SEO can be a difficult investment to consider, yet one of the most common requests I get for new enquiries is that they want their website 'to be top of Google'.

Because it can feel like some form of magic, it rightly puts people off - when you don't understand something, it doesn't feel like a safe option.

SEO is short for Search Engine Optimisation.

It's all about getting your business, products, and services, visible on search engines.

Key to all of this is understanding exactly what your ideal client is typing into Google (and other search engines like Bing), and critically, how often are those searches happening.

As a business owner, it can seem obvious what these 'keywords' are. This is the first mistake - certainly, some of your thoughts are probably accurate, yet this is the tip of the iceberg.

Search terms/keyword phrases often vary quite considerably - there will be many variations on a theme, and usually a lot more that we don't even know about until our research is complete.

From there, we also work on understanding search intent - what do those ideal clients want to find and read about when they land on your website from a search?

What pages does your website need to effectively target the range of keywords your ideal clients are using?

How do we answer their questions, what words do they need to read, to gain their trust and belief that you are the safe choice for them?

For us, SEO is never about pulling keywords out of a hat - given we won't even touch design until the copywriting is approved, we also won't touch copywriting until the SEO research and data is available.

Ideally, SEO should be a longer-term project as well - revisiting search stats, further optimising page content, blog posts, product descriptions etc., as more data and information is available from your own website.

If you want to be sure your website is in the best position to be found by customers who don't know you exist, SEO should be an investment that is part of any new website you commission.

Just don't be fooled by those web designers who 'optimise every website for Google - they are the ones pulling random keywords out of hats.