Having been an Essex SEO agency for almost 12 years now, we know frustrating the Google algorithm can be. Just as you think you’ve got the hang of things; they change things. Annoying, right? When you try anything for the first time, it can be tricky to get your head around. Whilst some seem to get easier the more you try, SEO still remains a very difficult process. It’s for this reason exactly that you may be reading this blog and considering outsourcing the job to an Essex SEO Agency.
Despite not having the inner city status, we’ve still worked with a whole host of companies globally. Everything ranging from small-start-ups to multinational conglomerates. No matter your industry, we have what it takes to get you to the top. What’s more, being based outside of a London postcode allows us to be more affordable than other agencies. All without compromising on quality. We’ve won multiple awards for our SEO knowledge.
What Does an Essex SEO Agency do?
In case you were unsure, SEO stands for search engine optimisation. This refers to the process in which a company aims to boost their Google ranking. If you’ve never attempted SEO, it’s unlikely you’ll be on the first page of results when people search key phrases relating to what you do. As you well know, not many people venture past the first few options. This means that if you’re a long way down the list, you’re not going to get a look in.
This is where we come in! As specialists in SEO, it’s our job to get you ranking as high as you possibly can. This is done through a whole host of techniques including both on-site and off-site factors. More on this later.
Where People Tend to Struggle
You may be wondering why you can’t just do this yourself and cut costs. Well, technically speaking, you could work on your SEO yourselves. But you wouldn’t want too. As we mentioned in the beginning, the Google algorithm is constantly changing. As such, your techniques need to constantly be evolving. Researching the additions that are added on a monthly or sometimes weekly basis is extremely monotonous and time-consuming. This makes it far more cost-efficient to outsource the work to an Essex SEO agency. It’ll probably save your sanity too.
Furthermore, we’ve seen lots of our clients come to us after doing further damage to their ranking from their own lack of knowledge. This is simply because most areas of SEO are just so technical. It’s certainly not a walk in the park, put it that way.
What Determines My Ranking?
Put simply, the algorithm does. The Google algorithm is a set of rules that Google have created in which websites need to follow if they want to rank well. What’s more, they’re quite picky. This is where we can link back to the on-site and off-site factors we mentioned earlier. These include a whole host of intricacies such as content creation, back-linking, social media, and back-end optimisation techniques. (Image compressing, quickening loading speed etc.) As well as this, Google also have an anagram that they like to go by. This is EAT and stands for expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness.
As a business, Google have a duty to give their consumers what they’re asking for. This means giving them the most relevant information they can find when someone searches for something. The Google algorithm is how Google indicate how useful your information is and in turn, how they push it out to the world.
When publishing a website, Google launches a process against your site in which it looks for these determining factors. The process is as follows:
- Crawling – This is where Google send out robots to search through your website.
- Indexing – They then compare your website against the criteria given to them by Google.
- Ranking – Once all of this has been done, you can then be found on the results SERP.
So, What Now?
Well, if you’re looking to bring onboard an agency to help with your SEO, they’ll already know the basics of what to look out for. This being said, there are still a lot of areas that people forget about that are just as critical. Here are some things our Essex SEO agency put together that you should be keeping an eye out for:
Content Factors
When writing anything professional, you’d like to think that people would spell things right. This being said, lots of people make mistakes with their grammar which aren’t corrected before publishing. Whilst there’s no evidence to suggest that this will affect your SEO value directly, it will increase your bounce rate. If people think you’re incompetent, of course they’re going to click off after the first page. This rings alarm bells for Google which will affect your ranking.
Furthermore, you need to be considering the readability of your content. If you’re including long sentences without any headings or paragraphs, people are going to get bored. Thus, resulting in a damaged ranking. In order for a blog to be successful, 20% of your sentences need to be twenty words or under. What’s more, you should be including things such as images, bullet points and headings to keep people engaged. You also need to make sure that none of your content has been duplicated. Simply rewording what you’ve already said won’t get you very far.
Back-Linking Factors
As well as being unhelpful, broken links make your website appear neglected. Not only will this make your site difficult to use but Google will be less confident in favouring your content over others. As a result, you’re not going to rank very well.
The diversity of your backlinks is also something you need to have a focus on. If you’re getting too many links all from the same source, this could be viewed as spam. Google will review this as you trying to cheat the system or, at least suspicious. Moreover, the quality of your links will also affect your ranking. Naturally, links from accredited sources such as well-known newspapers are great. If a brand is willing to put their reputation on the line to promote you, Google figures that you must be fairly trustworthy.
Why Not Give Us a Call?
With SEO being such a varied area of marketing, there are of course other things that people forget about. Hopefully, the above at least gives you some indication as to what you should be looking out for.
If you’ve got to the end of this blog and are still confused about how SEO works, don’t fret. Why not bring onboard our Essex SEO agency? For more information on the work that we do and how this can slot in with your company, get in touch by clicking here!