Since its formation in 1998, Google has outlasted many of its peers from the dot-com boom, while at the same time steamrolling the opposition on its way to earning over a 90% market share.
Ranking highly in a Google search is a sure-fire way to generate traffic to your website, and search engine optimisation, or SEO for short, is the primary way to achieve this.
However, as Bob Dylan once sang, “The Times They Are A-Changin”, as SEO itself is evolving, while at the same time, people are now using non-traditional search methods in increasing numbers.
Naturally, these changes pose more questions than answers, so allow us to enlighten you about the current SEO landscape, and how you can use SEO effectively in the future.
Every successful marketing initiative starts with strategy, and SEO is no different. Beyond presenting you with a list of relevant keywords, we take a more holistic approach – looking at all of the opportunities to get your website in front of your target user. From trending topics in the media that we can ‘newsjack’, through to generating YouTube content for high-volume searches. Our strategies are fluid and we go wherever your target audience takes us.
Our on-page optimisation services look at how we can best align your business’ landing pages with user intent. It entails the optimisation of copy for keywords to signal your content’s relevance for user search queries, looking at how we can navigate users towards key landing pages (such as conversion pages) through internal linking and UX principles, and the optimisation of metadata to attract users to your website from SERPs.
Technical SEO is like the backstage crew for a West End play – it’s mostly stuff you can’t see on the front-end of your website, but often it’s where the magic really happens! Here we look at optimising your site for improved site speed, structured data, Hreflang and more. Technical optimisation is largely about ‘labelling’ certain elements of your site to help search engines such as Google understand what it is and how to handle it. This aspect of SEO can have a far-reaching impact – from how certain information about your site is displayed in SERPs through to how users experience your site.
We’ve said it before, and we will say it again, SEO, PR & Social strategies all mean nothing if you don’t have great content. The best SEO experts in the world can do a great job at making users land on your site – but they won’t stay there for long if the content you provide is sub-par! Our extensive network of freelance copywriting experts work closely with our SEO specialists to understand what users are searching for and how we can provide genuinely useful resources that satisfy their search queries. Great content equals great user experiences, which is reflected in session time on your site and more backlinks to your content, both of which signal to Google that your content is valuable and deserving of page one ranking.
If you’re looking for old-school link-building that’s not us – and nor should you expect that from any SEO agency worth their salt! Link-building ‘tactics’ are a thing of the past. In lieu, we offer digital PR – a communications service that aims to build backlinks towards your site as a by-product of creating and distributing genuinely relevant and engaging content. Much like traditional PR services, here we work with your business -and relevant team members – to get placements in online articles from relevant and high-end publications. From offering expert input on journalist stories, through to developing guest articles, digital PR is an invaluable aspect of a strong SEO approach, but will also add so much extra value to your organisation’s awareness and thought leadership objectives.
Google is not losing its title as the search engine supernova anytime soon, but statistics show that more and more people are turning to social media platforms such as TikTok to perform the searches that were once destined for Google.
Social SEO is about increasing awareness by increasing visibility on social media, when people are searching for companies like yours, or similar services to the ones you provide.
This includes things like hashtags and keywords, tagging your location, commenting on other posts, others tagging you, and of course the holy grail, creating content which goes viral! As the pioneers of social SEO in the UK, we feel confident in asserting that there really isn’t a service provider out there who can better equip you with the skills and experience in this rapidly growing area of search marketing.
Google isn’t losing its position as the search engine sovereign any time soon. However, Social Media as a search tool is increasing in popularity, as many users (particularly within the Gen Z demographic) see social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube as offering more authentic and easily-digestible content that answers their search queries.
TikTok, in particular, has leaned into this development, launching a Search Insights feature, to allow you to track trending search topics and gather valuable insights that will enable you to target specific groups more effectively.
This presents a huge opportunity for brands who combine the powers of search and social media. Enter Search-First Social Media® (AKA Social SEO), an approach we trademarked back in 2022 and have won multiple awards for.
UX is an important factor in SEO, but despite what our tech wizards might say (we’ll apologise to them later), great content is at the core of high-performing SEO strategies.
Whilst generative AI can certainly speed up some aspects of SEO, it can only take you so far. All of our writing is done by real people, with a flair for written word and a deep knowledge of each client’s subject matter.
We also appreciate that audiences love video and spoken content, and we have the in-house expertise to create videos and podcasts that engage and inspire audiences.
Digital PR is a core aspect of off-page SEO, but a good digital PR strategy also has value far beyond the traffic clicking onto your website. A well executed digital PR strategy will position your business, and core team members within your business, as experts within your field.
Our team works with clients to identify opportunities that add the most value for clients, from reacting to a news story (aka ‘newsjacking’), providing commentary to major newslets, or even jumping on a social media trend. We actively track the biggest opportunities in our clients’ industries in real time, allowing us to gather effective insights that can help generate reactive content.
Our SEO strategies put the user at the heart of everything, to answer the key questions that must inform any effective SEO strategy. How do users typically engage with a brand and its competitors online? What kind of content appeals to them? And of course, the million dollar question – how do we create an authentic connection?