SEO North East and SEO Newcastle from First Page

SEO – What Is Search Engine Optimisation?

Search Engine Optimisation is quite simply the manipulation of a website to gain a higher ranking on search engines.

Effective Search Engine Optimisation is not an easy or simple task. The search engine algorithms balance a range of important factors when deciding how to rank your website pages. The algorithms are constantly being tweaked, Google.co.uk is by far the most used search engine in the UK with a market share of around 90% and has updated and changed over 200 elements during the last 12 months in response to consumer preferences and company practises.

For example, in response to increased consumer expectations regarding page load times and the growth of smartphone use, Google recently altered its algorithm so that the time it takes for a page to load has a profound effect on the page’s ranking. High-quality Search Engine Optimisation requires flexibility and responsiveness to these changes.

Why do I need SEO ?

Websites need to be on the first page of the search engine results and that’s where over 90 % of visitors will stay rather than search on the second page. If you are on the first page then you have a massive advantage over your competitors leading to higher sales and more enquiries!

Search engine optimisation is an ongoing operation. Those businesses that optimised their sites for search engines even last year may find that their websites are no longer featuring as prominently in search results precisely because this previous optimisation is no longer appropriate for today’s search algorithms.

Our simple 3 step approach has proven to be effective for numerous websites, please see below an outline of how each stage is implemented:

Keyword Discovery

Keyword Discovery

Keyword discovery is probably one of the most important areas that we would need to work together on.

We find that most websites fall into one of two categories;

  1. It’s very obvious what you offer customers i.e. an online shop selling scarves. These in theory are easy, however to you go for the high volume keywords such as “ scarf” and “scarves” or would you have easier success and win more business going for “ladies scarves” and men’s scarves” to begin with ?
  2. You know what you offer i.e. “management training services” but is that what Google users look for? They may look for people development company, staff training, employee development or business growth consultants.
  3. One way of finding keywords to target is by having look keywords that your competitions use. We can demonstrate this to you and then we can see how you can use this information.
    We will work with you to identify the keywords and phrases which will get you maximum exposure to Google users within your seo budget.

Website Audit

The audit will look at around 50 elements to your website and give us a good understanding of the strengths and weakness of the website.

Other examples of what will be looked at include:

  • Does your website have more than one homepage? – The vast majority of websites have been built with 2+ homepages which dilutes their effectiveness straight away!
  • How accessible to search engines is your website
  • Title Tags
  • Meta descriptions
  • Keyword usage
  • Are “rel canonical” tags used correctly?
  • Usage of h1 – h4 tags
  • Are current keywords used correctly?
  • Is the current text Google friendly as well as well written for your visitors?
  • Are the alt tags been used correctly and effectively in your images?
  • Is there evidence of self-cannibalization of your website content?
  • Is there a Google friendly sitemap

Website Optimisation

This is where the research we have done together starts to make an impact on your website.

There are many other factors which decide how a website ranks but this is one of the most powerful ways in the eyes of search engines.

We will have identified markets for you to target through the keywords and key phrases, identified changes to be made to your website to make it as relevant as possible, and now these changes will be made to ensure any search engines visiting your website views you as an expert on your topic (keywords).

We will go through the areas that were looked at in the initial website audit and ensure that the website is as strong as possible to start the seo work we’ll undertake.

We want the website to be as perfect as possible to make sure every penny you spend with us is spent driving you website up the search engine rankings, we don’t see the point of “flogging a dead horse”.

If your website is built and optimised correctly this will keep down the cost of the seo work.

When do I see results ?

For some website the initial results can be seen within a week, others will sometimes take a couple of months depending on the starting position and the competition they are up against.

What we do is ensure you see exactly what is happening. Each week we will send you a ranking report on your chosen keywords or phrases. The report shows both your current position on Google.co.uk and historical data.