What is SEO?

Firstly, it's important to understand what SEO is and which of the search engine results it effects. Generally speaking, when you search for something on Google, you'll see the Google Ads paid results at the very top and very bottom of the page and the organic results in the middle. Take a look at the example below. The yellow box shows the Google Ads paid results (Google PPC) and the blue box shows the top 2 organic results (SEO).

The primary aim of SEO is to improve your website's rankings on the organic search results. Not only will you be trying to improve your ranking but also the number of different searches you want to appear for. Over time, this will happen naturally. Say, for example, you're trying to rank for "ppc agency", naturally you'll also improve your ranking for related search terms such as "what is a ppc agency" or "how to find a ppc agency".

SEO isn't an overnight process and works in a very different way to PPC Google Ads. Some agencies and freelancers will advise you won't see any significant benefit from your SEO campaign for the first 3 to 6 months, however, we generally find businesses see significant results within the first 1 to 2 months when working with us. This proves that results will vary.

How does SEO work?

SEO takes into account hundreds of different elements. Some of these you might already be aware of such as backlinks and metadata. Google looks at and takes into account all of these different elements in varying significance when working out where to place your website on the organic search results.

Some of the most common and most important SEO elements include:

Page titles - the titles you give to your various website pages.

URL's - the primary url of your website (www.example.com) is important but so are the URL slugs (the bits at the end of the URL's of your internal pages). For example www.example.com/why-is-seo-important.

Google My Business - this neat little tool gives you even more visibility on the search results when used and optimised correctly.

Website content - the actual content of your website plays a HUGE role in how well your site will perform organically. Websites with more relevant content will not only rank better for their desired search terms but will also rank for a much broader range of searches.

Social signals - your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media pages play a role in your SEO.

Backlinks and internal links - internal links link pages of your own website together. Backlinks are links from other peoples websites through to your own.

We could go on for days listing key SEO elements and their descriptions but we won't bore you to death! The point is, there are hundreds of factors when it comes to SEO and just focusing on one or two of these factors simply isn't enough. You need to consider the whole spectrum in order to succeed.

Local SEO vs National SEO

Local SEO is the term used when trying to increase your organic rankings on a local level. This type of SEO would be applicable to a local hairdresser or plumber for example. National or international SEO is the term used when trying to increase organic rankings on a national level, for example, if you were a social media marketer working with businesses across the UK.

Local SEO is usually both easier and quicker in terms of the results generated. Sometimes we'll advise clients who are capable of working nationally but tend to stick to local work anyway to focus more on local SEO due to speed of results generated (for example a counsellor may be able to offer online appointments nationally but the majority of their work is in-person locally).

Local SEO is quicker and easier purely because there is less competition. If you search for "see agency" you'll likely see results from businesses across the country but if you search for "set agency Grimsby" (for example) you'll see primarily only local results. Local SEO is also easier and quicker as you'll often find yourself competing with other local businesses who don't have the time, knowledge or resources to work on their own SEO making your climb to the top results much simpler.

National SEO is much more complex. You'll often find yourself competing against some really big companies who'll have people employed in-house to work on their own SEO 24/7. Unless you're working in a specific niche market, ranking nationally might be challenging. However, don't lose hope. Nearly 70-80% of all Google searches are long tail. Long-tail keywords (more than 3-word searches) are less competitive as they are not optimised for by most of the online businesses. This is where you can make a huge impact if looking more into national SEO.

Local search listings for “marketing agency louth”

Google My Business in local SEO

Alongside the organic search results, you have a second opportunity to rank for local searches via your Google My Business (GMB) page. Take a look at the example below.

This information is decided via geographical location as well as the content and optimisation of your Google My Business page. When managed correctly, you can see a large increase in your website’s visibility on Google via this online.

What is the role of an SEO consultant or agency?

An SEO agency will be able to both consult on your SEO strategy and implement the suggestions made. A good SEO company will be able to manage your entire SEO strategy right down to your GMB and social signals. They will also be able to create content around the long tail or local SEO search terms we talked about earlier on in this article, over time increasing your ranking across your seed keyword (your main target keywords) and new long-tail searches.

3 SEO Myths

META DESCRIPTIONS AFFECT SEO

This isn't 100% myth, meta descriptions do play a role, but probably not as you might think. Meta descriptions are not a ranking factor, meaning they don't directly play a role in how well your site ranks on Google. They do, however, play a role in your click-through rate. This is the percentage of people who see your organic search result that then go on to click on it through to your website. If you've got a relevant meta description, that provides information about the page you'll likely have a better CTR.

SEO TAKES MONTHS TO WORK

It's true that SEO is an ongoing process, after all, you can always be adding new content to your website in order to further increase the range of search terms you show for. But, SEO doesn't take months to work. SEO will usually start to work within a few weeks and you should see significant results around the one month mark (this is particularly true for local SEO campaigns).

YOU CAN WORK ON JUST ONE OR TWO SEO ELEMENTS AND SEE SIGNIFICANT RESULTS

As we discussed earlier in this article, SEO takes into account hundreds of different elements all working together to push your site further and further up the rankings. Working on just one or two elements might give you a quick boost depending on which elements they are, but they won't offer long term and sustained results.

Conclusion

All websites can benefit from SEO - whether they be local or national businesses. The way an SEO agency or freelancer goes about generating these results will differ depending on the campaign type and industry, however, there is no doubting that SEO can work effectively for all websites.

If you'd like any help or assistance with your SEO, contact us today!