Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO stands for search engine optimisation. It is the practice of making your website more enticing to search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo, in order to rank higher on the results page for searches that are relevant to your business.

By enhancing the structure and content of your website, you make it easier for search engines to collect data from your site, and you make your site as enticing to the search engine algorithm as possible, which helps you to achieve a higher ranking. The potential of SEO is incredible, but it is a rather complex field, that can evolve rapidly as the likes of Google, Microsoft Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, Duckduckgo etc update their algorithms.

SEO is an umbrella term that encompasses a collection of techniques and tactics. The strategies you use will depend on your SEO goals and current situation but might include keyword research, content creation, link building, technical SEO and enhancing site performance. The best strategy to improve your ranking? Partner with SEO experts who keep up to date on the latest research and conduct ongoing testing to see how a major or minor update impacts different types of websites in different sectors.

Right here! At Traction we’ve spent years developing an extensive catalogue of SEO content that answers pretty much every question you can think of (and a few you can’t). And if you need any more info, we’re always ready to have a chat.

Backlinks are one important factor in how a search engine ranks your website, as it is a simple way for Google to understand how authoritative and trustworthy your site is. Every business is unique, so the importance can vary depending on your current authority score, who you are trying to compete with and for what search terms as well as the backlink profile of other companies within your sector.

However, from a simplistic perspective, if other websites are linking back to you, particularly those with high levels of authority themselves and are closely related to your industry, it tells Google that you know what you’re talking about and encourages the search engine to point even more people your way. You can encourage backlinks by creating high quality content that other sites will want to link back to.

We are currently doing some research on this and at the moment, we have noticed that as long as you do not change your behaviour in content frequency and depth of content, it appears that the search engines are not yet penalising websites for this, unless a content writer makes it obvious that the content is AI generated. Our preference and recommendation however, is to create authentic content that provides your unique perspective. This develops an individual’s credibility as a thought leader, will resonate with your companies tone of voice and better develop your brand. It also means you are sharing valuable, novel and informative information for your audience to engage with and share with others.

Keyword research forms the foundation of SEO. The aim is to align your website content with the keywords that your target audience uses to search for what you offer. Good keyword research is built on a deep understanding of your target customer, and balances factors like keyword relevance, search volumes, intent, competition and cost per click. 

A good place to start is to look at keywords where you rank between 20 and 30 on Google, you know the keyword is desirable because you have quality marketing qualified leads on the back of it and the companies that are ranking higher than you are also operating in the commercial space and their authority score is within 10 points of yours. We see these are your quick wins to dramatically transform your SEO performance before moving onto your longer term strategy.

On-page SEO refers to SEO techniques that are implemented on your own website, and that you have direct control over. Off-page SEO refers to techniques that extend beyond your own site to third-parties, such as link building, guest posting and social media efforts.

SEO strategies make your website more alluring to search engines. The more a search engine likes your site, the higher you will rank. This can seriously enhance brand visibility and awareness, making you a familiar and trusted name for your target audience.

Strategic SEO helps you rank high for specific keywords and phrases, increasing the quality and quantity of organic traffic sent to your site. And with SEO driving a larger number of more relevant website visitors, you can expect your sales to grow too.

SEO drives organic traffic – unlike Google Ads, you don’t have to pay for your spot on the page. Good SEO will show Google your experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T), and will drive high quality website traffic without you spending a cent on advertising. It does however take time both in research and implementation to deliver on an SEO strategy so this is where investing in a local company that specialise in SEO can pay dividends. To find out more about our plans visit our grow local, grow national and grow global plans.