - try and label images with SEO keywords. Don’t leave your original image name, for example: IMG_12340987. The image for this page is: SEO_Lyons Creative.

4. Provide Links

Link out to other websites, link internally to your own pages, and, most importantly, track your site's links and mentions from external sites. If someone is talking about you, get them to link to you! One of the tools you can use for this is Ahrefs. It will give you a list of all the sites that mention you but don’t link to you.

Conclusion

Many website owners want their website to sit at the top of Google’s search results page. This is a highly coveted position for many reasons. One of the ways to get there is through SEO. So, don’t give up on SEO without trying first. Try the tips I have shared in this article and see how your website's visibility improves. This is a basic guide to get you going with SEO.

If you are ready to start your website. I can help. I design beautiful websites in Squarespace. Book a call!

Hi! Thanks for reading!
I’m Angela Lyons and I am the founder and graphic designer at Lyons Creative.

I specialise in both print and digital design, I aim to help businesses enhance their visual appeal by creating compelling and distinct designs. I also help freelancers and share my experiences of freelance life.

If you are interested in learning more about my services and how I can assist your business, please feel free to contact me via direct message, and we can discuss your design needs further.