Considering investing in SEO services but not quite sure what you’re paying for? Being one of the most technical and complex aspects of digital marketing, SEO can be a hard one to wrap you head around. In this blog, however, we’ve put together a guide with everything you need to know, including definitions, why companies invest in SEO, and a detailed breakdown of how we deliver our services.
What is SEO?
SEO is short for Search Engine Optimisation, which falls under the umbrella of Search Engine Marketing– techniques designed to help improve your visibility on Google.
SEO services are an organic technique, whereby a website is modified and optimised to have the qualities search engine algorithms are looking for. This might include improving your websites load speed, creating relevant content, or making a site more accessible users with a disability, for example.
What Is a Search Engine Algorithm?
Google’s biggest priority is giving their users the answers they’re looking for as quickly as possible. This is ultimately how they maintain their reputation for reliability. In order to do this, they need to be able to identify the most relevant and easy to navigate websites and rank them in order of importance. That’s where their algorithm comes in, helping them filter through all the information.
The algorithm has a long list of criteria that it uses to deem how reliable your website is. When crawling your site and it’s pages, it’s constantly asking itself:
- Is this content easily digestible for the reader?
- Does this content answer the question that has been asked?
- Is this content easily accessible for users on a mobile device or with disabilities?
- Does this content load quickly?
Research suggests that 53% of mobile searchers will leave your website if it doesn’t load within 3 seconds. What’s more, less than 1% of searchers venture past the first results page. What does this say about consumers? We’re used to instant answers and when we don’t receive these, we click off and go elsewhere. This could mean to a competitor’s site or a different search engine altogether, be it Bing or, more recently, social media sites like TikTok.
With the above in mind, you can start to see why Google’s algorithm is so important. it helps them identify what brands specialise in, who their audience is, the quality of their content, and where they should rank your website for certain search terms. When you carry out SEO effectively, you increase your chances of ranking well for relevant searches. This means you’re able to capture more traffic and have a higher chance of conversions – for you, that means new customers!
So, How to SEO Services Work?
Wondering how you get started with implementing SEO? The truth is, executing your own strategy can be tricky if you don’t already specialise in this area. When you choose to work with a specialist SEO agency like VerriBerri, however, our methods are tried and tested. This means that we know all of the best ways to get your site ranking where it should be.
Here’s a breakdown of how our SEO services work:
Step 1: Discovery Call
When new enquiries come through to our business development team, our first port of call is scheduling in a discovery call. This allows our experts to get to know your brand better and understand your current efforts and website set up. We’ll ask things such as:
- What is your website built with? Is it a custom build?
- Have you ever carried out SEO before? If so, what was your strategy before?
- Does your website have a blog page?
Once we have the information we need, we can move onto the proposal stage.
Step 2: Proposal
At VerriBerri, every proposal we send out is bespoke and contains packages that have been adapted to suit your individual needs. This document will outline our service suggestions, costs, timescales, and how to proceed should you wish to.
Step 3: Scope of Work
Should you choose to work with us, we will then draw up a Scope of Work. This is the contract between our company and yours and details what each party is responsible for.
Step 4: Onboarding Call
Once the Scope of Work has been agreed and signed, we will schedule in an onboarding call with you and a member of our SEO department. This is where our business development team will hand you over to our dedicated specialists who will work on your account day to day. This is a great opportunity for our team to answer any further questions you may have and discuss their ideas with you.
Step 5: Initial Site Audit
Once you have been onboarded, our SEO specialists will get to work with an initial audit of your website. This is something we always suggest to new clients, especially if you haven’t invested in search engine optimisation previously.
Think of our auditing process as a health check for your website. Using our specialist software, we’re able to get a good look at your sites current level of visibility and any errors or warnings that might get flagged by Google. Following the audit, we will be able to provide a detailed report with our findings and discuss next steps with you.
Common errors and warnings often flagged in site audits include:
- Broken internal and external links
- Low text-HTML ratio
- Missing or duplicate meta descriptions
- Slow page load speed
- Missing alt attributes for images
Step 6: Blog Writing & Technical SEO
Uploading new, relevant, and optimised content is the best way to improve your ranking. This can be done by adding new landing pages and blogs (like this one!) to your website. In doing so, you’re able to address potential pain points of your clients and answer any questions they may have, establishing you as an expert in your field. This method will also make it easier for Google to identify your specialty and begin trusting you as a source for information.
Alongside content creation, it’s really important that any issues highlighted in the site audit are fixed. In doing so, you’re able to provide the best foundations for your website to grow from. Depending on the type of errors identified, this is something our team can spend time rectifying each week.
Step 7: Content Approval and Upload
Once new content is written, this will be sent across to you and the team to approve. When our blogs have been signed off, our SEO experts will then upload this content for you and ensure it is posted at optimum times.
And that’s our process in a nutshell!
Want to Know More About Our SEO Services?
Like what you’ve read and keen to see what our SEO agency in Maldon can do for you? Get in touch today! Just click here to fill in our contact form.