Website essentials: help customers find your business online

A website plays a crucial role when it comes to your business’ online presence. It acts as your digital shopfront, connecting you to your audience and customers. It’s vital that the right people can find your website when they look for you.

Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO, helps your website reach your desired audience, drive more traffic to your website and increase awareness of your brand. With the rise of AI-powered tools and the integration of large language models into search engines, the way that people look for information is changing.

Making your website easy for internet users to find online – via search engines and AI tools – can seem like a tall task. But there’s plenty you can do to make your site easier to find. You don’t need to hire or be an SEO specialist to get started – a solid foundation will help you to start getting in front of the right audience.

Search engines and AI models have algorithms that rank pages to determine what someone is shown when searching. You can make changes to your website to help it rank higher when people use traditional search engines, and improve your chances of appearing in AI search results.

SEO is a combination of the elements you see on a page (content) and what’s going on under the hood (technical). It can be easy to get lost in the different metrics that algorithms use, but the best way to keep it simple and build your SEO foundation is to think about search intent:

They might be looking to learn about a specific topic, buy a particular product or service, or even ask simple, everyday questions.

Thinking about the ways that people might be interested in your website can help you figure out the “keywords” that people will use. Keywords are the fuel that search engines run on - you type them into the search bar any time you run a search.

Keywords are the building blocks for a search, and how you optimise your site to be found. To keep it simple, think about the way you, your family or friends search online, including the type of search intent, phrases or keywords they might use, and how they might find your website. Collect these terms, phrases and questions people will ask and start incorporating them into your content where it’s relevant and makes sense. Include detail about what’s unique to your business, including the specifics about your products or services, location and any other features that set your business apart. This can be your SEO starting point.

When putting information on your website, it’s important that your content is:

1. Written clearly and is easy to understand
2. Aligns with the search intent and keyword list you’ve prepared – without overusing or “stuffing” keywords in that aren’t relevant
3. Uses Headings or heading tags (like H2, H3) to order information and create a clear structure for your visitors, making it easier to read and easier for search engines and AI to scan your website to extract its information.

Other ways you can improve your on-page SEO include:

If your website uses a web hosting service or a content management system (CMS) like WordPress, Wix or Squarespace, these options are available to you.

To further optimise your website for AI search engines, you need to start building “site authority”. Keep an eye out for our upcoming blog on site authority and building an AI-search friendly website.

If you’re thinking about starting a website but haven’t set one up yet, consider a .au domain name. Regardless of how people browse the internet, a dedicated business website is a valuable asset that helps you build your brand and reach customers online. A .au domain name also indicates that you’re Australian to search engines and AI tools helping your website be found more easily by Australians. Learn other tips for starting an online business.