What does “SEO” mean?
If you run a local business, then it’s more than likely that you would want to get your company onto the first page of Google.
This is when a lot of businesses look for an agency that specialises in what is called “local SEO”.
However, a lot of business owners do not know how the SEO process works, so this guide will therefore explain how the SEO process works at our agency.
It’s important to know that Google’s algorithm takes into account over 200 different ranking factors, within this article we will explain how our agency optimises some of these different ranking factors for our customers.
Ranking factors are simply what Google uses to work out where a business should rank, so for example a business with the strongest ranking factors will rank in the first position for that keyword.
Yet the business that has the weakest ranking factors, well for that phrase the business may rank on say page 10 of Google.
This is why a business must work on improving its ranking factors, such as backlinks if the business is to improve where it ranks.
So, without further ado let’s starts to have a look at some of the ranking factors, and how our agency improves these factors in order to improve your businesses search engine optimisation.
On-site
One of the first tasks that we complete when we get a new client, is to start to look at ways in which we can improve the businesses on-site search engine optimisation.
Often new pages need to be built, and the pages that are on the website at present often need optimising in terms of adding meta titles, meta descriptions, alt tags, anchor text and content marketing.
We are now going to look at some of the ways in which we can improve a business on site search engine optimisation.
Meta titles and meta descriptions
We often start by adding or improving a business’s meta titles and meta descriptions. Quite often the business will have a content management system (CMS) website, but the web designer has not added meta titles or meta descriptions to each page.
Meta titles and meta descriptions are not really that important ranking factor, when compared to say high-quality backlinks. Yet with that said meta titles and meta descriptions should be added to each page in order to enhance the businesses SEO.
We will then start work on adding meta titles and meta descriptions to each page, so that it accurately describes what that page is about.
If you are unsure as to what a meta title or a meta description is, it’s simply a description that will appear in Google’s results next to the link for your company.
For example, let’s say you are shopping for a new mountain bike, you may search “what are the best mountain bikes to purchase”, then a list of businesses will appear.
You may see some local businesses that are listed next to a map, these are called “Google my business listings”. Then you might also see a few Pay Per Click (PPC) advertisements at the top of Google as well.
However, the majority of the businesses listed will be within the “organic business listings”, there is normally 10 businesses listed in the organic business listings.
Often before somebody clicks on a business, they will have a quick read of the meta title and meta description which describes what that business can offer, these business descriptions are called the meta titles and meta descriptions.
Now that you know what a meta title and the meta description is, you can begin to appreciate why it’s so important to carefully write your businesses meta titles and meta descriptions.
The reason for this is if a meta title and a meta description are well-written, it will encourage the shopper to click on your business, then rather than say a business that is ranked above or below your company.
For example you may specialise in selling a certain brand of mountain bike, so this may well be written directly into the meta title and meta description, and so when that person is searching for that brand of mountain bike, you might say that they are more likely to click on your business than another business in the search engine results that does not mention that brand of mountain bike.
This is why many digital marketing agencies will spend a great deal of time writing meta titles and meta descriptions for every single product, as if they are well-written, they can improve the click through rate of a website.
This is why when we take on a new client, if there are no meta titles or meta descriptions added to each page, then one of the first tasks that we carry out is to add a meta title and the meta description to each page.
Alt text
Once we have added meta titles and meta descriptions to each page, we will then switch our attention to adding alt tags to each product.
For those that do not know what alt tags are, they are simply a description of the picture, for example if you are selling electrical items, such as kettles, you may differentiate all the different kettles by adding alt tags such as “black kettle”, or “red kettles” or a certain brand of kettles.
Again, this is not a really important ranking factor, but most digital marketing agencies will tell you that if the on-site SEO is to be improved, then this can improve your chances of that page ranking better in the search engine results. So for example, you may add the alt text for a pair of formal shoes as follows:
“men’s-formal-shoes-leather-brand”
We would therefore add alt text to every single product, so that Google’s algorithm has a much better understanding of the products that your businesses is retailing.
This is especially important if you retail many thousands of products, because you may sell for example a range of products, and it is important that they are all differentiated, in terms of brand, colour or perhaps you are selling clothing and you may wish to add the size of the clothing for example “large men’s T-shirt and to add the brand name as well”.
Internal backlinks
You may also wish to use internal backlinks; our marketing agency would therefore recommend adding internal backlinks to your website.
We would highly recommend adding internal back links, because if this is done in a white hat way, this can improve the businesses on-site search engine optimisation, we say that because Googlebot can crawl and index website better, and it can therefore follow each internal backlink, which most digital marketing agencies would state improves the businesses on-site SEO.
it’s really important that follow white hat SEO methods, and that your business also follows Google’s Webmaster guidelines as well.
NAP
It’s really important that your business has it’s NAP information added to your website, if you do not know what NAP means, well it simply stands for the name of the business, the company address and the businesses phone number.
It’s really important that your companies NAP information is added to your website, as this will tell Google where your business is based, its address, and your phone number.
It’s then really important that map information matches your businesses citations, all business citations should match exactly with each other.
We would the recommend that a business adds Schema to its website, we would normally use Schema to mark up your businesses name, your businesses address and a business’s phone number.
Local phone number
We would also recommend that your business uses a local phone number, rather than instead using a mobile phone number.
For example, if you are optimising your website for the city of Cardiff, we would recommend using a local phone number, for example an O29 21 phone number.
We would recommend using a local phone number, as most digital marketing agencies will agree that it’s far better to use a local phone number and a mobile phone number when trying to improve your businesses local SEO.
Can the site be indexed?
This is a really important point, that is whether or not a website can be indexed correctly.
Some businesses have a website that cannot be indexed, but sometimes this is because web designers have left a “no-index code” on the website. This can negatively affect the businesses SEO because it is instructing Google not to index that website.
It’s really important therefore that the web designers remove the no index code when you want your website to be indexed and to improve your businesses SEO.
Content marketing
A really important part of the local SEO process is to add good quality content marketing to your company’s website. It’s really important that the content marketing is white hat and that it is of good quality.
Good quality content marketing can help to improve your businesses search engine optimisation.
The work should be useful to your business’s customers, plus it can also make your website more relevant.
For example, let’s say that your business sells luxury cars, if your business regularly adds blog posts that are of reviewing luxury cars, then your website is more likely to be deemed relevant when somebody is looking to buy luxury car in Cardiff.
However, the work must be good quality, if the work is not a high-quality then this could cause a penalty and that can mean that your rankings decrease.
This is why it’s really important to partner with a white hat agency, one that will offer really good quality content marketing.
Well written
It’s really important that the content marketing is well written, by well-written we mean that it should be written by an expert.
If the content marketing is just written to try and improve the businesses SEO, then this work will not help the business.
Instead content marketing should be written to help your businesses customers, for example if your business regularly gets asked questions that you can offer advice to, then this is the type of content marketing that your business should be writing.
For example, most businesses frequently get asked the same questions, if you can offer valuable advice to your customers that answer these questions, then this is likely to improve the businesses search engine optimisation, that’s if it is written in a white hat way.
Marketing agencies or businesses that write content marketing with the sole aim of just trying to improve where the business ranks on Google, is not likely to improve the businesses search engine optimisation.
Instead you must offer valuable advice to your customers, this work should be written by expert.
Adding new pages
Sometimes what is needed when a business approaches us to improve their local SEO is that new pages are added to the website. For example, let’s say the business is a plumbing business, the company may not have a separate page created for say boiler repair or boiler replacement.
It’s therefore important that we add a page that is dedicated to boiler repair and boiler replacement if this is what the company offers.
We can then add meta titles, meta descriptions, alt text and content marketing to improve the search engine optimisation for that page.
Onsite SEO and content marketing
Once a marketing agency has written content marketing, they may then add on-site search engine optimisation to each page that they have written.
For example, they may add meta titles, meta descriptions, alt tags, anchor text, internal back links, and also a title for each page.
If this is completed in a white hat way then this can improve the businesses Seo.
Building white hat backlinks
The really important part of the search engine optimisation (SEO) process is for the business to build quality backlinks.
What often differentiates a business that is ranked on the first page of Google, and a business that is ranked on the 10th page, is that business on the first page will have high quality backlinks.
Some businesses, and some marketing agencies make the mistake of thinking that all backlinks are worth the same, they are most certainly not.
Some backlinks are high-quality and can help to improve your businesses SEO, however some backlinks can be deemed by Google’s algorithm to be low-quality and can mean that the business incurs a Google penalty, such as a “Google Penguin penalty”.
It’s really important therefore that the business builds high quality backlinks, and that these are built in accordance with Google’s Webmaster guidelines.
If the business does not adhere to Google’s Webmaster guidelines then it is possible that the business incurs a penalty.
If the business was to incur a penalty, it can mean that the business will severely drop down the ranks or some businesses can be totally deindexed which means that they are removed from Google completely.
This is why it is so important that the business builds backlinks in a white hat way and adheres to Google’s Webmaster guidelines.
If a business succeeds in building white hat high quality backlinks, then this can often have a positive effect on where the business ranks.
However, this needs to be done by an expert, because if the backlinks are low-quality then it can really adversely affect with the business ranks.
What exactly are backlinks?
Let’s say for example you are about to purchase car insurance, then once you have made the purchase the website then asks you do you wish to purchase breakdown cover?
You then choose to purchase breakdown cover, and then click on a link which takes you to another website.
By clicking on the link, you will follow the backlink, which will then take you to the roadside breakdown cover business.
Therefore, you have followed a backlink, a backlink can therefore make it much easier for the businesses customers to get to a page on a website where they can purchase a product or a service.
However, from a search engine optimisation perspective if the link is good quality then this can also help to improve the businesses Seo.
However, the backlinks leading to your company’s website must be good quality, if they are good quality, they can help to improve your businesses SEO.
However, the backlinks must also be relevant to the business, so that means that it must be good quality and also relevant.
So, for example if you run a local construction business, there’s no point in getting a backlink from your local golf club, as that is not related to construction.
Instead what you need is a high-quality backlink from a construction related website.
Most digital marketing agencies would agree that building backlinks is one of the most time-consuming aspects of improving a business’s SEO.
Our agency also believes that it is far better to earn backlinks then to build them in any other way.
What do we mean by building backlinks?
What we mean by building backlinks is your business should publish high-quality content marketing which your customers will find useful.
For example, let’s say that your business sells smart phones, then your website may offer a lot of useful advice on each smartphone, and also a review of each smartphone.
Your customers may then find this information useful, and therefore purchase from your business rather than a competitor.
Therefore, content marketing should be high-quality, then if your business offers quality advice, it’s much more likely that other websites are likely to link to your business.
For example a website that reviews electrical items, may then link to your website as it has seen your business as a good place that offers quality advice about new smartphones, some may therefore decide to link to your website.
Therefore the business has linked to your website, without your business having to ask the company to link to your company.
Therefore, the business has earnt a backlink, rather than paying for a backlink.
We would most definitely not recommend that the business purchase backlinks, we say that because if the business was to purchase backlinks, then it’s likely that the business may incur a Google penalty, such as a Google Penguin penalty.
How can they help to improve a business’s SEO?
If a business has a high number, of high-quality backlinks, then this can often improve with the business ranks.
As earlier mentioned, the businesses that are ranked on the first page of Google, often have a high number of high-quality backlinks.
These backlinks will send what is called “link juice” to the website, if a business has a high number of high-quality backlinks leading to it, then it is likely that business will improve where it ranks on Google.
Google Penguin penalty
Many businesses that have built low-quality backlinks will incur a Google penalty; the penalty is called a “Google Penguin penalty”.
Some businesses falsely believe that once they have incurred a penalty, such as a Google Penguin penalty that it is easy to recover from such a penalty, it is often not.
We say it is often not easy to recover from such a penalty simply because it often takes many months, and even sometimes years for a business to recover from a penalty.
This means that if a business was to build low-quality backlinks, then the business could incur a penalty and therefore even be removed from Google, or it may see its businesses rankings substantially drop.
This is why it’s so important to partner with a white hat agency, that’s to say a marketing agency that knows how to build backlinks in the correct way.
It’s really important that the backlinks are built correctly, because it can take a long time to disavow the backlinks and also for the business to recover from the penalty.
We would also highly recommend that the business does not purchase backlinks, that it instead earns backlinks.
Are internal backlinks worth the same as external backlinks?
The short answer is no, internal backlinks are not worth the same as external backlinks. A marketing agency should be looking to build high-quality external backlinks, that are a mixture of do-follow and no-follow backlinks.
The business should not think of internal backlinks as worth the same as external backlinks because it is only external backlinks that can send “link juice” to a website.
You may be wondering what we mean when we say “link juice”?
“Link juice” is simply a way of explaining how a business can benefit if a quality website was to link to it.
However, the website must also be high-quality, and the business must also be relevant to the website that is linking to.
For example, let’s say that you run an architect’s practice, if there is a U.K body that represents architects, then if this website was to link to your architects’ practice, then this is likely to improve businesses search engine optimisation.
However, if you are unsure how to build backlinks in the white hat way, we would most definitely recommend that you ask a white hat SEO agency to do this work for you. We say this because if a business was to incur a Google Penguin penalty then this is likely to adversely affect the business in terms of where it ranks.
How do I check how many backlinks my business has?
There are many tools that you can use to check how many backlinks that your website has, we would highly recommend using Google Search Console, and also recommend using paid tools as well to check how many backlinks your website has.
Often it is a white hat SEO agency that is required to check that your backlinks are of good quality, if the backlinks are not of good quality, then the marketing agency may need to take action in order to disavow the backlinks, and also to make sure that the business does not build any more low quality backlinks.
What does do-follow backlinks mean?
Do-follow backlinks are will send link juice, however even though it is do-follow backlink it still needs to be quality, it’s still important that the business still has no-follow backlinks as well.
No follow backlinks mean that the back links cannot pass link juice, however it still important to have a mixture of do-follow no-follow backlinks that are built in a white hat way.
How many backlinks does my business need?
Organic and local SEO is an ongoing process, this means that most businesses here in Cardiff do not stop investing in organic SEO as they know if they were to pause or stop investing rankings are likely to drop.
Having said that, to get a business onto the first page, the business must have stronger Seo than the businesses that are currently ranked on the first page of Google.
This simply means that Google’s algorithm needs to quantify that your businesses ranking factors are stronger than competitors.
You do need to keep in mind that some businesses may have been investing in SEO for a very long time, so may have been investing in SEO for say more than a few years.
This often means that a business will have a lot of catching up to do, and this also means that the business must be realistic in terms of what it can achieve in a short time scale.
Having said that, how many backlinks business needs will be dependent on its competition. A business that operates in a highly competitive business sector, such as car insurance, will be up against businesses that are likely to have thousands of good quality backlinks.
However, on the other hand a business that specialises in making wedding cakes locally, is likely to only have a few competitors that have good quality back links.
Therefore, it is much easier to show results in business sector where there is less competition.
If there is a huge amount of competition in that business sector, it is normal that the businesses that are ranked on the first page of Google will have thousands of high-quality backlinks.
Therefore, it is dependent on how many backlinks your competitors have, if they have a high number then your business will also need a high number of good quality backlinks built in white hat way.
Why is my SEO agency stating that they need to disavow backlinks?
Sometimes when we take on a brand-new client, they will have hired a previous SEO agency that might have built backlinks in an incorrect way.
This may have even caused a Google penalty, that’s to say an algorithmic or a manual penalty may now be holding the website back.
If our agency finds that the business has obtained a Google penalty, then it is imperative that this problem is fixed before we go on to improving the businesses Seo. This often means that we need to look at the business’s backlink profile, and if the business has a number of low-quality backlinks then these may need to be disavowed, in order to start improving where the business ranks.
However it’s really important to note that if a business has incurred an algorithmic or a manual penalty- then this can mean that it will take a very long time for the business to recover from a penalty.
What is Google Analytics?
Earlier we mentioned that the business should use Seo tools to check how many backlinks that the business has, the business may also wish to use Google analytics, but to check how many organic visitors the website has, also other important Seo metrics such as the businesses bounce rate.
A marketing agency should use Google Analytics, that’s to see how the website is improving month on month- for example if you are investing in local Seo, you would want to see more visitors visiting your website each month, Google Analytics can show you how many visitors your website is obtaining.
What is Google My Business?
If you want to improve your business is local search engine optimisation, then the marketing agency should set up a Google My Business account for your company.
This is really important as this can help to improve where the business ranks both organically and also locally.
For example, if you are looking for a local pizza restaurant, then Google will know that you are looking for a local business, it would normally therefore show a map of Cardiff and where the local pizza restaurants are.
The businesses that appear next the map are often referred to as “Google My Business” results, for your business to be displayed here, your business will need a Google My Business account.
Our agency can help your business to set up a Google My Business account, and then also to apply local SEO so that we are helping to improve your chances of your business being ranked here.
It’s important to note that normally only three businesses are displayed in the Google My Business results, this is why it is important that you employ the right agency, as often there will be a lot of businesses that also want to rank in the Google My Business listings, therefore there is normally a lot of competition, this is why important to get the right marketing agency that can apply white hat SEO.
Why you should make sure your Google My Business profile is complete
Some businesses simply rush filling in details that are required to set up the Google My Business account.
We would recommend that the business does not rush this process, and instead completes the Google My Business profile with as much detail as possible.
The reason for this is a Google My Business profile can help to improve where the business ranks both organically and locally.
The business should therefore accurately input the businesses name, address and also phone number- this should match with the business’s website and also the businesses citations.
The Google My Business profile should then include the businesses link to its website, and also a business description.
We would highly recommend that your business does not copy and paste the business description from your website, as this may cause duplication issues, instead it’s far better to write a short description about your business and to add this to Google My Business profile.
It’s important to add as much detail as you can to Google My Business profile, and if your business operates in a competitive business sector, it will be competing with sometimes many hundreds of businesses to be displayed in the Google My Business results.
For example, if you were to run a plumbing business here in Cardiff, is likely that you are competing with hundreds of other businesses, so if you want your business to be displayed in the Google My Business rankings, it’s important that you add as much detail as you can to your Google My Business profile.
Add a backlink
We would highly recommend that you add a backlink to your website, on your Google My Business profile and if you’re website address changes, make sure that your update your Google My Business profile.
Add opening hours
it’s important to add opening hours to your Google My Business profile, if you’re businesses opening hours were to change, it’s important to update your Google My Business profile.
We would recommend that your business keeps its opening hours updated, because if you Google My Business profile shows that your business is open, and somebody visits your store and it is not, then this might cause a negative business review to be left, so we always recommend that you keep opening hours up-to-date
Add a business description
We would also recommend that your business adds a business description to Google My Business account, you should make this business description unique, by that we mean not to copy and paste from your website.
Make sure the NAP information is correct
Here’s a top tip, your Seo agency should make sure that the business does not have what are called “conflicting business citations”.
Conflicting business citations simply mean that the business has NAP details which do not match, this could be the businesses name, address and phone number on your website which do not match with your business citations. It’s important that all of the business citations and NAP details all match in order to improve the businesses local SEO.
It’s also important that the NAP information on the business’s website can be indexed, for example the businesses name, address and phone number should be able to be indexed by Googlebot this is so that Google will know the businesses name, address and phone number.
Duplicated content marketing
All duplicated content marketing should be removed from the website. It is very common especially for e-commerce websites, that’s websites that sell products to have duplicated content marketing.
For example, the web designer may copy and paste directly from the manufacturer’s website. This can cause duplication problems. Many digital marketing agencies including ours believe that if a website has duplicated content marketing then this can cause a Google Panda penalty.
If a website was to incur a Google Panda penalty then the businesses rankings will drop. This is why we recommend that all duplicated content marketing is removed from the website. You may be thinking what do we mean by duplicated content marketing?
What we mean by duplicated content marketing is text that has been copied and pasted from another website.
Google’s algorithm is very sophisticated, it will know if the text been copied from another website, and if your website has duplicated content marketing then this is likely to adversely affect the businesses SEO.
The work should therefore be unique, this means that it should not be copy and pasted, it should be high-quality content marketing that is being written specifically for your website.
Content thin
Another common problem that many businesses have is that the website will be content thin, this means that the web designer may have only added a few lines of text per page on the website.
This is often insufficient for Google’s algorithm to know what your business offers in terms of its products or services.
This is why it’s so important that a marketing agency improves the websites content marketing, so the content thin pages are improved.
This may mean that if a product is only described with one line of text, that the marketing agency should add more lengthy product descriptions, which better describes the product to the customer.
It’s really important therefore that the content marketing on each page is of good quality, by that we mean unique, not copy and pasted, and also have a sufficient word count, whereby each page does not have just a few lines of text, instead there’s enough text in order to describe the product or service that the business offers.
Bounce rate
Have you ever heard your digital marketing agency talk about your business’s bounce rate?
If your website has a very high bounce rate then the marketing agency may recommend, they use split testing to try and reduce the businesses bounce rate.
If you do not know what “bounce rate” means, it simply means the percentage of visitors to your company’s website that have landed on your businesses website, and then decided to leave the website after visiting the first page on the website that they have visited.
For example, let’s say for example you sell men’s clothing, and you specialise in selling formal shoes, if someone was to land on your website and only visit one pair of shoes, and then leave your website this will contribute to your websites bounce rate increasing.
Therefore, often a web designer and an Seo agency will work in order to reduce the businesses bounce rate.
The aim is therefore to keep customers on your website for longer, with the intention that they make a purchase from your website.
Often a marketing agency will want to know what is causing a high bounce rate?
Could it be that the website does not offer enough information about a product?
For example, the marketing agency may therefore recommend that the product descriptions become more lengthy.
Then the web design agency and the marketing agency may work together to see if this reduces the bounce rate.
Therefore, often it is not one thing that needs to be fixed, it is many things that need to be fixed in order to improve the businesses bounce rate.
A business will therefore be looking to see if it can improve its bounce rate and also increase its sales.
Therefore, an Seo agency’s job is not just to get customers to a website, it’s to make sure that when they get to the website, they stay there for as long as possible to increase the businesses chances of improving its sales.
Therefore, a good digital marketing agency will work on improving the businesses bounce rate, that’s by reducing it, but also trying to increase the businesses sales by keeping the customer on the website for longer.
Mobile friendly
Another way a business can improve its local Seo is to improve its businesses mobile website design.
A lot of businesses will have a mobile version of their website, but some will work better than others.
Many digital marketing agencies now believe that over 50% of visitors to a website will normally come through a smartphone or a tablet.
This is why it’s so important that your marketing agency works of improving the design of your mobile version of the website.
How we can help:
We run a digital marketing agency within the city of Cardiff, South Wales. If your business needs a new website, or to improve its local or its organic search engine optimisation then why not give our business a call?