A quick overview of SEO
Introduction
If you run a large or a small business here in Bristol or within Bath, then it’s highly likely that you will have heard about “SEO” long before now.
Whether you have heard about this form of digital marketing via an e-mail that’s been sent to you, or let’s say through a friend that also runs a business here in the South West- you may have thought how this could type of online marketing help your business?
Well, if the work is white hat, that means the work is quality, then SEO could help your business here in Bristol in the following ways:
- Help to increase sales
- Help to improve where your business ranks on Google
- Help your business to get more leads
- But only if the work is white hat
Yet, there are some business owners here in the South West thatstill do not know what this form of marketing is. So for those that do not know SEO stands for, well it simply stands for search engine optimisation.
What does Search Engine Optimisation mean?
It’s a process that an SEO agency like us here at Pack Digital or a marketing freelancer or sometimes the business itself will use to find which phrases the businesses customers are most often using to find the products or services that your company sells. So, lets say you run an employment law practice in Bath, obviously you would want your business to appear higher for “employment lawyers + name of city”- this is exactly what our digital marketing agency can help with.
What are Keywords?
What are keywords?
Well, for example for a double glazing business, their most likely going to have the keywords like “double glazing + location” or “UPVC windows + location” as the main aim of improving.
That’s to say the SEO company should say these are main keywords, and we are going to improve these via white hat SEO.
It’s then an ongoing process of improving where the business ranks for these terms.
For example, let’s say that your business specialises in a retailing a certain brand of high-value car, yet you are competing with let’s say 20 other dealerships that are also based in your city or near your city retailing that high-value brand of car as well.
Therefore, you may hire an agency to optimise your website for that brand of car combined with words such as “dealership”, “servicing” and perhaps also brand of car + all the surrounding areas that are near your car dealership.
A business will therefore normally want to rank as high as can as many keywords that are important to that business.
For this to happen often an SEO agency needs to be employed, and that’s where Pack Digital can help.
What is local SEO?
You may have heard about local SEO, yet wondered what this means?
Well, a lot of businesses based in the South West for example based here in Bristol and also in Bath, will invest in this form of digital marketing.
Therefore, whether you run a scaffolding business or a solicitor’s practice, regardless of the type of business you run normally the business will want to appear on the first page of Google.
This has obvious advantages to the business owner, that’s to say they are more likely to be contacted by customers and more sales are more likely to happen if you partner with the right SEO agency, like Pack Digital that offers white hat SEO.
However, often it is a long road for a business to get ranked on the first page of Google, that’s to say for the business to get ranked on the first page of Google often they have to partner with the right digital marketing agency that can offer white hat SEO. If the business chooses the wrong agency here in Bristol, or anywhere else for that matter, well the business could incur a penalty.
For example, you may have heard about Google Penguin, and Google Panda penalties?
That’s to say if the business does not hire a white hat agency, and you were to hire the wrong agency, then the business could potentially incur a penalty, which means that the business could even be removed from Google altogether.
So, this is why you must hire a respected, white hat agency like us.
Is organic and local SEO a fast process?
No, the short answer is no.
Organic and local SEO are most definitely not a fast process, many businesses do try and imply that it is a very fast process, yet then the business might not be using what are called “white hat methods”, which could mean they are flouting Google’s rules.
The agency must therefore always follow “Google’s Webmaster Guidelines”.
If the agency or freelancer, or the business are flouting the rules, then this means that the business website could incur a penalty.
We are a respected and well-known digital marketing agency, so we will only ever recommend using white hat methods.
Why does my SEO consultant keep referring to an algorithm?
When having a conversation with your seo agency, they may keep repeatedly referring to an “algorithm”- you may not know what they mean when you are referring to this algorithm.
The algorithms simply what are used to work out how strong your website’s SEO is and then the algorithm will then compare the SEO score with your competitors websites.
So, for example let’s say that you run business here in Bristol, and you run an Italian restaurant and you want your Italian restaurant to appear on the first page of Google for “local Italian restaurants”.
Yet there are over 20 other well-known Italian restaurants throughout Bristol, therefore for your business to appear right at the top of the first page, your business must have the strongest ranking factors.
What does this mean?
Well there are over 200 different ranking factors which the algorithm takes into account, for example, most marketing agencies will agree that backlinks are one of the most important.
Therefore for your business to be right at the top on the first page of results, your business must have rules strongest ranking factors, that’s when compared with all the other websites for Italian restaurants here in Bristol.
However, to make things even more complicated, it’s worth knowing that not all the ranking factors are worth the same, for example most marketing agencies will agree that backlinks are widely considered the most important, and that’s to say alt text is less important a ranking factor.
Therefore whichever SEO agency that you do use, they must be able to prioritise their time to improve the most important ranking factors first.
What are ranking factors?
Ranking factors are what are computed by algorithm, for example ranking factors are used by the algorithm to work out how strong your company’s SEO is.
Your ranking factors are then measured and given a score, and then compared your direct competitors, and the businesses that has the strongest ranking factors and will appear higher on the list of Google’s rankings.
What does “crawling and indexing mean”?
The basic requirement of SEO is that the website can be crawled and indexed, and this means that Google can index your website and this is so it can be read by the search engine, and Googlebot.
Why does it depend on how strong my competitors SEO is?
Some businesses think that SEO is like Pay Per Click (PPC), however SEO is completely different, with pay per click (PPC) you pay a sum of money and your business can instantly appear on the first page.
However, with SEO it is different that is it’s often takes many months for the SEO consultant to get your business on the first page.
What does content marketing mean?
Content marketing is exactly what you are reading here, that’s to say often content marketing is just written text, however the text must be high-quality.
If the text is not offer useful information then the reader is likely to leave the website contributing to a high bounce rate.
For those that do not know what having a high bounce rate means, well, it can be detrimental to your businesses SEO.
This is one of the reasons why your businesses content marketing must be high quality.
What does link building mean?
Normally the agency will need to build high-quality white hat backlinks.
What are the benefits of investing in this form of marketing?
The benefits of investing are quite obvious, in that if you partner with the right agency, they can get your business to appear for products or services that your business sells on the first page of Google.
This is a very effective form of marketing, that’s if it is done right- that’s because when a customer is searching for the products or the services that your company offers, then your company can appear right before the customer.
When you compare this with other forms of advertising, then you might be advertising your business at a time when the customer does not wish to purchase your products, you can start to see how SEO is so effective because the customer is finding your business when they are more likely to want to make purchase.
For example, you might advertise your company at a local rugby event through banner advertising for example.
However, people watching that sporting event may not pay much attention to the banner advertising and they may not want UPVC windows or doors at that time.
However, if you pay an agency to get your business on the first page for UPVC company say in the area Bristol, when somebody wants their double glazing replaced you can appear when the customer is searching for such a business.
This is why it’s such an effective form of advertising
Why do I need to invest each month?
Organic SEO is different than other forms of advertising in that often you need to pay every single month.
The reason for this is your competitors will want to take your spot and to also get higher search engine rankings.
Therefore you are in constant competition with your competitors, and if your business was to take its foot off the accelerator then other businesses can quickly overtake your business.
Do many businesses in Bristol and Bath invest in this form of marketing?
Many businesses throughout Bristol, in the South West of England and also Bath invest in this form of marketing.
Therefore any business which appears on the first page is more than likely investing or has invested in some form of SEO in the past.
Why must the work be high quality?
All the work must be high quality, otherwise your business runs the risk of incurring a penalty and being totally removed from the search engine.
Does my business need an SEO freelancer, agency or a digital marketing agency?
Will you require an SEO consultant, freelancer an agency or a digital marketing agency depends totally on your businesses requirements.
For example, if you run a large business then it is unlikely that you are to hire a freelancer to optimise your website that’s to say often you will need an agency, however if you are a small business here in Bristol, and you wish to optimise your website then you might hire an SEO consultant.
How can your agency help?
Our business works with a wide range of different businesses in Bristol so whether your business is in Clifton, or you run a business in the centre of Bath, we can offer you an affordable rate to optimise and improve your businesses SEO