A website to a business is what wheels are to a car; you cannot have a business without one. In a predominantly digital age, a website may be the first introduction a potential customer has to your company. It is important you get your site out there so you can seen by as many people as possible! VerriBerri can provide Essex SEO services to help you do just that. 

Our Essex SEO agency have 12 years of experience and a track record of successfully assisting clients with the SEO. We understand that SEO may not be something businesses can focus on; it can seem complicated, and it takes skilled expertise to master. Therefore, it’s left up to us SEO specialists to examine what techniques work best and implement them into your website. In this blog, we are going to give you a breakdown of the fundamental ways to improve your website to start you on your SEO journey.

 

 

What is SEO? 

Before we begin with the specifics, let’s have a quick look at the basics. SEO stands for search engine optimisation and is the name given to the process of enhancing a website to meet the algorithm criteria. Meeting these helps a website rise in the SERP (search engine results page), therefore, reaching more potential customers. Being higher in the SERP increases the organic traffic to your site. 

Where do I start? 

Not sure what to do first? Don’t panic, VerriBerri have got your back. Let’s start with onsite SEO. This, as the name suggests, refers to all the changes that can be made within the website itself. It is important to include these aspects as they are things that Google’s algorithm will pick up on. These are all the elements that you can have full control over. Adjusting and adapting these will enable you to optimise your website fully.

Crawling your site

Google will crawl to look through website for certain criteria. The bots will index your website based on how many of these points your content and site meet. They will then rank your website on the SERP based on these. 

Finding the key 

Crawlers look for keywords in your content. Our Essex SEO agency can identify those keywords for you. We can ensure you are using specific ones to get you ranking highly amongst competitors. When putting your keywords into your content, you need to be aware of keyword stuffing. This is when content is chock full of keywords, so much so that it doesn’t read well. Google will penalise you for this. It makes for an unpleasant readability experience and will put people off reading your site. A user is more likely to click away from your site if it does not read well. This will increase your bounce rate, which is also taken into account by Google when ranking your content. If you have a high bounce rate, you are less likely to be at the top of the SERP. 

Can you read your sentences?

Something else that effects the readability of your site is sentence length. Google’s ideal sentence length is 20 syllables; you do not necessarily have to stick to this though. If the structure of your sentences is varied, it is more appealable to the algorithm. It also makes it easier for a user to read. If you are not sure if your content reads well, try reading it out loud when you proof. You will be able to determine the natural flow of sentences and input commas where you take a breath. This might seem trivial, but it makes all the difference.

Meta descriptions

There are other components to onsite SEO that don’t involve your content. Meta descriptions fit under this category. A meta description describes the contents of your page and exists to benefit users of search engines. This is what displays underneath your title on the SERP. The optimal length for a meta description used to be 160 characters or less. This was changed in 2017 when Google increased it to 275 characters. Make sure to include your target keyword in your meta description as well.

Offsite SEO

Although your focus should mainly lie with onsite SEO, offsite SEO is just as important. When we talk about offsite, we are referring to all the things that happen away from your website. Some of these you have a degree of control over. Others, however, is completely down to how your content is shared and referenced.

Social Media is the way forward

As Essex SEO experts we understand why social media is important to your brand, as well as how it factors into your Google ranking. A well built-up selection of social media profiles helps to build your trustworthiness. This demonstrates to search engine algorithms that you have authority within your field. Social media profiles often appear at the top of the SERP, even above your business’s website. The more up to date your socials are, the more likely it is that someone who clicks to them on the SERP. This can then lead to them visiting your website. Linking socials on your contact page or even at the bottom of blogs using an in-text hyperlink function can also help build up your social media profiles.

Ideally, to show Google and the algorithm that your site holds accurate information, you want to have others referencing your content.  This can be done through socials. It can also be accomplished by having other websites in similar fields recommending and linking your blogs within their content.

Do you need Essex SEO?

If SEO still sounds a bit complex. No need to worry at VerriBerri, we are Essex SEO experts and can implement a strategy tailored to your business. If you are looking to rise your position on the SERP and increase the flow of organic traffic to your website, do not hesitate to get in contact with our friendly team today!