Search Engine Optimisation FAQ
What is Search Engine Optimisation?
Search engine optimisation (SEO or Search Engine Marketing SEM) is the process of getting your website ranked high in the search engines – primarily with an emphasis on Google, but also Bing and Yahoo search engines.
The competition for page 1 rankings has increased significantly over the past decade. This is largely down to the increased use of electronic devices to find businesses or services online, and of course, the fact that more and more businesses are going online to sell their wares!
Want to know more? Get your Google glasses on and find out more about SEO here!
Local search engine optimisation is a complex, yet necessary process that ensures people in YOUR AREA can find YOUR COMPANY online.
All SEO involves a range of methods and techniques which help search engines find and rank you, such as keyword optimisation, on-page optimisation, link building, citation building, content marketing, social media, and much more. Local SEO has a specific emphasis on your location – and getting ranked highly for local searches will drive potential Customers to your website – and to your location.
It’s simple really! If you do a search for your services or products in your area and you are not on the first page (or the second, or the third!), then you NEED SEO to get your site found.
So, if you are a builder in Barnstaple, try doing a search for “builder Barnstaple” and see where your site is. Don’t type in your company name as new Customers won’t know you – YET!
Search Engine Optimisation is just a way of helping people to find your website. If your competitors are showing up above you on searches, then you need to climb above them to be seen.
If your shop is on a side street, you need to have someone in the high street stand there and point a BIG ARROW to your shop! That’s SEO in action in real life – you get visits and your competitor doesn’t!
If your website is ranking on page 1 for all your required search terms, then you can relax, but read below…
No matter what industry you work in or where you are located, it is highly likely that you need local SEO if your goal is to attract local consumers. If you’re a small company, a bricks and mortar business, largely operating offline, then local SEO can attract a great deal more business to you – as your SEO set up will be targeting local people searching for local goods and services.
Isn’t it something I could do myself?
It isn’t impossible to do search engine optimisation yourself. However, it is extremely difficult. There are so many things that you need to do if you want to make sure you rank highly in local results. Not to mention the time it takes to do your research, implement techniques, monitor progress, and maintain your strategy.
There are also a lot of mistakes you can make if you’re inexperienced in this type of marketing, which could actually stall your efforts all together – or worse – get your website penalised by Google. Not recommended!
How quickly will I see results?
This really does vary. Many Clients we have worked with have seen results within a couple of weeks for search terms with little competition. Others have seen results in several weeks, and yet others have seen more long-term benefits over a period of months.
We can analyse and research the main target keywords and phrases to get a “gestimate” but Google is a fickle lady and she goes at her own speed! Your results will depend upon how competitive your industry is and the level of SEO required.
Need to know more about SEO? Get more info here?
Can you guarantee me the number 1 spot on Google?
Unfortunately, it isn’t possible for us, or indeed, ANY other search engine optimisation service to guarantee the number 1 spot on Google. The leading search engine has even issued a statement telling businesses to be aware of any company claiming they can guarantee the number one spot.
“No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a “special relationship” with Google, or advertise a “priority submit” to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is through our Add URL page or by submitting a Sitemap.”
What we can guarantee is that your rankings will improve significantly. We have years of experience and have helped hundreds of different companies improve their rankings – and we’ll tell you if we can’t help you, rather than risk our own reputation!
If your website is not where you think it should be for your target keyword phrases, we can check your site with an initial SEO Audit Analysis. This is £97 and the SEO Report you receive will give you an indepth anaysis of all elements of your site including what you’re doing right and what can be improved. We analyse the top 5 SEO keyword phrases which you wish to be ranked for, plus a further 20 related sub keyword phrases.
We include our Basic SEO Set Up on all our new website designs as standard. We work mainly on WordPress websites, and if you already have a WordPress site and need it optimised, it is £297 for the Basic SEO Set Up. For non WordPress sites, this is £497.
Our Basic SEO Set up includes on-site SEO to get your site to the optimised level required. We edit the text to ensure your selected keyword phrases are included. We build in-site links including all images, meta tags, text and image descriptions, etc. We also create desktop sitemaps, image sitemaps, video sitemaps, mobile sitemaps, and robots.txt to ensure that search engines can “read” everything on your website.
Once the site is ready, we submit each and every page individually to the major search engines (Google, Bing, and Yahoo) to ensure that they know what your site is about – and will rank it accordingly!
Once your initial Basic SEO Set Up is in place you then have the option to take up our Monthly SEO Retainer. This service is a rolling contract which you can cancel with 1 months notice. So you are not tied into a long, long contract!
Our Monthly SEO Retainer is from £497 for WordPress sites and from £697 for non WordPress sites. Note that this is dependent on the competition for keyword phrases (read on for more information).
Our Monthly SEO Retainer ensures that we work regularly on your website, not only on-site, but off-site too.
We tweak and edit text, images, links, meta tags, and attributes – and may rename pages or directories within your site.
Externally, by creating genuine backlinks and maintaining them, submitting your site to directories, and even checking on negative SEO (other companies submitting bad, black-hat links to your site to try to get your site penalised by Google), we build your SEO ranking naturally.
We keep up-to-date with the latest Google changes and only work within “white hat” guidelines. So you can be sure that your site will climb positively to the top of searches, thus avoiding any penalties.
Note that when we complete your initial Basic SEO Set Up and SEO Audit Analysis we may advise you that you will NOT need further SEO work done on your site, and so our Monthly SEO Retainer will not need to be used to get your ranked.
Alternatively, it may also be the case that your required keyword phrases may be highly competitive and a higher level of SEO work is required beyond our Monthly SEO Retainer.
If that is the case, we will obviously advice you accordingly and supply a formal Quotation based on our SEO Audit Analysis. Either way, you won’t get any surprises or unexpected bills as our research means we can offer you a genuine fee based on what needs to be done – to get the job done!
Need more information or don’t see the answer to your questions?
Go on! Give us a call on 01271 324 365 and we’ll get our SEO hats on (their WHITE, just so’s you know!). Also check out our “What is SEO?” page for more information.
Alternatively, use our Contact page and let us know what you need.
