SEO AGENCY WEST SUSSEX

SEO (search engine optimisation) is the science and art of being found naturally on search engines like Google. When a search term is entered in Google or another search engine, the results page features a mix of paid adverts, local results and natural listings.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation and in simple terms is the practice of getting a website to show up on the search engine results page of search engines like Google.

The answer in short is no, it is not easy to get to the top of the organic search results. However, with the right approach, it is possible, and the effort and investment will depend on a number of different variables such as how long your site has been live, how competitive your keywords are, how authoritative your site is, etc.

When we started helping websites get to the top of the search engines, it was a lot easier. The tactics were pretty much to get as many of your keywords on every page of your website and you’d pretty much get onto the first page or top of results.

Links were also a key factor, as they are today, but websites went with quantity rather than quality. As a result, this became heavily abused with people farming out large quantities of links to get as many as possible.

Over the last decade+, it has got a lot harder. Gaining results in the top spots needs up to date knowledge of the complexities and different parameters Google is using in its algorithms. It’s more than just keywords and number of links, it’s user experience, time on site, are people reading your content, is your site credible, your reputation across the web, who is linking to your site, etc. etc.

To get to number 1 on Google, you need to build a website that meets or exceeds all of Google’s ranking factors. Although we don’t know exactly what these ranking factors are, we have a pretty good understanding of what Google likes to see which is in a nutshell a well-built, technically sound website with great quality content at its core, and a strong domain authority.

Google’s mission is “to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”, so if your business can provide a quality, information-rich website that will benefit the searcher, you are more likely to be ranked.

It depends on a number of factors as to how long it will take to get to the top of Google such as how competitive the keywords are you want to rank for, how good your content is, whether you have a strong backlink profile and domain authority, and many other reasons from Google’s 200+ ranking factors.

You should add keywords to your website but they need to be carefully analysed and then mapped to relevant pages on your website. Adding keywords throughout your site will cause keyword cannibalisation, which makes it hard for Google to decipher what keywords you want each page of your website to rank for.

Backlinks are great, but you need to get quality and relevant backlinks. A high quality backlink from The Express is worth £££’s more than 10 low-quality links from unknown websites. If you carry out farmed link building, you run the risk of a Google penalty.

A core algorithm update is when Google makes changes to its algorithm to clean up its search results and reward quality sites. Google is carrying out daily algorithm updates and has been rolling out larger core updates since the first core algorithm update in November 2003 – the Florida update wiped out rankings for websites using spammy SEO tactics.

We break SEO down into three key phases. Firstly technical SEO looks at the foundations of the websites and makes sure that the website is working efficiently and it is easy for Google to find the information on the site. Secondly developing great content that appeals to your target audience. Thirdly building your site authority by working on various tactics such as on-site and off-site brand awareness, credibility and quality link building.

Keyword analysis is the process of researching and analysing the best keywords to optimise a specific landing page for.

The benefits of SEO are that the traffic is 100% free and the fact that if you rank at number 1, you are going to make money. Organic SEO tends to provide higher conversion rates on average as users prefer real results to ads.

SEO is not dead, far from it. The landscape has changed, and it is harder and requires lots of effort, but the results are still the same. As long as people are using Google to find services and products, then SEO will be the most powerful marketing tactic available to businesses.

This is a common misconception that if you create a new website, it will automatically be optimised for the search engines and will get top ranking results. Unfortunately, this is in most situations, not the case. I am sure they are out there, but I have not come across a web development agency that can optimise a website for SEO from launch. For businesses serious about their SEO, consult an SEO agency or specialist before you start planning a new website so that you can get the SEO built in from the beginning.

A backlink is a URL link from one website, to your own website. Google likes backlinks as it signals to them that the linking domain believes the landing page on your site is quality. A site that has hardly any backlinks is going to signal to Google that not that many other websites want to be aligned with your website, so Google will prioritise ranking another site that does have lots of backlinks as it figures that site must have better information.

Technical SEO is looking at the foundations or building blocks of a website to ensure it is clean and easy to for the search engines spiders to crawl and index your site. Examples of checks that take place during a technical SEO audit are URL structures, Sitemaps, canonicalisation, use of schema, robots.txt, etc.

On-site content refers to all the content on your website – this could include service landing pages, blogs, news, guides, videos, etc. It is important to ensure all of your on-site content is optimised properly for SEO so that the search engines can find and index the content.

Local SEO is when you optimise a local business or a piece of local content on a website for a specific target location. Effective local SEO uses a combination of on-site optimisation, optimisation of your Google Business Profile (previously called Google My Business), and off-site local link building.

A site migration is the process of transferring search engine ranking and authority when a website undergoes a major change. For small and medium sized businesses, this is most common when updating a website or moving to a different URL. A site migration, if not handled correctly, can have devastating consequences for SEO. If a SEO site migration is carried out, this will minimise any potential effects on search engine rankings and traffic.

Yes optimising your Google My Business (now called your Google Business Profile) does help SEO. The Google local pack is featured above the organic search results, so it means your business is highly visible if you are in the top 3 listed.

White hat SEO is when you follow Google’s parameters – essentially carrying out SEO by the rule book and not trying to cut corners or fool Google’s spiders into ranking your site higher.

Grey hat SEO is when you use techniques to fool Google’s spiders into ranking your site higher. Any website that uses grey hat SEO may see an initial burst of improvement, but Google catches up with them pretty quickly and then you are faced with a long Google Penalty Recovery process.

The Google suite of tools are key for SEO data gathering and results analysis such as GA4 (currently Google Analytics which is being terminated next year), Google Search Console and Page Speed Iinsights. Other top SEO tools include SEMRush, AHRefs, Moz, Screaming Frog, Sitebulb and many more.

Position 0 is when your website landing page is awarded the featured snippet – this is normally when someone answers a question and the first answer is provided in a box at the top of the search results, hence being called position zero as it is above the position 1 of Google’s organic results.