What is SEO?

What is SEO and how does it work?

In simple terms, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, and it involves improving the quality of your website and overall online presence in order to:

• Rank higher on search engines organically i.e. without pay-per-click adverts
• Increase the amount of visitors to your website
• Increase brand awareness
• Appear to particular search engine users who are more likely to be potential customers
• Improve the chances of converting website visitors in customers
• Get more online business!

The vast majority of search users in the UK use Google so this is typically what SEO specialists focus on – although most of the SEO work you do on your site will apply to other search engines as well. SEO has become an integral part of the digital marketing strategy of many modern businesses – but what exactly does it involve?

There are different approaches to SEO but, here at Sunscape Digital, we divide SEO up into three main areas – Content, Technical, and off-page optimisation. It takes all three areas for SEO work to be fully effective.

1. Content and keyword targeting

From an SEO perspective, when we talk about content, we’re typically focusing on the elements that users and search engines can “read,” such as page headings, page text, or entire blog articles. Having the correct content on your site tells search engines what “keywords” you want to rank for. Keywords are search terms that someone might type into Google such as “dentist in London”, “white scarves”, or “How to grow chillies”. Your site needs the correct content on it in order to answer these queries.

It’s important to have a well thought out content strategy across the entire website. You don’t want more than one page targeting the same keyword otherwise “keyword cannibalisation” can occur. This is when all the pages targeting that keyword are penalised as search engines might not know which page to prioritise. Search engines typically like to show a variety of websites in a search result rather than just one website dominating a SERP (search engine result page). Therefore each website gets to put forward one page to shoot their shot at ranking for a particular keyword.

A thriving blog section is highly recommended for maximising your site’s SEO. A good blog post should be relevant to your industry and suitable for sharing on social media. It should also be optimised for SEO and have high searchability; writing an article about a topic that nobody is searching for will have very little SEO benefit. An SEO specialist can help you plan blog posts and service pages and come up with suitable topics. It is recommended that you then find a SEO copywriter with experience in writing blog articles. A good copywriter can write articles about any topic under the sun using research from reliable sources. 

Much of this keyword planning should ideally take place during the website build phase. Sometimes when an existing website brings in an SEO specialist, the design and structure of a website needs to be rethought to coincide with SEO goals. This is usually if SEO was not taken into account when the site was built.

When creating a content strategy it’s necessary to consider the user’s search intent i.e. the goal of their search query. This is typically broken down into these types:

Informational – The user is looking for an answer to a question or just to learn more about a particular topic. Example: “how to improve at golf”

Navigational – The user already knows what website they’re looking for and are using the search engine to navigate to it. Example: “Amazon login”

Commercial – The user is in the market for a particular service or product and is looking to find out more information on what to go for. Example: “best wireless headphones”

Transactional – The user is further along the sales journey and is looking to make a specific transaction. Example: “buy iPhone 14”

Local – Another type of search intent is Local SEO where users are searching within a geographic area. On Google this search intent is closely tied to Google Maps so users can see a visual representation of the different options in their area. Example: “Japanese restaurants in London”

Knowing which users you’re trying to attract will allow you to adjust your content accordingly.

2. Technical SEO

Search engines favour sites that are squeaky clean and won’t provide their search users with a bad user experience (UX). If a user clicks on a result and discovers that the page has been removed then that doesn’t make you or Google look very good. You’ll want to make sure no technical issues are causing Google to penalise the rankings of your content. 

It’s worth noting that poor UX can reduce dwell time (time visitors spend on site) and increase bounce rate (proportion of visitors who leave the site and go back to search results page). These factors are taken into account by Google.

It’s important to monitor your site’s technical health regularly such as on a monthly basis. New issues can arise frequently so having an SEO expert on your team to oversee the site is a sensible idea. While getting your rankings as high as possible is one challenge, maintaining them is another. Improving rankings can take time and often requires regular tweaks and experimentation. A specialist can ensure your SEO and rankings performance are consistently managed, providing peace of mind for a modern business.

Common examples of Technical SEO issues:

Missing or duplicate metadata – Every page on a website has metadata underneath such as a meta description and a meta title. This is the information that is seen on search results so plays an important role in SEO and attracting users to your website. Every page needs its own unique metadata to help Google understand your pages and site better.

Missing SSL certificate – It’s important to monitor your site’s SSL to make sure you’re always using https. A drop in site security can tank your hard-earned Google rankings. Google heavily penalises sites that don’t have an SSL certificate (https rather than http). These are often provided by your site host or can be bought and renewed every year or so. If you temporarily lose your certificate, maybe due to an issue on the host’s end or a declined payment at the renewal stage, then this could severely damage your Google rankings and lose you business. If any downtime does occur for SSL or the website then monitoring will enable these drop offs to be identified quickly and resolved with minimal damage.

404 errors – Once a page is indexed by Google it will have the potential to be shown in search results However if you remove a page from your site this won’t remove it from the index so someone might click on the page on Google and then be taken to blank page known as a 404 error.

Orphan pages – If a page has no links pointing to it then there will be no way for users to navigate to the page (unless they happen to have the exact web address). Google likes sites with good crawlability and lots of links. They want to make sure your site is easy to navigate and also that you’re not hiding any dodgy content.

Broken images – If an image is removed on the backend of the website or suffers some other technical issue, then there may just be a blank image instead of the real image which isn’t a good look.

Incorrect links – You need to make sure all links on the site are correct and aren’t pointing to 404 pages or redirected pages.

SEO specialists use software as well as manually reviewing sites to identify issues to fix. There are also more advanced issues that may require web development work such as slow page speed, uncompressed images, uncompressed code. Web development work is a separate entity to SEO.

3. Off page Optimisation

Off page optimisation refers to everything outside of the website that can influence your SEO. It can also be referred to as Outreach work.

A big part of this is getting other websites to link to yours. These external links (aka backlinks) increase your ‘domain authority’. The more authority you have the more of a rankings boost you get – but this will only happen fully if the technical and content side of things are set up properly. Having more site visitors can also increase your domain authority.

The longer a site exists the more backlinks it obtains naturally, but there are ways links can purposefully be obtained. A common way is guest posts which is writing a piece about your site or services on someone else’s site. You’d usually expect to pay for this privilege. 

Another good source of backlinks is citation links such as adding your site/business onto online directories (e.g. Yell, Scoot, Apple Maps). Most of these directories are free to join but there are some that charge. Niche directories that are relevant to your website’s industry are particularly useful. 

It’s good to keep an eye on your site’s backlink situation. Historically it was the case that good backlinks would improve your Google rankings whereas toxic backlinks harmed them. Examples of good backlinks include links from social media, links from high authority sites (e.g. BBC, Amazon, and other large sites that get lots of site visitors), or just regular sites who have a link to one of your products or articles etc. Toxic backlinks included links from spam sites, fake sites, scam sites etc. Some of these are created by bots crawling the web and some sites even charge money to remove your site link from theirs. It is possible to view all your backlinks, identify the toxic ones, and then tell Google not to associate them with your site – thus removing any rankings penalty. This could even negate the effects of an “SEO attack” where a competitor or troll might deliberately create toxic links to your site to harm your rankings. 

These days Google is a bit more savvy at ignoring links from dodgy sites so they don’t harm your rankings. Overall Google is trending towards prioritising links that are high quality and relevant.

Can I do SEO on my own?

SEO is essential for modern businesses who are looking to get more customers through online means. It can take many years of learning, practice, and experience to fully understand SEO. It helps to work on a large variety of sites and businesses as what works for one site might not work for another. Also the learning never stops as search engines are regularly update themselves to resolve issues and keep up with the ever changing digital world.

If you’re looking for SEO services to boost the organic reach of your website then get in touch with Sunscape Digital today! We offer professional SEO services at competitive prices.