How to Do SEO in 2024?

If you are a business owner in Australia, you may have heard about SEO and its importance for a business. If you are not sure where to begin your SEO journey, you have come to the right place. In this blog, we will guide you on how to do SEO with a list of actionable SEO techniques.

Also you can refer to our beginner’s guide to SEO:

What is SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?

Before learning How to do SEO in Australia, it is essential that you have a sound understanding of the concept. So, what exactly is SEO?

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of increasing the visibility of a website in Organic search engine results. 

People use popular search engines like Google and Bing to find products or services they need to purchase. When they do so, if your business website appears on the 1st page of search results, there is a higher possibility that they will buy from your business. 

Having a higher rank in SERP (Search Engine Results Page) is paramount if you want people to see and discover your business. A good SEO strategy makes sure to rank your website in the upper ranks on SERP.

Statistics that show the importance of SEO in Australia:

1. According to the most recent Google Consumer Insights report, 91% of Australians rely on Google Search before they visit a physical store.
2. Approximately 63% of Australian consumers won’t shop at or visit a physical store if they can’t find any information about it online.
3. More than 85% of Australians read online reviews before purchasing a product.
4. In 2024, Google reported that approximately 61% of Australian consumers use Google Search for queries related to in-store information.

Source: Localsearch

Basic SEO Vocabulary

Before learning how to do SEO, it is better to make yourself familiar with basic SEO terms. Let’s try to understand a few SEO-related words you will encounter in the future.

1.Search Engine:

A search engine is a tool that helps you find information on the internet by entering keywords or phrases. Then, it searches its database to provide relevant websites, articles, and other online content that match your query. Examples of search engines include Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

2.Keywords:

Keywords are words or phrases that people use when searching for something online. They help search engines understand what you’re looking for and match it with relevant websites or content. 

For example, when searching for a recipe for chocolate chip cookies, “chocolate chip cookies recipe” would be the perfect keyword.

3.Keyword research:

Keyword research is the process of finding and analyzing the words and phrases that people commonly use when searching online. Keyword research helps businesses understand what their target audience is looking for and optimize their content to attract more visitors from search engines.

4.SERP

SERP stands for Search Engine Results Page. It’s the page you see after you type search terms into a search engine like Google or Bing. It displays a list of links to web pages, along with other elements like ads, featured snippets, and related search suggestions.

Search engine results pages (SERPS) typically look like this,

5.Organic results

Organic results are the regular search results you see on a search engine page, not the paid ads. They appear based on how well they match what you searched for, not because someone paid for them.

6.Organic traffic: 

Organic traffic refers to the visitors who visit a website by clicking on non-paid (organic) search engine results.

7.Ranking:

Ranking means where a website or page shows up in search results. The higher it ranks, the closer it is to the top.

8.Ranking factor: 

Ranking factors are the criteria or elements that search engines use to determine the position of a website or webpage in search results. These factors include things like relevance, quality of content, website speed, and user experience.

9.E-E-A-T:

E-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trust. It’s a concept outlined in Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines and is used by Google to assess the credibility and relevance of content on the web.

10.Algorithm:

An algorithm is a collection of rules that search engines use to decide the rankings of websites in search results. These rules take into account factors such as content quality, user engagement, and backlinks.

Refer to our SEO Glossary with 30+ essential SEO terms : Click here

How to do SEO | Some Actionable SEO Techniques

1.Perform a keyword research

Keywords are the words and phrases typed into search engines like Google when searching for businesses, products, or services similar to yours. By including relevant keywords in your website content, you can improve your chances of appearing higher in search results, making it easier for more people to discover your site.

To begin, consider the keywords that people might use when seeking information about your business, the services you offer, or the products you sell.

For example, if you own a cake shop in Melbourne, you can try terms like “cake shops in Melbourne” or “Cake for sale in Melbourne.”

Next, use keyword research tools to discover the most commonly searched keywords and phrases that people use to find your business.

Google Keyword Planner is one of the best keyword research tools you can use. Plus, it’s free!

Google Keyword Planner provides a detailed picture of the keywords you can use for your SEO efforts. 

Google Autocomplete can also provide helpful suggestions. Simply begin typing keywords related to your business, and observe the similar terms that appear as suggestions.

2.Use the Keywords in proper places.

Doing keyword research and forgetting those keywords right away will not give you the results you expect. You need to use those keywords in proper places throughout your website. Here are the places you need to include relevant keywords.

• Page titles
• Page URLs
• Meta Descriptions
• Page Content

Add keywords in the page title:

The page title helps search engines like Google to understand the content of a web page. It’s displayed at the top of your page’s listing in search engine results pages (SERPs), helping users decide if your page is relevant to their search.

For example, refer to the below page and see how these cake shops have used relevant keywords in their page titles. You can see keywords like Best cakes Melbourne, Celebration & birthday cakes Melbourne, Best Birthday cakes.”

Add Keywords in Page URL:

Similar to Page titles, Search engines consider the text on the URL to determine what the web page is about. Make sure to keep it short and simple. 

Include keywords in the meta description:

A meta description helps to show what a web page is about in a detailed version. You should put the target keywords within the meta description. Usually, the character limit for meta description is 150-160.

3.Create content related to the keywords.

Once you’ve identified your keywords, it’s time to create content for your website. Make a page for each keyphrase, targeting one or several keywords on each page.

Use your main keyword and related keywords naturally throughout your content, including in the page title and headings. Make sure your use of keywords doesn’t sound forced or repetitive.

Look at the top search results for inspiration and understand what users are looking for when they search for a particular term. To rank higher, aim to create content that’s better than what’s already out there and adds something unique while still meeting search intent.

Using your target keywords in your content is crucial for on-page SEO. However, avoid overusing them, which is known as keyword stuffing. Write naturally and focus on providing valuable information to your audience.

Writing blog posts and articles is a great way to add relevant keywords to your website.

4.Improve the technical side of your website.

SEO isn’t just about surface-level changes. There are important optimizations you can make on the backend of your website that affect your SEO ranking. Here are a few key factors to consider:

Page Speed:

Page speed is critical for SEO success. If your pages take too long to load, people will leave your site. In fact, 53% of users will leave a page if it takes longer than three seconds to load. 

To keep your audience engaged, optimize your site’s backend to load faster. This can involve removing unnecessary code, minimizing redirects, and optimizing image sizes.

Responsive Design:

With over 50% of internet traffic coming from mobile devices, it’s crucial that your website is mobile-friendly. Google considers mobile-friendliness as an important ranking factor. 

Implementing responsive design ensures that your website adapts to different devices, providing a positive user experience regardless of screen size.

Secure Site:

In today’s digital landscape, security is paramount. Users expect their information to be protected when visiting a website. Secure sites use “HTTPS” instead of “HTTP” in their web addresses, indicating that they have an added layer of security that encrypts user data. 

Without this security, users may be reluctant to share sensitive information, leading to a loss of trust and potential business.

Refer to our guide about SSL certificate to increase the security of your website : Click here.

By addressing these backend optimizations, you can improve your website’s SEO performance and enhance the overall user experience.

5.Focus on internal linking

Internal linking is crucial for SEO. Google needs to find your pages to rank them in search results, but it can’t always discover them on its own. Internal linking helps Google navigate and discover your pages, improving their chances of being ranked.

When you create new pages on your website, it’s important to link them to other relevant web pages. If you mention a specific topic, you can link to a related section on your site where visitors can find more information. For example, if you’re writing a page about planting flowers in your garden, you might link back to a previous article discussing the best types of flowers for different garden setups.

6.Build quality backlinks

Backlinks are the links that come to your website from other websites. You need to earn authorized backlinks from reputable websites.

Why are backlinks so important? Google and other search engines consider backlinks as evidence of the authority of your website.

Having the right number of quality backlinks is more beneficial than having too many links from low-quality or spammy websites.

Here are some tips for building quality backlinks to your site:

Write quality content for your website: Try to write informative and helpful content. When you have valuable information on your site, other sites will want to link to your website.

Guest blogging: Guest blogging is writing blogs for third-party websites. In exchange, they allow you to include backlinks within the post. Also, you gain brand visibility and exposure to a larger audience, leading to increased organic traffic to your site.

Broken link building: Broken link building is an SEO strategy where you identify HTML 404 errors on a website and inform the site owner. You then propose your website as a replacement resource for the broken link.

7.Use On-Page SEO Best Practices

On-page SEO means making improvements directly on your website’s pages to help them rank higher in search engine results.

Here are some factors you can optimize to improve your on-page SEO:

Title Tag: The title tag is the name of the web page that appears in search results. A title tag should be clear and contain the relevant keywords to reflect the content of that page. The recommended character limit for a title tag is 60 characters.

Meta Description: 

A meta description is a short text that appears under the title tag. You can use the meta description to draw the attention of users and make them click on your web page. 

It is where you can summarize the content of your page. The recommended character limit for meta description is 150-160 characters. Make sure to add target keywords here.

Images: 

Reduce the file size of any large images before adding them to your webpage. Use descriptive filenames and alt text with relevant keywords to help them show up in searches.

Internal Links: 

Include links to related pages on your site. Use descriptive anchor text (the clickable text) that tells users what the linked page is about.

Learn how to do SEO with DigiFix

SEO is one of the most effective digital marketing strategies to fuel your business growth.

When you know how to do SEO, you can grow your business online by reaching new potential customers. If you don’t know how to do SEO properly, we can help you.

We have years of experience handling SEO campaigns for businesses in Australia. You can get the assistance of our SEO experts to bring your websites to higher search engine rankings. We’ll help you make an SEO campaign that grows your business and brings in new leads.

If you’re ready to start using SEO and grow your business, contact us online or call us today at 03 8669 1773 to discuss with an SEO expert on our team about growing your business with SEO.