SEO (see our guide to SEO)
is the process of ensuring that your web pages and business website overall is configured and written
in the best way possible to increase the visibility in the search engines. The goal of the strategy and campaign is being optimised so that you rank higher organically in the search
engine results page (serp) for chosen internet marketing keywords or phrases. For local
companies and clients the areas of Stockport, Manchester and Cheshire are relevant - however this applies
to all businesses wanting to be seen in searches for their industry in a given geographical
location.
SEO, also known as search engine optimisation, can be described as the actual art of identifying what
the search engines want (such as link building for seo and rank),
and applying that knowledge to the content of web pages and then link building. Generally speaking, what the search engines want to do is provide their users with
the best and most relevant content, so by satisfying certain criteria with search engine optimisation for the algorithms, either on video search or image search, we automatically help
our visitors by providing a good user experience. Being a Stockport SEO consultancy, and marketing agency our team can help with all of these factors - and whats even better, is that being skilled, we can develop our own organic SEO tools to help your growth where needed! This is a huge benefit and immediately differentiates us from the rest of the pack.
We can address vertical search if required, and note that the above is NOT referring to paid traffic - it means free traffic.
Because unlike many of our competitors, we are genuinely based in Stockport - home of the incredible Stockport viaduct, the river mersey and rope and hemp. We have been performing cost effective SEO to get website traffic from search engines and digital marketing and advertising here in Stockport since 1998 - so far far longer than most SEO companies, web marketers. We have the expertise and experience of cost effective SEO for ranking websites from its very inception (in terms of Google in particular) and have seen and monitored the changes they have made to the search landscape over a period of two decades, and how this has affected digital marketing services. With a strong background of industrial computer programming (analytical and application systems development on multiple computing platforms) we are ideally placed to take a look at your website and business requirements to provide realistic ranking targets and timescales with comprehensive reports containing everything you need to know. In the past, we have associated with companies including Amazon, Netflix, William Hill and Scientifics Online to drive sales and memberships. We have also operated our own in-house e-commerce stores based on OSCommerce and Magento. An SEO company you can trust.
No, to be clear, it is not relevant that we are located in Stockport for any technical or website SEO services, or performance reason. However for communications, meetings when needed or if you just prefer to work with a local company, then it can be helpful when we are just around the corner! An SEO campaign or service can be provided from just about any location.
Here is a small checklist of typical ideas and topics for success which often arise when discussing SEO and the search engines, these factor across the board rather than only for Stockport or Manchester.
When you look at the results page which lists the websites of companies which were found for your search term or search phrase, you are looking at what is known as the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). On this page you will see a variety of differently formatted links to websites. This traditional, natural, part of the SERP has been pushed down the screen by Google and PPC ads and other products, making it arguably more difficult for you to be seen no matter what the position is or how strong your natural ranking is. SEO is largely about help with making your site, be it based in Stockport or elsewhere, get listed higher up in this natural section, even though these results, as a block, have been shunted down the screen. The order from top to bottom is the rankings order, the higher a link is the more relevant and superior in quality google has determined it to be. More click opportunities will arise the higher a site appears. Ranking is also based in part on the amount of link building or natural links a website design has managed to get.
Google uses a variety of techniques which push the above described, naturally listed website links, down the page and out of immediate view unless you scroll. These include taking information extracts and sub-links from websites and publishing those in a larger box at or near the top, placing paid for ads at the top of the SERP and tall line spacing. However, Local search for SEO Stockport businesses get listings in another top box for search queries when the person doing the searching is within reasonable geographical proximity of the business location. This particular box is sometimes referred to as the 3-pack, and its content is derived from data which companies provide to Google when they sign up for a Google My Business account.
Whilst local results are not deeply related to SEO consultancy in terms of the natural SERP algorithms, there are a number of factors which can
influence the frequency and positioning of your website within the 3-pack. As a website design, digital marketing and SEO agency with a lot of experience, our marketing strategies ensure these factors are incorporated in your Google My Business
account, thus maximising the amount of exposure your site might receive from someone searching in the Local Results and this applies for companies with services in any region, not just Stockport or Greater Manchester.
We can also help by increasing your domain authority which is an essential part of a marketing strategy. Confidence and credibility increases with authority gained from citations and other links,
enabling a business to target keywords with high search volume which hopefully increases revenue.
Carefully choosing the keywords and phrases (especially if you have no brand awareness in your target market) you would like to rank for is an essential early step and the importance of this cannot be overstated, you can see this in our SEO Tutorial page. Without being certain what these words are
or why you would try and rank for them could be likened to a digital marketing SEO agency trying to rank for a phrase like newspaper adverts. You can see the connection, but
the phrase is totally irrelevant to what we do. Many of the errors people make with their solution are much more subtle than that, however the outcome can be just as poor when it boils down to ROI, presence and
customer acquisition. Following consultation to discuss SEO packages and options, we take steps which include an SEO audit to check for extremely targetted keywords which are 100% relevant to your business, these will help make your SEO work for a Stockport searches campaign convert
visitors to customers at a much higher rate than unfocussed or even marginally irrelevant phrases.
Our
approach to seo campaigns aims to provide benefits including taking advantage of growth opportunities, increased conversions and revenue for your organisation - all whilst staying within a budget.
Various methods and techniques can be used and employed to embed or craft the keywords into your website pages in such a manner that the search engines
apply the correct relevance score to each page. By placing the words in strategic on-page locations, sometimes including the page URL, and using various technical methods to let the spiders know what each new
page is about, we provide the opportunity for you to get better search rankings to outrank your competitor websites, where less attention to detail has been applied. In addition to this, symantically related
words are also identified in an effort to further solidify the relevance of your page to its target phrase. Other, expert level ranking signals are also implemented which we have learned through
our own SEO efforts and results evaluation over the last 20 years across various markets and industries.
The following items are relevant to the methods.
Search Engines: Google, Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, and other search engines crawl and index web content to provide users with relevant search results.
Website Owners: Individuals or businesses that own and maintain websites aim to improve their SEO to attract more visitors and achieve their objectives, such as sales or lead generation.
SEO Professionals: SEO specialists, consultants, and agencies work on optimizing websites for better search engine performance, using their expertise in various SEO techniques and strategies.
Content Creators: Writers, designers, and multimedia producers create engaging content that is optimized for search engines and users.
Web Developers: Developers create websites that are technically optimized for search engines, ensuring fast load times, responsive design, and clean code.
SEO Tools and Software: Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and other tools help monitor, analyze, and improve a website`s SEO performance.
Search Engine Algorithms: Algorithms used by search engines, such as Google`s PageRank and BERT, determine how websites are ranked in search results.
On-page SEO Factors: These include factors like meta tags, header tags, keyword usage, URL structure, and internal linking, which help search engines understand and rank content.
Off-page SEO Factors: These include factors such as backlinks, social signals, and domain authority, which influence a website`s reputation and ranking in search engine results.
Technical SEO Factors: These factors involve optimizing a website`s architecture, crawlability, indexing, and site speed to improve search engine performance.
User Experience (UX) and SEO: The user experience on a website, including navigation, design, and usability, impacts its search engine ranking and overall SEO performance.
Local SEO: A subset of SEO, local SEO focuses on optimizing websites for location-based searches to improve visibility in local search results.
Mobile SEO: Ensuring websites are optimized for mobile devices, as more users access the internet on smartphones and tablets.
Voice Search SEO: With the rise of voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant, optimizing websites for voice search is becoming increasingly important.
E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness): A crucial component in Google`s search quality guidelines, E-A-T affects how search engines evaluate the quality of a website`s content.
Schema Markup and Structured Data: Implementing structured data using Schema.org helps search engines better understand and index a website`s content, potentially improving search visibility and rich snippets.
Keyword Research: Identifying relevant and high-value keywords to target in a website`s content is a fundamental aspect of SEO.
Long-tail Keywords: These are longer, more specific keyword phrases that often have lower search volume but higher conversion rates due to their specificity.
SERP (Search Engine Results Page): The page that displays the results of a search query, consisting of organic results, paid ads, and other search features like featured snippets or local listings.
User Intent: Understanding the goal or purpose behind a user`s search query to create content that addresses their needs and matches their intent.
SEO Audits: Comprehensive assessments of a website`s SEO performance, including technical, on-page, and off-page factors, to identify areas for improvement.
Competitor Analysis: Analyzing the SEO strategies and performance of competitors to identify opportunities and potential areas for improvement.
Link Building: The process of acquiring high-quality backlinks from other websites to improve a website`s authority, trustworthiness, and search engine ranking.
Black Hat SEO: Unethical SEO techniques that violate search engine guidelines, such as keyword stuffing, link farming, or cloaking, which can lead to penalties or deindexing.
White Hat SEO: Ethical SEO practices that adhere to search engine guidelines and focus on providing long-term, sustainable results.
Grey Hat SEO: Techniques that fall between white and black hat SEO, often involving some level of risk but not explicitly violating search engine guidelines.
Google Penalties: Actions taken by Google to demote or remove websites from search results due to violations of their guidelines or participation in black hat SEO techniques.
Content Marketing: The process of creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and engage a target audience, often working in conjunction with SEO.
Influencer Marketing and SEO: Collaborating with influencers in a specific niche to create content and generate backlinks can improve a website`s visibility and search engine ranking.
International SEO: The practice of optimizing a website for different languages and regions to reach a global audience.
Whilst local results are not deeply related to SEO results in terms of the natural search engine SERP algorithms (in some respects), there are a number of factors which can influence the frequency and positioning of your website within the search 3-pack. As a Stockport specific marketing agency, we ensure that these factors are included in your Google My Business account, thus maximising the amount of exposure your site might receive in the Local Results through digital marketing. Bear in mind that local and non-local SEO prices may vary. A target audience is often close by, which is worth considering.
