Some agencies promise quick top-of-the-page results when it comes to organic SEO, but can you really trust them?
What is SEO?
SEO (search engine optimisations) is the act of improving your website for both visitors and search engines, ensuring you're giving them both the best possible experience. If a search engine can easily crawl your website and index its pages into their database, and a user can easily navigate to the page they want, and you give them detailed, useful, and original content, then you're on your way to being optimised for search engines.
The main aim of SEO is to reach position number one on Google (usually) for chosen keywords and phrases that web users are typing into the search bar. To do this, your content has to be deemed the best there is for a particular search term. There are thousands of factors that help determine which content makes it into those golden positions and if you'd like to read more about the recent Google leak, it'll open your eyes to just how complicated the process is!
How long does SEO take?
This is a largely unanswered question but the general consensus is that SEO can take around 6 months to start seeing significant results. Yes, you may see almost instant spikes due to individual activities such as fixing technical issues or creating a popular blog post, but to ensure the visitors keep coming and your website continues to increase in position and visibility, it's essential to keep on top of your SEO month-on-month. Techincally you could create 20 blog posts, update all your content and fix techincal issues in a single month, but consistency is key when it comes to SEO longevity. You want to show Google you're a useful and up-to-date source of information for users. We always advise our clients to stick with an SEO contract for at least 12 months before reviewing overall activity and results.
Is SEO a long-term strategy?
As mentioned above, SEO is definitely a long-term strategy. This is why, most agencies will offer monthly retainers that cover a certain number of hours each month, instead of a one-off cost. Creating a solid foundation and building upon that with well-thought-out, quality content will be much more beneficial than spewing out content that offer little value to your users. Commenting on industry news and offering your own opinion and investigations can also please Google's QFD (query deserves freshness) algorithm which aims to display the most relevant and current content on a topic. Again, this proves that long-term strategy is essential when it comes to SEO.
How hard is it to rank first on Google?
Anyone that promises to get you to position 1 in a certain time frame is lying. No one should be making such claims as it's near on impossible to predict how Google will react to changes you make to your website. With the internet harbouring so much information it's safe to say that SEO isn't a dark art. There are tried and tested methods that we know work in improving rankings, but that doesn't mean we can accurately predict when your content might end up in position 1.
Additionally, different keywords and phrases will be easier to rank for than others. Broad terms such as "what is SEO" will have big competitors from across the UK (and even the globe), creating content that deserves the top spot, whereas "SEO agency in Corby" is much more specific and lends itself to being a more achievable keyword when it comes to ranking highly as there may only be a handful of other serious competitors to contend with.
Why isn't my SEO working?
Reasons your SEO isn't working can include serious technical issues that are stopping your website from being indexed (found) by Google. If the search engine doesn't know your content exists, it can't show it to web users. Technical audits can help determine if there are any underlying issues with your website design and build that you may not know about.
Other reasons may include simply not giving it enough time, not creating content that differs to what already exists, not understanding what's being searched for by your users, not being willing to update your website to meet Google's guidelines, and more.
How much does SEO cost?
The cost of SEO will depend on a few things. Firstly, how long do you plan to work on your SEO? Will you hire an agency or freelancer, or will you hire an internal SEO? How many hours a month will you dedicate to SEO? What's the hourly rate of your SEO specialist? There's such a wide range to all of these answers so it's difficult to say. Let's say you hire a freelancer for £50 an hour and sign a contract for 10 hours a month, you'd be looking to spend around £500 a month. However, this might be nowhere near enough for a large e-commerce website who may be looking at £1000s a month instead.
Of course, you can do SEO for free (mostly), that's the beauty of it, but if you don't know what you're doing, it's always worth getting professional support. There's also some very good (paid-for) software that your SEO team should have access to, which helps when it comes to pushing past your competitors. This can include more in-depth keyword analysis, competitor research, backlink auditing, and finding content gaps for your industry.
If you want to talk to us about SEO for your website, give us a shout!
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