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SEO

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Freelance SEO Services

What’s SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, a service offered by marketers to give your website the best possible chance of being displayed when a user is searching online for your service or product.

When a new website is created (bearing in mind there are hundreds of thousands of new websites going live every single day), Google doesn’t automatically know what industry it’s in, they don’t know whether users find the website useful and they certainly don’t yet know if it’s worth displaying in the prized top positions.

I, therefore, liken SEO to the process of getting someone who is extremely busy to both know and like you, and that person is Google.

What’s involved in SEO?

Google’s primary aim is to provide their millions of customers with a fantastic experience, so they don’t go elsewhere and use another search engine. So when you search for ‘Thai restaurants in Brighton’ , to ensure you have a brilliant experience, they will show you everything you need and more, related to that search term.

Firstly, you’ll notice all of the Thai restaurants in Brighton with great websites. They’ll load quickly, they’ll look great on your mobile phone and your iPad and they’ll be rich in information – their menu, their ethos as a company and their location etc.

You’ll also notice Google Business Listings, which show you real customer reviews, how far they are from you in miles and whether they do take-away, dine-in and delivery.

As you navigate further down the SERPs (search engine ranking positions), to the fourth, fifth, sixth page of Google, you’ll notice the restaurant websites you see there become a little less impressive. They don’t render very well on your phone, the pictures of food take a long time to load and when jumping from page to page, you encounter the odd broken link.

Naturally, you’ll avoid those websites and go back to book yourself in at one of the ‘better’ restaurants you saw at the top of page 1, right?

There’s some straightforward, yet technical understanding, needed to earn your position at the top of the listings; their sites will be easily crawlable, their metadata will be well-researched and their Google business listing will link to their safe and secure website (to name just a small handful!)

These are called ‘ranking factors’  and the sum of lots of these affects where your website will be shown on Google – here’s a pretty comprehensive list I refer to regularly.

How can I help you with SEO?

It all depends on your current website set up, which is why I would always do an audit first. An audit usually takes between 3 hours to one full day, so can cost between £150 – £300. I can then determine the areas which need some work and start to prioritise these for you.

Some of the common pitfalls identified within an SEO audit are:

  • Poor site structure
  • Crawl errors within Google Search Console
  • Confusing URL structures
  • Broken links, where redirects are needed
  • No (or limited) internal links between pages
  • Unoptimised title tags
  • No header tags, or header tags used incorrectly, in place of styled headers
  • Meta descriptions which aren’t enticing to your users
  • No alt text on images
  • Lots of external links which move your customers away from your website
  • Thin content on pages and blog posts
  • Duplicate content throughout the site or plagiarised content from other sources
  • Penalties from Google which haven’t been addressed
  • Unoptimised descriptions on product pages 

I can optimise your website myself, or can provide recommendations and instructions for another developer if you’d prefer.

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SEO FAQs

Do you offer ongoing SEO support?

Yes, I do. Every website I build has the foundations in place to start ranking on Google but if you’re looking for a greater presence I can also work on optimising your site further for a set monthly budget. This will generally involve content writing, optimising metadata and adding new pages based on high search volume keywords, to name just a few!

When can I expect to be at number 1?

I’m afraid it’s just not as black and white as that, and any agency or freelancer that ‘guarantees’ you will be ranking in the first position is overpromising. The intention is, of course, to outperform your competitors and get your site showing for certain keywords, in the highest position possible, but there are never guarantees.

I like to look at the bigger picture too and focus on improving overall traffic or enquiries, as opposed to individual rankings for specific search terms.

 

 

Is there anything I can do to give my website a better chance of ranking?

Definitely.

For example, encouraging your customers to leave you a (hopefully positive) review on Google. Google Business Listing reviews are one of many ranking factors which play a vital role in your organic visibility.

For this reason, I often add a ‘review us on Google’ link within my client’s website footers so they can direct their customers there easily and gain those important reviews. They will benefit not only your visibility on Google but also your potential customer’s trust in your products or services.

Also regularly updating your site with new photos and building out FAQ’s and articles about your products and services will really help you in the long run too. Google favours websites which are frequently updated and build upon, so for that reason, it should be an evolving creation!