What is SEO and why does it matter?

Now that you have a fantastic product or service, naturally you’ll want the website to match—but there's no sense in putting in all that effort if no one can find you online! That’s where SEO comes in! SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, and although it can get complex, what it does is pretty simple: it helps your website show up on Google (and other search engines) when people search for keywords related to your product.

While Google and other search engines are super-smart, they need a little help to understand what your website is all about. Before putting your website on their search results, Google will use a range of metrics to analyse everything from the words on your pages to the structure of your site. If it’s presented in a way Google can understand, your website is more likely to rank highly in its search results.

Still trying to figure out how SEO works in action? To help you get started, we’ve put together a handy guide that gives you an overview of everything Google looks out for when it comes to your business website.

Search

SEO is built around having your website appear in search results—but local SEO is even more critical for small businesses. Local search engine optimisation is an algorithm that matches users with relevant search results in their area.

For example, if a user in Johannesburg types "nail salon" into Google, they will prioritise showing them nail salons in Johannesburg. However, if someone in Cape Town types in "nail salon", they'll get completely different search results! So, if your website isn't SEO-ready, you'll risk missing out on countless potential customers right next door.

Here are some of the ways you can give your business the best chance of showing up in local search results:

• Google My Business: Claiming your Google Business Profile is free and only takes a few minutes. It will show users your website, location on the map, and how other customers have rated your business.

• Mobile responsiveness: While mobile optimisation is its own unique category of SEO, Google also looks at how mobile-ready your website is before placing you in their local search results.

• Website keywords: If your business is based in Johannesburg, you should mention this on your website! These all-important keywords are how Google knows where your business is located.

Mobile Optimisation

Did you know that in South Africa, almost 80% of all users access the internet through a mobile device? In fact, mobile browsing has become so popular that Google prioritises the mobile version of websites for ranking in their search results.

In the digital age, having a mobile-first website is non-negotiable for SEO. Ensuring your website is mobile-friendly can be tricky (and expensive) because your web developer or designer may need to create an entirely new interface for mobile. But at Savvy, we’re all about providing simple solutions.

We’ve taken special care to ensure your website will transition perfectly from desktop to mobile, without you taking any extra steps to optimise your website for mobile use.

Website Speed

Research shows that having a slow loading speed is a dealbreaker for customers—but did you know it’s also a dealbreaker for Google? Google uses three key metrics, called their Core Web Vitals, to determine the loading speed of your website:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): This measures how long it takes for your content to load, and if it’s over 2.5 seconds your site is too slow.

• First Input Delay (FID): Once your website has loaded, there’s a slight delay until a user can interact with it. Google’s threshold is 100 milliseconds (that’s one-thousandth of a second).

• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Have you ever noticed an image or text jump while you’re on a website? That’s called a layout shift. Google expects websites to be optimised for both desktop and mobile, and they measure how frequently users experience layout shifts on your site.

If you’ve ever tried to build a website with WordPress or a similar platform, you’ve probably learnt the hard way how many elements can contribute to a slow loading speed. From plugins and missing files, to large images and bulky code, finding the source of what’s slowing down your site can take hours—if not days.

At Savvy, we remove all the tricky design and coding work to ensure your site loads lightning-fast. Don’t worry though, you can still add your own images and customise your website colour and layout to represent your brand. You just won’t have to do any of the hard work that comes with it! It’s a win-win.

Quality Content

Creating high-quality content means having a website people want to engage with. But, of course, Google can’t read and understand your website by itself (yet), so it relies on a range of metrics to calculate how relevant, valuable, and engaging your content is.

Some of these metrics include:

• Bounce rate: This is how quickly visitors leave your website after visiting one page. If your bounce rate is high, this implies your content isn’t engaging enough to keep visitors on your site.

• Website information: Google likes it when it can deduce who is responsible for a website. Therefore, having your name and contact details on your website is essential for good SEO.

• Readable: No one wants to visit a website with walls of text and spelling errors—and neither does Google! Using headings, lists, and breaking up text with images is best practice to ensure your site is easily readable.

If you’re setting up your website from scratch, ensuring it looks and sounds good can be costly. Why? Because you’ll need to pay copywriters, designers, and web developers to create high-quality content, appealing visuals, and functional features.

Luckily with Savvy, you can skip the expense and go straight to creating high-quality content. Our customisable website layouts allow you to add images and text describing your services, and we’ll ensure it’s optimised in a way that speaks Google’s language.

Are you ready to implement a simple solution that gets your business website SEO-ready? Sign up for Savvy today to make your online presence shine!