Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

What is SEO?

SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimisation, is a set of strategies, techniques, and practices aimed at improving the visibility and ranking of a website or web page in organic (non-paid) search engine results. The primary goal of SEO is to increase the quantity and quality of organic traffic to a website.

75% of people will never go past the first page of the Google search results page (Demand Sage, 2023). The methods listed in the article below will give you a better chance of appearing in these top positions. The higher up it appears in the SERP, the more likely someone will visit a webpage.

Key aspects of SEO, which we will go into more detail later, include;

• Keyword research
• On-page SEO
• Off-page SEO
• Technical SEO
• Content Creation
• User Experience (UX)
• Local SEO

How Does SEO Work?

Search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo, ‘crawl’ the web using bots that index all web pages. When this process is complete, all the indexed pages that have crawled form what is essentially an online library.

When a user then searches for something in the search engine, the sophisticated algorithms that programme these search engines will scan the web index based on the keywords that have been used in the search. It will then identify all the relevant pages that include the keywords, and rank them to display the results on each of the search engine results pages. This is where Digital Willow’s SEO experts step in to save the day…

There are a range of different factors that determine how well a page ranks on the SERP. Most SEO campaigns consist of certain foundational SEO practices, all of which require time, effort and patience. The higher your page appears on the SERP, the more likely you are to generate organic website traffic.

Our digital marketing team can create an SEO strategy that will adjust your on-page content with the recommended number of pictures, headings, relevant keywords (through a process of extensive keyword research), paragraphs, title tags, meta descriptions and word count. This will help the crawl bots to recognise your webpage as the most relevant to a user’s search intent, and therefore will place it at the top of the SERP.

This is just one facet of our many SEO services, also including website technical repairs and various other digital marketing improvement tasks.

Check out our blog 5 Ways to Make Your Website Easily Found in Search.

SERP Penalties

Search engines penalise webpages by giving lower rankings on the SERP. These penalties can be awarded for a variety of offences, including incorporating a large number of spam links, overusing keywords (aka ‘keyword stuffing’), and hiding written content – all of which help improve an SEO score as read by the search engine bots, but do not add any value to the user experience. If you outsource to Digital Willow, we make sure that these dubious digital marketing practices are avoided and that our SEO strategy guarantees you a great spot in the search rankings.

PPC Marketing

As previously mentioned, PPC and SEO can work better together, here are just some of the ways they can complement each other:

Keyword Data Sharing: Both SEO and PPC involve keyword research, we can use learnings from the PPC campaign to find out what users are searching for and optimise our SEO approach based on the highest-performing keywords. However, we also like to look at those keywords which may be more difficult based on competition and high CPC.

Visibility on Search Engine Results Page: Organic search results generated through SEO can take time to rank well. In the meantime, PPC can provide immediate visibility on the SERP. Even if your website ranks well organically for a keyword, running PPC ads for the same keyword can occupy more real estate on the search results page

Social Media Marketing

SEO and social media marketing are both important components of a comprehensive digital marketing strategy, and they can work together to help improve your online visibility and reach.

Social media can help drive traffic to your website if you regularly post on multiple social media channels and share links back to your website. More traffic indicates to the search engines that your page is of authority on a particular subject and it will therefore reward you with a higher ranking.

Social media profiles for both businesses and individuals can rank in search results, providing an additional avenue for visibility in search engines. Content posted on social media can appear in search results, particularly for branded queries, which can help improve your overall visibility and online reputation.

Although the exact impact is debated, social media signals such as shares, likes, and comments can potentially impact search engine rankings, particularly for local SEO.

Types of SEO

On-Page

Optimising the content, HTML tags, and meta information on your web pages to make them more search engine-friendly. This includes using keywords strategically, optimising headings, and ensuring proper use of images and links.

Off-Page

SEO is more than just planning the on-page content to relevant keywords. Off-page SEO is just as crucial to the performance of a webpage on the SERP…

Building high-quality backlinks (links from other websites to yours) and developing your website’s authority and trustworthiness in the eyes of search engines.

SEO does not just account for the content that appears on the page; metadata is equally as important when getting the SERP to recognise the relevancy of your content. Metadata consists of the H1, Title Tag, Meta description, and Alt Text for any image that may be included on the webpage.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO is concerned with fixing the faults and issues that can be found throughout your website. To determine these faults, we run an SEO audit, it is recommended to conduct these audits each month. Technical improvements include site speed, mobile-friendliness and fixing issues that may negatively impact search engine crawling and indexing.

What makes our agency exceptional, however, is our expert knowledge which allows us to prioritise what can be an extremely extensive and ever-growing list of technical issues. Being able to decide with confidence which fixes will have the greatest beneficial impact means we can prioritise tasks and therefore help you sharpen your website quicker than going through the technical issues as they are listed in an audit.

We can support the implementation of tech fixes for some of the most common fixes like; WordPress, Sitecore, Drupal, and Shopify.

SEO Audit

Through the use of professional tools such as SEMrush, our team is able to perform an SEO audit for your website. With these tools, we are able to ‘crawl’ your site to determine where the weak links lie. This includes identifying design faults that detract from the user experience such as an extended loading time. Not only does it identify these issues, but SEMrush also ranks them in order of priority to guide us on which are the most pressing issues. However, these recommendations are not necessarily to be relied on. This is where our skilled SEO team uses their knowledge and experience to interpret the data themselves and conclude with greater accuracy what tasks to complete and how to complete them in order to keep your website on winning form.

Not only do we help you optimise your existing content but our skilled copywriters can also collaborate with your team to help plan out the best content topics to write about to help get your brand noticed online. From a carefully considered content brief, our copywriters will use their SEO know-how to create professional and captivating copy that you’ll be proud to present to existing clients and exciting prospects, including the most relevant keywords for a given topic and boosting your ranking.

Local SEO services

Local SEO is a critical strategy for businesses looking to enhance their online visibility within a specific geographic area. It involves optimising a company’s online presence to rank higher in search engine results when users search for products or services in their local area. This includes tactics such as optimising Google My Business listings, creating locally relevant content, acquiring online reviews, and ensuring accurate business information across various directories.

Digital Willow is well-equipped to provide businesses with effective Local SEO services. With our expertise, we can boost your local search rankings, increase website traffic, and drive more foot traffic to your physical locations if you have them.

By leveraging the power of Local SEO, we help businesses connect with their local audience and generate valuable leads, ultimately leading to increased revenue and growth.