What is Search Engine Optimisation?
A Guide to Search Engine Optimisation
Search engine optimisation, or SEO, is the process of improving your website so that it ranks higher on search engines like Google. The more optimised your SEO, the more likely you are to rank higher and the more likely potential clients or customers will find your website.
SEO goes beyond just ranking on the first page of Google, though. SEO is about improving trust and increasing credibility.
Why is it important to consider in my marketing strategy?
According to Statista, Google has a current market share of 89.74%. Bing comes a close second. People are constantly searching for information online, whether that’s a service, product, location or general information (how do I change a tyre on a car, anyone?).
The rise of AI (think ChatGPT) has increased the importance of SEO. The higher your ranking on search engines, the more likely you are to show up within a ChatGPT search. It’s no longer about showing up on the first page of Google.
There’s never been a more relevant or better time to enhance your website’s SEO.
Anatomy of SEO
SEO can be a complex process, so we’re breaking it down into bite-sized chunks to help you understand the work that goes into it and why it’s essential.
On-Page SEO
On-page SEO considers the content and structure of your website, which includes keywords, content quality, headings and structures, internal links and mobile-first optimisation.
Ensuring that your website content targets relevant, high-traffic keywords in your titles, meta descriptions, and body text is critical for good SEO.
SEO best practices include having original, valuable content that helps to answer user intent. Last year, Google released various updates, one of which included information on the quality of content. After the update, there was a 45% decrease in the visibility of unoriginal, low-quality and poor content (Search Engine Land, 2024). Copy and paste blogs from ChatGPT just won’t cut it. If you’re posting insights and blogs, ensure they have some of your brand personality for originality.
Ensuring your page is structured and organised to allow search engine spiders to crawl your site more easily is key to on-page SEO. This looks like using H1, H2 and H3 titles correctly, and having a clear flow of content, as well as enough content on each page.
Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO refers to activities that occur outside of your website and focuses on establishing your authority across the internet through other websites, social media, and media campaigns.
It’s important to build banklinks. This could take the form of guest blogging on an industry-relevant website, participating in an online campaign, or being featured in online content.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is what goes on behind the scenes on your website, as opposed to the everyday SEO you might work on. This includes factors such as site speed, XML sitemaps, Robots.txt, structured data, security, and mobile-first indexing.
No one likes a slow website. Fast-loading site times help reduce bounce rates and can improve rankings over time. It’s essential to ensure that your website loads quickly on all devices, including desktops and mobile devices.
Search engines need to crawl your website, read and understand your content to be able to rank it online. Simply put, XML sitemaps and Robots.txt help search engine spiders crawl your site, understand your content, and improve your content's ranking. Structured data, also known as structured snippets, helps provide context to search engines that crawl your site.
Other important considerations include ensuring your site is secure and making your website mobile-friendly, as 72.59% of Google’s visitors come from mobile devices (Digital Marketing Institute, 2025).
Local SEO
Local SEO is how your customers or clients find you when searching for your services or products. It’s how you show up online. It’s also an underrated component of SEO, and one we consider to be an easy win for our clients.
The key to Local SEO is Google Business optimisation, ensuring that your profile is up-to-date with the correct details (address, phone number, and website link) and that you post regular photos and updates with relevant keywords to help further target your audience.
Reviews also play a crucial role in local SEO, as they help build trust and credibility, thereby improving your visibility in local search results. It’s important to remember that negative reviews or less-than-5-star reviews are necessarily bad. They help to strengthen trust as a business with only five stars can feel insincere.
Social SEO
If you haven’t heard the news, from July 2025, unless you opt out, your Instagram content can start showing up on search engines, depending on how well you have optimised your account.
This is key for brands and businesses who want to further increase their brand awareness and reach. Social SEO is something that our marketing team have always considered, but this exciting update.
Optimising your account is simple. From updating your bio to include relevant keywords, to optimising alt text and naming your account, we can guide you through what you need to know to increase your online visibility.
Boost Your SEO with Studio Blackardt
SEO isn’t a set-and-forget marketing task. Your marketing agency or internal team must be constantly monitoring for further optimisations and industry changes.
Studio Blackardt takes a full-funnel approach to SEO, combining on-page, off-page, technical, local and social SEO to drive real, measurable results for our clients.
If you’re looking for a full-service agency within Brisbane, connect with us and let’s chat.
