Search engine optimisation (SEO) for small business
SEO is the initial and ongoing process of refining your website so it achieves a higher ranking in the search engines, thus increasing the volume of visitors. When conducting SEO on a website we look a numerous factors that effect where it appears in the search results.
By using tried-and-tested SEO techniques we aim to fine tune your website to achieve the best possible search engine ranking.
How well optimised is your current website?
Our free ranking tool can help you quickly establish just how well your website is ranking for specific key phrases in the Google and Yahoo UK search engines.
Simple enter your website address then the search terms (or key phrase) that you think a potential customer might use to find your products or service, for example:
An Accountant in Surrey might try the following key phrases: 'Guildford Accountants', 'Accountancy firms in Surrey' or 'Bookkeepers in Surrey'. Our tool will then search the top 50 results in Google and Yahoo to see if your website appears.
Not number one for your key phrase?
If your website is ranking for any position less than number one then we can help. If your website is not in the top ten positions then you definitely need to look at an SEO campaign.
Why is search engine optimisation important?
As we all know, very few people search beyond the first page of any search results so unless you're on the first page, you're not likely to receive many visitors to your website. Being on the first page of Google, Yahoo, Bing and the other major search engines is like having your business located in the busiest High Street in the country. However, competition amongst website owners is fierce for those coveted top positions so having a good SEO campaign is crucial.
How does SEO work?
All SEO campaigns have three key elements:
- Key phrase analysis - arguably the most important element of any SEO campaign. We will identify search key phrases that are actually being searched for by your potential customers, some of which are less than obvious. All of the key phrases we select
must have a reasonable level of traffic and an acceptable level of competition.
- On-page optimisation - we conduct a thorough SEO appraisal of the pages that make up your website. There are literally scores of factors on any web page that determine how search engines interpret the page and decide how relevant it is to the
searchers query. We will check and improve on all of these factors.
- Off-page optimisation - You may have already heard that search engines tend to rank pages by the volume and quality of links to a specific page. Each time somebody links to your website, search engines consider it a 'vote' for your site. The more 'votes' your site has, the greater credibility it has with the search engines.
Every position counts
Let's imagine your company sells Blue Widgets for £10.00 each and every months in Google, 1,000 people search for 'Blue Widgets'. The following table demonstrates the difference in potential trade that each of the positions on page one of Google represents.
| Position | Searchers First Click | Actual visitors | Potential Sales Revenue |
| #1 | 53% | 530 | £5,300 |
| #2 | 20% | 200 | £2,000 |
| #3 | 12% | 120 | £1,200 |
| #4 | 6% | 60 | £600 |
| #5 | 3% | 30 | £300 |
| #6 | 2% | 20 | £200 |
| #7 | 1% | 10 | £100 |
| #8 | .05% | 5 | £50 |
| #9 | .03% | 3 | £30 |
| #10 | .02% | 2 | £20 |
As you can see from the above table, even for a modest search with a modestly priced product, the difference between just a few places in the rankings equates to hundreds of pounds in potential revenue.
Your SEO questions answered
Simply click on the relevant question below for your answer and click on the question again to hide the answer. If your question is not answered below, please call us on 0845 307 6177 or contact us.
Q: Can you guarantee to get my website to the top of Google?
Any company that claims they can 'guarantee' to get you to the top position on Google should be avoided at all costs. Carefully consider the following quote from Google:
"Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a "special relationship" with Google, or advertise a "priority submit" to Google. There is no priority submit for Google."
For more information or to obtain a quote, please contact us.
Q: So how do these SEO Companies make such claims?
There are lots of less-than-ethical techniques that can be used to 'cheat' search engines in the short term. However, these techniques are unlikely to have any long-lasting effect on your website and in the worst case, your site could be banned altogether by Google. Unfortunately by the time you realise you've been conned, the SEO rogue has disappeared with your money.
For more information or to obtain a quote, please contact us.
Q: Why is choosing the right key phrases so important?
The two key ingredients to the perfect SEO key phrase are search volume and competition. If the you have a lower level of competition and a good volume of monthly searches then you have the perfect key phrase.
As an example, let's look at the key phrase 'cheap flights to New York' which has over 450,000 monthly searches in Google UK.
This key phrase may seem ideal if you want tons of traffic but if you search this key phrase in Google UK you'll see that there are 1,630,000 competing pages! Any SEO campaign for this key phrase will be long and very, very expensive.
So let's try a less competitive key phrase, 'cheap flights to Bognor Regis'. There are only 16,100 competing pages for this key phrase, a much more acceptable level. However, the down-side to this is that virtually nobody searches for this key phrase in Google. So you could be No1 in Google for the key phrase 'cheap flights to Bognor Regis' but you'll receive barely any visitors to your website.
The initial part of our SEO service is to identify key phrases for your business which have an acceptable level of searches and competition. Getting this right is the cornerstone of any SEO campaign.
For more information or to obtain a quote, please contact us.
Q: What are back-links and how do they improve my ranking?
A back-link is like a digital 'vote' for your website. The more back-links your site has, generally the more credibility it has with search engines.
However, it's not quite as simple as just having lots of back-links. One important element is what we call the 'anchor'. This is the term that is clicked within the back-links, for example:
If you hover your mouse pointer over the above search term you'll see the term is 'anchored' to this web page. Therefore, every time this link appears on another web page, the search engines will assume that the term 'Good SEO advice' is relevant to this web page.
As an example of how powerful anchored back-links are, try typing the key phrase 'click here' into Google. You'll notice that from over 1.2 billion results, the page for downloading Adobe Reader is No1. This is because so many websites that have PDF files on them also link to the Adobe Reader so that visitors need to download their software to read the PDF files. And most of those sites will have an anchored back-link like this:
To download Adobe Reader and view our PDF documents CLICK HERE.
For more information or to obtain a quote, please contact us.
Q: How much does an SEO campaign cost?
Unlike many SEO Companies, our charges are totally transparent and we don't tie you into a contract. For simplicity we break the campaign down into two parts:
STAGE 1
Keyword analysis and on-page optimisation - This process usually takes around a week and we liaise with you the entire time to ensure we fully understand your market and optimise your website for the correct key phrases. The cost
for this first stage of your campaign is only £395.00 fully inclusive.
STAGE 2
Anchored back-link building - This process can take anything from one week to several months, depending on the volume of back-links required for your specific key phrase. We create ethical back-links to your website in three primary ways:
- Social bookmarking - We submit your website to social bookmarking websites such as Digg, Delicious, etc and they 'bookmark' your website, giving you an instant back-link.
- Directories - We submit your website to established online directories, all of whom have a Google Page Rank. Once the submission is accepted, you have a credible back-link
- Article Submission - We create a unique article about your website and submit it to scores of established article distribution websites, thus giving you potential for hundreds of back-links.
The cost of submitting to these websites is dependent on just how many back-links your website is likely to need to beat your competition. This obviously cannot be judged until stage 1 of your campaign is completed and your website has been re-indexed (or crawled) by the search engines. In some cases you may need very few back-links to obtain a great ranking in the search engines. In this case you would probably need to make a one-off payment of less than £100 on stage 2 of your campaign.
For higher competition key phrases, you may need to have more submissions over a longer period so you should allow around £200 - £300 per month. We NEVER ask you to commit to more back-linking until we have assessed how well your site has ranked from the previous set of back-links.
For more information or to obtain a quote, please contact us.
Q: How long before an SEO campaign has an effect on site rankings?
It must always be remembered that any SEO campaign is a marathon, not a sprint. By commissioning an SEO campaign, you are investing in the long-term success of your website. SEO is not a quick fix for instant riches but a gradual, sustainable climb up the search engines rankings.
We have had some websites achieve enhanced rankings in just a few days however, the more competitive the key phrase, the longer it will take to obtain the top positions in the search engines. This can run anywhere from 4-6 weeks to many months. We can however, state that EVERY website we have conducted SEO on has seen an improvement in their rankings.
For more information or to obtain a quote, please contact us.
Q: Is there any other important information I need to know about SEO?
Regardless of which company you choose for your SEO, there are some fundamental factors that you should bear in mind:
- No SEO Company has insider knowledge of the algorithms that search engines use to decide on website rankings. Any credible SEO Company will use a combination of best-practices and tried-and-trusted techniques to help your website rank higher.
- SEO is NOT an exact science. Most search engines make minor tweaks to their ranking algorithms on a regular basis and no SEO company can predict these changes.
- SEO should not be relied upon to promote websites that have poor or irrelevant content. If your website lacks good-quality content or you try to rank for key phrases that may mis-lead visitors, any initial success you have will be short lived. The single most important statement to consider with your website is 'Content is King'. Informative and relevant content are crucial with any website that wants to achieve positive, long-term rankings.
For more information or to obtain a quote, please contact us.
Q: What should I do next?
For a free SEO appraisal of your website or to discuss any questions you may have, simply call us on 0845 307 6177 or use our contact form. We don't employ heavy-handed sales techniques or try to sell you a solution to a problem you don't have.
We guarantee you'll find us friendly, informative and above all, able to understand your specific needs.
