AN SEO GUIDE FOR SALONS

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1 AN SEO GUIDE FOR SALONS

2 AN SEO GUIDE FOR SALONS Set Up Time 2/5 The basics of SEO are quick and easy to implement. Management Time 3/5 You ll need a continued commitment to make SEO work for you. WHAT IS SEO? SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. This means how high up your salon website appears in the Google or other search engine listings without paid-for advertising. It s free to do the basics and makes it easier for your clients to find you through search engines. WHAT WILL I NEED TO GET STARTED? You ll need to have a good understanding of what keywords or phrases your potential clients use when they re searching for salons like yours. Look at your competitor websites to see what words or phrases they use Compile a list of words or phrases you think your clients use. Think about what you d search for if you were them The login details to your website s CMS (content management system) WHY USE SEO FOR MY BUSINESS? SEO helps websites appear higher up in the results and those higher up the rankings tend to get more business. Doing low-level SEO work is free. It just costs you some time It will drive more traffic to your website It will help you to pinpoint keywords that you can use in your social media campaigns and other marketing material FACTS AND FIGURES 70% of the links search users click on are organic* *Source: Search Engine Journal 59% of consumers use Google every month to find a reputable, local business* *Source: Search Engine Journal 93% of online experiences begin with a Search Engine* *Source: Search Engine Journal

3 8 STEPS TO SETTING UP AND RUNNING SEO STEP 1: UNDERSTANDING SEO One of the ways Google and Bing decide if your website is relevant to what a user is searching for is through their spiders. A spider is a software that crawls the web scanning websites and checks the content of their pages. It looks at the type of content, e.g. if it s video or word content. It also looks at the actual wording on the page, e.g. keywords and phrases. Then it looks at how trustworthy your site is, e.g. if your website is linking to trustworthy websites and vice versa. Finally, it looks at how often you publish content on your website. This information is then used to decide how relevant your website is to a user when they re searching for a particular service in your area. STEP 2: CLAIM YOUR LOCAL LISTINGS Make sure you re registered on Google+, Yahoo Local, Bing Local and any regional websites that offer this function. STEP 3: IDENTIFY YOUR KEYWORDS AND PHRASES Do your homework. What are your clients searching for? Hairdressers in Bristol or hair colourists? A useful free way of identifying your keywords is the Google AdWords keyword tool. This is designed to help prospective advertisers identify the most relevant keywords for their chosen market, but it is also very helpful when writing copy for your website. STEP 4: GO THROUGH THE COPY ON YOUR WEBSITE Go through every page and check that it includes the keywords and phrases you ve pinpointed and that your page headings are unique and accurate.

4 STEP 5: LOOK AT YOUR METADATA This is the information that shows up in the Google search listing. When uploading content to your website, every page should have the correct metadata, this can normally be done easily in your CMS or you need to ask a web developer to do this. Check that every page accurately describes what the page is and includes the right keywords. Metadata should include: Title tag: Up to 60 characters: make sure you have a unique, keyword focused title tag on every page of your site. Include your salon name and city or town Description: characters H1 Heading: this is the title of you page and code it used to highlight this to search engines so they know what the page is about Alt text: so a search engine can understand what an image is, you can add alt text, which is a short description of the image STEP 6: START LINKING PageRank is a number scored out of 10 that is given to your website based on a variety of things such as inbound and outbound links, and helps search engines to verify how trustworthy your site is. The web is full of a vast metropolis of website and links act like streets between each website. You can t really control who links into your website, but you can help. You can do this by linking your website to: Your social media channels, such as Facebook and Twitter Your Google My Business account Trustworthy directories like Yell.com You could also ask other appropriate local businesses You can also link out of your website, like to this can benefit your site too as an outbound link. But don t forget your own website. Linking within your own website is crucial. Linking up your website s pages has the added benefit of helping your clients find their way around your website in a more user-friendly way. Take a look at your website structure and if it could be improved. STEP 7: REGULARLY UPDATE YOUR WEBSITE WITH FRESH CONTENT The search engine spiders crawl your site more often when your pages are being refreshed or there s something new for them to scan. A few great ways of doing this are: Embed a Twitter feed onto your homepage Start writing a weekly hair care blog Consider producing video content. See YouTube: a guide for hairdressers Introduce an Instagram feed onto your homepage Put aside time once a month to refresh your website with new information STEP 8: WRITE WELL Google and Bing both look for content that s well written, unique and relevant to your website.

5 THE DO S & DON TS OF SEO DO Write for your client, not the search engine. Thinking about their needs and using straightforward language Break your text up into sections with subheads to make it easier to read. Include Alt text to all images. You should be able to edit these in your CMS. Make use of Metadata e.g. title tags and H1 headings. If you can t do this yourself, ask a web developer to help you. DON T Write sloppy text that isn t grammatically correct or spellchecked. Use lots of keywords without context. This is called keyword stuffing and you ll be penalised for this (your website listing will be pushed down the ranks). Duplicate content: if you re saying the same thing on more than one page, ask yourself if you need both pages. Don t copy content from other websites, Google will notice this. Write click here. Instead make it clear what the link is. E.g. Facebook: a guide for hairdressers. This is called anchor text. Use Flash to design your website. Flash looks great but doesn t help your SEO at all. Become disheartened if your ranking doesn t change quickly. Listings usually update quite slowly, often month. ENSURE THAT YOUR WEBSITE IS OPTIMISED FOR MOBILE OR TABLET This will give you the advantage when it comes to local search. More local searches are carried out on mobile than desktop. If a client arrives at your website and they can t use it properly they ll leave. If you have enough bounces, google will start to think your site isn t what people are looking for and push it down the rankings. ENCOURAGE REVIEWS Reviews through Google+ will help to boost your ranking and boost your credibility. CREATE A SITEMAP INSIDER TIPS This is a page listing and linking to all the other major pages on your site. It makes it easier for spiders to crawl your site.

6 SEO GLOSSARY ALT text A description of an image in your site s HTML. Unlike humans, search engines read only the ALT text of images, not the images themselves. Anchor Text The actual text of a link to a web page. On most websites, this text is usually dark blue and underlined, or purple if you ve visited the link in the past. Anchor text helps search engines understand what the destination page is about; it describes what you will see if you click through. Blog A part of your website where you should regularly publish content (e.g. commentary on industry/company topics, descriptions of events, photos, videos, etc.). Each blog post on your website is a new page that a search engine sees, and therefore a new opportunity to get found online. Make sure you keep your blog within your own domain. Flash Is a software technology for creating and managing interactive multimedia web applications like websites. Headings Text on your website that is placed inside of a heading tag, such as an H1 or H2. This text is often presented in a larger and stronger font than other text on the page. Inbound Link A link from one site into another. A link from another site will improve your SEO, especially if that site has a high PageRank. Internal Link A link from one page to another on the same website, such as from your homepage to your products page. Keyword A word that a user enters in search. Each web page should be optimised with the goal of drawing in visitors who have searched specific keywords. Link Building The activity and process of getting more inbound links to your website for improved search engine rankings. Metadata Data that tells search engines what your website is about. Meta description A brief description of fewer than 160 characters that outlines the contents of a page and why someone would want to visit it. This is often displayed on search engine results pages below the page title as a sample of the content on the page.

7 Meta keywords Previously used by search engines in the 90s and early 00s to help determine what a web page was about, the meta keywords tag is no longer used by any major search engines. Organic search listing These are result based on relevance to the search terms, as opposed to their being paid for. Pay per click These are paid-for advertisements. Page Title The name you give your web page, which is seen at the top of your browser window. Page titles should contain keywords related to your business. Words at the beginning of your page title are more highly weighted than words at the end. Spider A computer program that browses the internet and collects information about websites. Title The title of a page on your website, which is enclosed in a <title> HTML tag, inside of the head section of the page. It appears in search engine results and at the top of a user s web browser when they are on that page.