What is SEO?

SEO

Have you ever tried to find something online and been frustrated that you couldn’t? I know I have.

The reason that happened was that the website that did have the right information or product on was badly “optimised” for search engines.

Basically, the search engine couldn’t find the right information for you.

Frustrating, no?!

Search Engine Optimisation (also known as the helpfully short and snappy acronym SEO) is the practice that would have allowed that website to be discoverable to search engines.  

But what does that involve and why is it necessary? In this article, we try to define SEO in broad brushstrokes so that you can get a bird’s eye view of this most powerful (and least understood) marketing tool.

What is SEO?

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the process of improving your website so it will be properly understood by search engines and ranked in their organic search results. 

All the activities that are undertaken when you are optimising your website can be grouped into three areas:

• Onsite SEO
• Offsite SEO
• Technical SEO

Onsite SEO refers to all the activities that take place on your website pages. Examples include adding keywords to your content or writing meta descriptions (more on this below!). 

Offsite SEO refers to all the activities that take place away from your website. For example: building links from third-party websites to your site is classed as offsite SEO.

Technical SEO refers to any activities that look to improve how a website functions, such as improving loading time. 

Why is SEO important?

SEO matters because if your website isn’t optimised, you could be missing out on loads of leads (and sales) for your business. 

This is because so many consumers use search engines to find goods and services they require. In fact, the latest data shows that 

• 49% of consumers use search engines to find products, 
• 77% of consumers use Google to search for a local business, 
• 60% of consumers with Smartphones contact a business directly through Google’s search results.  

If your website isn’t optimised for search, then it won’t even appear in the search results. If it’s not listed, then potential clients can’t find you. If they can’t find you, they can’t buy from you. It’s that simple. 

Performing SEO activities helps to send the right messages to search engines, helping them rank your website for relevant search terms. This allows the right users to find you, and hopefully generate enquiries. 

A website won’t automatically be optimised for search engines. 

Most people believe that if they have a website built for them, it will automatically rank online. 

Now, to an extent, yes. Search engines aim to crawl and rank all websites. 

But, this doesn’t always happen. 

And, even if your website is discovered and indexed by search engines, you might not be getting the right visitors to your website. 

That’s because most web developers won’t complete SEO activities such as onsite SEO to ensure that your website is sending the right messages to search engines. Instead, they will focus on the design and build of your website. 

The best way to ensure your website is sending the right “messages” to search engines is to get an SEO agency to analyse your website and perform onsite optimisation. 

How do search engines decide who gets listed in the top spot?

When you search for something, you’ll normally get presented with a results page that looks like this:

You might be forgiven for thinking that most users click on the ads at the top, but you’d be wrong. 65% of Google searchers, click on organic search results as opposed to paid ads. 

And where you appear on those results can impact how many visitors your website gets. 

Rank position	Average click-through rate
1	39.8%
2	18.7%
3	10.2%
4	7.2%
5	5.1%
6	4.4%
7	3.0%
8	2.1%
9	1.9%
10	1.6%

If you’re positioned first in the list of organic results, then the click-through rate could be twice that of the website positioned at position two. 

So, fighting for the top spot (or at least the top 3) is well worth it. Think of how many more visitors (and potential leads) you might get!

How do search engines decide where to rank your website?

In my youth, we didn’t have established internet (yes, I am that old)! If I wanted to research something (that wasn’t in the Yellow Pages), I headed to the library. 

Imagine search engines like Google are a kind of gigantic, global library index. When you type in a search, the results that are returned are not random. Google uses a series of algorithms to try and return the most relevant and useful information for the terms you searched for. 

Now, search engines guard the ranking criteria their algorithms use closely. They don’t want people gaming the system. After all, if they return poor results, then users will switch to a competitor search engine.  

But, over the years they’ve released a few bits of information, and SEO specialists have also conducted experiments to uncover as much as they can. 

Here are some of the criteria that we know search engines use when determining where to rank website pages in their search results:

1. High-quality Content
2. Backlinks
3. Search Intent and Content Relevancy
4. Website Loading Speed
5. Mobile Friendliness
6. Domain Authority
7. Keyword Optimisation
8. Website Structure
9. Website Security
10. On-page Experience

Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness

Sitting alongside the ranking factors that determine where a webpage is ranked in the search results is E-E-A-T. This is a system that is used by Google to determine the quality of the content that is being ranked. It’s not a ranking factor in itself – the ranking factors are the signals that help Google determine the level of E-E-A-T that a piece of content on the web has. 

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness. 

1. Experience: The webpage being displayed has been written/crafted by individuals who have direct, hands-on experience with the subject matter. So, a blog article about commercial cleaning should sit on a commercial cleaning company’s website, not a forklift truck driver’s website. 
2. Expertise: The website being displayed should demonstrate a depth of knowledge by presenting thorough, accurate information backed by the qualifications of its authors. So, our commercial cleaning company will probably link to the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (CCSHH) guidelines somewhere on their site, as cleaning companies should operate within these guidelines. You would also expect to see websites bristling with high-quality blog content on a range of topics associated with cleaning. 
3. Authoritativeness: The website being displayed would be recognised as an authority in this topic by others. This would be demonstrated when third-party websites link to the website in question. 
4. Trustworthiness: The previous three qualities can be summed up by this one signal – the website being displayed is the most trustworthy source of information for the user’s query. 

What activities help us rank websites well online?

Once you know the ranking criteria and how Google measures the quality of website content, you can work to build your website in such a way that search engines approve of it, and rank the pages well in the search results. 

We group these activities into three areas:

• Onsite SEO (sometimes referred to as Onpage SEO)
• Offsite SEO (sometimes referred to as Offpage SEO)
• Technical SEO

Let’s have a look at some of these key activities. 

Onsite SEO

Onsite SEO involves SEO elements on a site that you can control. This is about getting those Google crawlers to understand what your website is all about. 

1. Keyword research

The foundation of all SEO, keyword research is pivotal for figuring out how to optimise your website. 

Keywords are the terms that users type into search engines to find products and services. They can be all lengths, from a single word to a phrase or even a question. 

Keywords should run through all the content on your site, whether that be landing pages or a blog. Keywords help to tell search engines what each page of your website is about.  

2. Publishing high-quality content

To demonstrate that you have expertise in your area, you need to publish high-quality content, frequently. The content should answer questions that your users and potential leads may have, as well as acting like a resource bank for reference. 

The more information you have about your product or service, the better. Put yourself in your client’s shoes…what do they need to know? 

But it’s also essential that this information is laid out in a user-friendly and accessible way. Use facts and figures where appropriate. Diagrams, videos and other visual aids are also great. 

The content should be readable too. Make sure you use headings and bullet points to make it easier to skim read.  

Content is king! Good quality and up-to-date content will also support your offsite SEO efforts, as other users will find it, like it and link to it. 

Freshness is also of high importance. Google’s bots are constantly crawling the internet and will rank websites with new and up-to-date content much more highly than those that have remained the same for months.

Find an introduction to content marketing here.

3. Internal linking 

This is the process of linking different pieces of content together within your website. This helps users navigate your website and helps search engines understand what you specialise in. 

4. Writing accurate metadata

Metadata means “data about data”. Each page of your website should have data that tells search engines about the information it contains. 

When you see a webpage ranked in the search results it will normally have a title and description. It should help you – the user – understand what the page is about. It should also match the intent behind the search result that you typed in. 

So, if you’ve searched for “What is dye penetrant inspection?” You should get a list of blog posts with variations of that keyword in their title and meta description. You shouldn’t get a list of service pages advertising dye penetrant inspection as a service, as the intent behind your search is information gathering. 

Other activities include:

• URL Structure: Ensuring URLs are concise, structured logically, and include relevant keywords.
• Image Optimisation: Reducing file sizes, using descriptive file names, and applying alt text with relevant keywords to images.
• User Engagement: Enhancing the user interface and user experience to increase time on site, reduce bounce rates, and encourage user engagement.
• Mobile Responsiveness: Ensuring the site is fully responsive so that it works well on mobile devices, a critical factor for ranking especially after Google’s mobile-first indexing update.
• Keyword Density and Placement: Ensuring that keywords are used appropriately in content without over-optimization, which can lead to penalties.
• Social Sharing Integration: Adding social media buttons to encourage sharing, which can indirectly influence rankings through increased visibility and traffic.
• HTML and CSS Validation: Ensuring that the site’s code complies with web standards to reduce rendering issues and improve performance.
• Schema Markup: Implementing structured data (schema) to help search engines understand the content of your pages better, which can enhance visibility in SERPs through rich snippets.
• Accessibility Enhancements: Making sure that the website is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities, which can also impact search rankings.

Offsite SEO

Offsite SEO includes any activity that helps build mentions of your website somewhere other than on your own website. This is far harder to control and achieve than onsite SEO. 

But making sure your Offsite SEO compliments your Onsite SEO is essential as it builds your website’s Authority in the eyes of Google. 

So, what activities come under this area?

1. Backlink building 

This is the most important activity as it directly affects your authority.

Backlinks are links from other websites to yours. They’re like votes of confidence from one site to another, and they really matter to search engines. 

They expose your site to a much larger audience and also help to boost that all-important authority. Searchers who click on a link to your site from another, are signalling to search engines that you have content worth looking at. This in turn helps boost your site in the search engines rankings. 

But beware, not all links are equal. Google is smarter than ever before and if you try and artificially backlink other trusted websites to your site on mass, Google will likely recognise this and penalise you in their rankings as a result.  

Links can be made in a variety of ways, including:

• Writing guest blogs on websites related to your niche.
• Adding your company to online directories.
• Reaching out and recommending your content to resource pages.
• Creating content that other websites want to link to (e.g. reports on original data)

Learn more about link building here.

Here are some of the other activities that are classed as offsite SEO:

• Social Media Marketing: Sharing content and engaging with users on social media platforms to drive traffic to your website and improve brand recognition.
• Influencer Outreach: Collaborating with influencers who can promote your content to their audience can lead to increased visibility and backlinks.
• Forum Posting and Commenting: Participating in discussions relevant to your industry on forums and comment sections, contributing valuable insights and including a link to your website when appropriate.
• Press Releases: Distributing press releases to relevant media outlets to get coverage and potentially earn links from established news websites.
• Podcast Guesting: Appearing as a guest on podcasts to talk about topics related to your niche, often resulting in a backlink to your website.
• Reviews and Testimonials: Encouraging satisfied customers to leave positive reviews on third-party platforms, which can influence SEO indirectly through enhanced credibility and user engagement.
• Video Marketing: Creating videos related to your business and uploading them on platforms like YouTube, embedding links to your site in the video description.
• Community Engagement: Actively participating in communities and groups related to your niche, providing value and occasionally linking back to relevant content on your site.
• Event Sponsorship or Participation: Sponsoring or participating in events can get your brand mentioned on event websites, press releases, and social content, potentially leading to links and improved reputation.

Technical SEO 

Technical SEO is really important. Search engines do not want to present users with information that is sat on websites that are slow to load, difficult to navigate or visibly shake when you’re looking at the page. 

According to a 2017 SEMrush study, over 80% of websites examined had 404 broken link errors and more than 70% had duplicate content. It also estimates that 23% of websites have an inadequate loading speed. 

So, what activities come under “technical SEO”?

1. Checking the website is optimised for speed. 

50% of users will abandon a page if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load, so the load speed of your website is crucial. A web developer might be needed to help an SEO specialist improve the loading speed of your website, or your might need to rebuild the site. 

2. Ensuring it’s mobile-friendly. 

Around half of all searches are now done on a mobile phone so if your site is not optimised for mobile use then you are potentially losing out on a huge proportion of available traffic. 

Some of these things (like speed, mobile usability, code optimisation etc) fall under the heading of Technical SEO. 

Again, an SEO agency would work with a web developer to ensure this happens. 

3. Ensuring the website is properly indexed. 

Google (the biggest search engine in the world) has lots of free programs that make it easier to help the search engine rank your website content properly. Google Search Console (GSC) is one such program, and it can be used to help Google understand your website structure and content. 

SEO agencies can submit “sitemaps” of your website (e.g. maps of the structure) to GSC as well as URLs that might not be indexed properly. This can help ensure all your content is appearing online. 

Other activities include:

• SSL Installation: Securing your website with HTTPS to ensure data transferred between the user and the site is encrypted.
• Robots.txt Management: Managing the robots.txt file to control which parts of your website search engines can crawl and index.
• Structured Data Implementation: Using schema markup to help search engines understand the content of your website and enhance your search listings with rich snippets.
• Canonical Tags Use: Implementing canonical tags to prevent problems caused by duplicate content.
• 404 Error Management: Fixing or redirecting broken links and ensuring a user-friendly 404 error page is in place.
• Redirects: Implementing 301 redirects to maintain link equity when deleting pages or changing URLs.
• Hreflang Tags for Multilingual Content: Using hreflang tags to tell search engines about the language and regional targeting of a page.
• Website Architecture Optimization: Structuring your website in a way that is logical and easy to navigate for both users and search engines.
• Page Depth Optimization: Ensuring that important content is not buried too deep within the website (aiming for most content to be accessible within three clicks from the homepage).
• Core Web Vitals Optimization: Focusing on metrics important for user experience, like largest contentful paint (LCP), first input delay (FID), and cumulative layout shift (CLS).
• Security Enhancements: Protecting the website from hacking and spam, which can negatively impact search rankings.
• Duplicate Content Resolution: Identifying and resolving any issues of duplicate content within the site.
• Server Log Analysis: Analyzing server logs to understand how search engines are crawling the site and identify any potential issues.
• Content Delivery Network (CDN) Implementation: Using a CDN to distribute the server load and reduce the website loading time for users across the globe.

So how does all this come together? 

Right now, you might be thinking that this all sounds very time-consuming. Not to mention technical! You have a business to run, how on earth can you optimise your website for search engines with everything else you have to do? 

This is where a good digital marketing agency, comes in. A good digital marketing agency should run an SEO Campaign to improve your onsite, offsite and technical SEO. 

What is an SEO Campaign?

An SEO campaign is all about boosting your website’s visibility on search engines like Google. Think of it as a strategic push to get more people to visit your site by showing up higher in search results. The main goal is to pull in more organic traffic—that’s the free, natural traffic you get from search results, without paying for ads. 

An SEO campaign typically runs on a continuous cycle and typically includes:

• Content creation (e.g. website copy, blogs, email campaigns, lead magnets)
• Strategy
• Keyword research
• Technical SEO as required
• Backlink building
• Tracking 
• Monthly reporting

The first step in any solid SEO campaign is keyword research. This means figuring out what words or phrases people type into search engines when they’re looking for the stuff your website offers. 

Once you know these keywords, you can tailor your site’s content to match up with these searches. The campaign also includes making sure your website is easy for search engines to read and navigate. This could mean tweaking the layout, improving headings, and optimising images.

Building high-quality backlinks is another big piece of the SEO puzzle. The more reputable sites you have linking to yours, the better your site looks to search engines.

Finally, an SEO campaign isn’t a one-and-done deal. It needs constant attention and tweaking. You’ll want to keep an eye on how well your site ranks and how much traffic you’re pulling in, then adjust your strategies as needed. This ongoing effort helps you keep up with changes in search engine rules and keeps your site in the race for those top spots in search results.

Any agency worth your time should benchmark your website’s performance at the start of the campaign and then diligently track the progress of the campaign using data from your website. Campaigns should be continuously refined based on evidence. 

Find out more about our SEO campaigns here.

SEO: Time consuming, but effective

Good SEO takes time. Anyone who claims to have a magic shortcut that will get you to the top of a search engine’s organic rankings is just flat-out lying to you. But with a strong campaign in place, based on thorough keyword research, you can generate content that moves your website up the rankings. 

SEO is a long-term marketing strategy, that aims to help you build a sustainable online presence. Once you have the foundations in place, it has a compounding effect and you should feel the effects for a long time. 

SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, is all about making your website easier to find on search engines like Google. It’s a mix of different techniques like picking the right keywords, creating useful content, tweaking your website’s setup, and getting other sites to link back to yours. All of this helps match what search engines are looking for when they decide which pages to show people. The main goal? To pull in more visitors organically—that means without paying for ads. 

When done right, SEO can really put your site in the spotlight, help you connect with more people, and grow your business over time. It’s a game changer for staying visible and relevant in the crowded online world.