If you have ever wondered how Google decides which websites to list first for different search queries, it’s generally acknowledged that there are four main areas of site criteria that influence ranking performance. The complex and ever changing algorithm is a closely guarded secret with more than 200 ranking factors.

 

The practice of trying to understand these factors and get your site to rank higher in what is known as ‘organic’ or ‘natural’ search is called ‘Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)’. It’s a complex and continuous process for website owners to stay on top of all these factors but it can be very commercially rewarding if you get it right, especially as less than 1% of users scroll to page two of Google.

 

“The best place to hide a dead body is page two of Google...”

 

Although there is no handbook on how to achieve success in SEO, there are many experts in the industry, who have proved by testing different theories over time what works and what doesn’t.

 

Our approach is to initially audit a clients website to identify areas for improvement and create a series of actions for implementation in the following four main areas:

 

Content:

Analysing relevant keyword gaps in content and ensuring that the copy is informative, credible and accurate. Benchmarking against the market leading competitor sites. Our team can then write new or amend existing copy.

 

User experience:

Ensuring that the navigation makes sense and the user can find what they need easily and quickly, particularly on mobile devices. Check that the product landing pages are displayed in a logical order with clear call to actions.

 

Technical health:

Crawling the site to check if there are any technical issues in the code that are causing Google to downgrade the site in searches. Speed of page loading is particularly important on mobile devices.

 

Link profile:

Are there opportunities to improve the internal linking which distributes link equity throughout the site? Check inbound links to make sure they are optimised and spam free. We make constructive suggestions on how to boost inbound links that are proven as an important ranking factor.

 

In all cases, the site audit will make practical recommendations on how to make improvements prioritised by effort versus reward.

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Local SEO:

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Consumers still love to shop local and the majority of searches for a retailer nearby start with a tap to Google or Google Maps (or both) on a mobile device.

 

To make sure that your business is ‘on the map’, getting your Local SEO sorted is an extremely effective way of increasing footfall. In fact 64% of local customers use searches engines as their main way of finding a business near them.

 

A big part of succeeding at local SEO is to make sure that your Google My Business (GMB) listing for your business is claimed and up to date and accurate as possible. Ideally, the GMB listing should be appealing and trustworthy enough to entice a click to find out more, followed by an actual physical visit.

 

"Four out of five people use smartphones for local information..."

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The GMB listing management is important as it provides the business owner to add information, photos and customer reviews, ensuring that it is portrayed in the very best light.

 

Our approach is to claim your GMB listing for your business, if you haven’t already, or optimise your existing listing to take advantage of all the available features.

 

Get in touch for more information on how SEO and local SEO can help your business or view more services >