How do you get a business onto the first page of Google?

Introduction

Whether you run a global business, or a local business, its safe to say that most companies now want to be on the first page of Google.

And this stands to good reason, as if your business is not there, well your direct competitors may have a competitive advantage over your business.

So whether you retail furniture or you own a whiskey distillery, most businesses are asking themselves the same question, that is how can they get their business onto the first page of Google.

This article will explain a bit more about the SEO process:

Crawling and Indexing

In order for SEO to work, your websites will need to be crawled and indexed. This basically means can Google read your website?

Sometimes Google cannot read a businesses website, this is sometimes as simple as the business leaving the no-index tab on.

However, sometimes it can be more complex. What’s for sure is your seo agency will need to work out if your website can be crawled.

The code that is used to crawl your website by Google, is called Googlebot. You can make it much easier for Googlebot to crawl your website, if your business has a site map.

Crawling and indexing your website is not a one-off process, actually your businesses website will need to be routinely indexed.

This is so that Google can spot any SEO improvements that may have been made. For example has your business been adding blog posts?

Google will do this automatically, however sometimes your SEO company may have made large changes to your website. For example, you may well be launching a new product range, so your products will have new descriptions for example.

If your website has changed quite a bit, because of new products, or services that have been added then sometimes the digital marketing agency will request that Google recrawls the website.

This acts as a form of notice to Google that you’ve made changes to your website, and you like Google and its algorithm to know this.

Google’s algorithm

Google’s algorithm is very sophisticated. Google introduces loads of changes each year, which is why a lot of businesses hire an seo consultant so that they can be better advised on what these changes mean.

Google’s algorithm will read over 200 signals when evaluating how important your website is.

These signals are called ranking signals. Its an seo agencies job to optimise these signals.

Your competitors will always want to be either retaining the top position in Google, or trying to get their business to the top. This means that SEO is a continuous process.

This is why a lot of businesses pay marketing companies, like ours to improve their seo every month.

Google hates spam

Whether your planning on paying an agency to do your SEO, or you would like to do the work yourself, its worth knowing that you should only implement white hat seo.

That’s to say if low quality seo was implemented, then the website could incur a penalty.

Google’s algorithm can detect spam, or low quality seo, and this can result in an algorithmic or manual penalty.

One such penalty is the Google Panda update, its also worth knowing that rectifying such a penalty can sometimes be a costly process.

The reason being is that sometimes, some marketing agencies will need to implement a lot of work to correct a penalty. This is why purchasing cheap seo is often a false economy.

Does your business need help with its online marketing?

If your business is looking to invest in online marketing then why not give us a call? We have a team of experts working for us, that’s to say we can offer high quality seo.

Our prices are very competitive also. So, whether you run a global business, or you are a local business that requires help with your marketing we can help.

We can offer:

·        Affordable prices

·        White hat work

·        Content marketing

·        Link Building

 

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7 things that you need to know before you invest in SEO

Introduction

For some businesses, the more established marketing methods no longer cut the mustard.  

And this is where a lot of businesses then make the decision to switch their attention to online marketing instead. Yet investing in digital marketing and finding the right agency for your business, well that can be quite tricky for some businesses.

So, in order to provide you with some more insight into how seo works, and some facts we think you should know, we’ve written this rather helpful article.

#1 Organic SEO can be a slow process

Okay, you’re always going to have those marketing agencies that tell you what you want to hear.

That’s to say, they will want you to sign on the dotted line, so they may say they will get your business onto page one of Google in practically no time at all.

Now not to dampen your enthusiasm, or to sound defeatist, but often when a business first invests in seo it takes a lot of time and effort. That’s before the website gets to the point where its generating sales.

The reason being is this, Google, and all the other search engines rank websites according to their own algorithm.

So, let’s concentrate on Google for just a second here, Google ranks websites according to the strength of the websites “ranking signals”. There are thought to be over 200 ranking signals in total.

This means you have to be aware that some businesses will have super strong ranking signals. To catch up, well that often takes a great deal of time. So its worth keeping in mind that organic seo could be branded a slow process in some cases.

#2 Quality white hat seo is an absolute must!

Some businesses choose their digital marketing agency on price point alone. This can sometimes mean that instead of picking a quality agency, instead some business owners are persuaded by low prices that some agencies offer.

Yet, if the seo work is low quality, well this could mean that the algorithms then place a penalty onto the website.

#3 SEO is continuous process

There might be some occasions where a business requires organic seo to be applied on a one-off basis.

Yet, the vast majority of businesses pay an agency on a monthly basis. The reason is that seo is a continuous process is because your competitors will also want their business to ranked at the top.

#4 Not all agencies offer the same work

Sometimes if you get a quote from various agencies, they will list the work that they offer, yet the work will normally not be the same when compared with another agency.

For example, seven hours spent link building by one agency may mean that more links are built than if you had gone with another agency.

So, it does boil down to how good the seo consultant is, or the team of seo consultants that are working on your business’s website.

#5 Your websites rankings can go up, and they can also go back down

Sometimes a business owner will believe that once their businesses rankings go up, well they cannot go back down.

Yet, if you invest in organic seo your rankings can also go back down as well. The reason is Google’s algorithm is constantly looking for the strongest business websites, so if a competitor invests more, or simply has better seo, then a website can drop to make way for that business.

#6 You need to partner with a marketing agency that has their finger on the pulse

Sometimes some marketing agencies offer everything from logo design, through to organic seo services.

Now that is all well and good, that’s if the business has enough staff to offer a wide range of services.

#7 Affordable

Sometimes some businesses will go with the largest agency within their local area, which is all well and good.

So, what can sometimes happen is some businesses simply run out of funds to keep paying a well-known agency to implement work.

Instead work with a white hat agency, yet one which has set their pricing level at an affordable level  

If your business requires help with its online marketing, then why not give us a ring?

 

 

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We want to monitor seo performance, which metrics should we be following?

Introduction

As a business owner, it’s all too easy to get baffled by all of the seo data that some tools can provide you with. 

And what can sometimes happen is that some businesses can be monitoring so many metrics at one time, that they can actually become a distraction.    

So, our marketing agency is a bit different from the norm, that’s because we only follow a few important seo metrics.

Here are the metrics that we follow:

Rankings

Well this seo metric is the most obvious one, yet one that should be accompanied by a bit of advice.

That’s because within your businesses Google Search Console account, you will want to be monitoring if the keywords your website ranks for have a high search volume.

In a nutshell this means are enough people looking for these terms, if not your seo agency should make adjustments to your marketing strategy,

So, as you would expect a family lawyer would want to rank for:

·        Family lawyers

·        Divorce solicitors

·        Family law practice

Organic traffic

Organic traffic sounds really complicated, but it is not. Simply put, when your searching to find any business the majority of the business listings that will appear will be organic business listings.

These are normally accompanied by paid ads, such as PPC listings.

Yet, the vast majority of the business results will be organic business listings.

So, naturally you will want to open your Google Analytics account, and then see how many visitors are coming to your website via your organic business listings.

Most businesses will want people to find them from a wide range of sources, such as via social media adverts, or via PPC. Yet we find more and more of our customers want the bulk of their websites visitors to come via organic traffic, this makes sense as a business does not pay when a visitor clicks on a organic business listing.

Bounce rate

A high bounce rate means that people are landing on a businesses website, and then deciding to leave more or less straightaway.

Backlink data

Now most people know that good quality and relevant backlinks can help a businesses SEO.

Yet, not every business will know that an accumulation of rubbish spam links can actually harm a business’s seo.

Meaning that rubbish quality backlinks can mean that a websites rankings will drop, and drop like a lead balloon.

This means it’s well worth your seo company or your business regularly checking your companies’ backlink profile.

How we can help:

Whether your business needs help with its local seo, or building good quality backlinks we can help.

Why not give us a call today?


 

 

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