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Content Marketing for Financial Services SEO

Content Marketing for Financial Services SEO

2, Jul 2024 | SEO

Reading Time: 5 minutes

When looking for a new accountant, did you know that 72% of potential clients start with an online search? For tax services, that figure increases ever so slightly to 76%, and for loans, it skyrockets to an undeniably huge 90% of financial services clients.

The point? Your online presence and visibility matters, especially if you are in the financial services sector.

By making use of a financial services content marketing strategy (the technique of publishing content to engage and inform your audience) you can cultivate a more visible presence in search engines, tapping into that huge market of financial clients. From blogs to videos, content creates an ecosystem of value designed to push your business into the spotlight.

To learn about content marketing and how it fits into the wider world of SEO for financial services, we’ve put together this handy article.

What Is Content Marketing?

Simply put, content marketing is the creation and publication of content for your business. It involves planning and strategy, content creation, and relevant, consistent distribution, with the aim of engaging and converting your target audience organically.

Financial content can be created in a whole range of forms, including:

    • Blogs
    • Articles
    • White papers
    • Videos
    • Infographics
    • Podcasts

Rather than a standalone plan, content marketing is one piece of a much wider, more complex SEO strategy. It sits within search engine optimisation (SEO) in the digital marketing space and is used by 90% of professional marketers to connect businesses with their target audience.

Why We Conduct Content Marketing

Content marketing is an important part of the marketing strategy for any financial business.

Just a few of these reasons include:

    • Building Trust and Credibility: Content marketing shows you know your apples from your pears (or your HMRC from your Companies House). High-quality, regular content will establish you as a thought leader in the finance industry, showing potential clients that you’re knowledgeable, confident, and trustworthy.
    • Educating the Audience: Content is crucial for educating your audience. This can include informing them of why certain financial services exist and are so important, the implications of not seeking professional financial support and guidance, and how they can make staying on top of their finances easier.
    • Engaging Potential Clients: There are a lot of financial services businesses out there, so why choose yours? Content will inform and engage new potential clients, taking them from the top of the sales funnel and nurturing them right through to a conversion.
    • SEO Benefits: When creating a financial SEO strategy, content marketing is key. By using optimisation techniques, your site can be boosted higher up the ranks for relevant results, helping you get noticed by the audience looking for your services.

Benefits of Content Marketing for Financial Services Companies

As a finance professional, photography and video editing might seem a world away from your industry. What has a YouTube video got to do with helping your clients get their accounts sorted? As it turns out, quite a lot.

Increased Online Visibility

Content marketing is a critical part of ensuring your website ranks higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Considering that everyone who’s anyone in finance has a website these days, this is incredibly important.

By consistently publishing valuable content, you can tap into the Google algorithm and make yourself more favourable in the eyes of search engines. The more valuable they perceive your content, the higher you’ll appear for relevant search results.

This drastically enhances your online visibility. We know that users don’t tend to scroll very far down the SERPs, with a huge majority of clicks going to the first few results, so ranking in those pole positions is going to bring a lot more attention to your financial business.

Higher Quality Traffic

Using content marketing in your financial SEO strategy will drive more relevant, higher-quality leads to your site.

These are users who are actively looking for the services you’re offering with the intent to convert (or a far higher likelihood of conversion).

Enhanced User Engagement 

Including videos on your website can boost the average time a user spends on it by 88%.

Quality content engages your users. It entertains, informs, and makes learning more about your industry appealing to your target market. It explains what they want to know and dives deeper into interesting topics, bringing value to your users that entices them to stick around.

Improved Conversion Rates

Content marketing enables winning financial SEO strategies to enhance your visibility and engage your audience. Once you’ve got your audience interested, it also drives conversions.

From calls to action (CTAs) to empathising with pain points, there are a multitude of techniques that encourage your audience to convert.

This allows you to take your high-quality leads right from the top of the marketing funnel – at that first point of engagement – through to a conversion using only the power of valuable, informative content.

Strong Client Relationships

Content marketing is a long-term strategy that strengthens your relationships with your audience, as well as building your SEO.

The right content answers audience questions, empathises with their problems, and provides useful solutions. It helps potential clients get to know your business too. From your tone of voice to greater visibility of your friendly team, it humanises your brand for stronger connections.

This is true both for leads and existing customers. Once a user converts, your content will still work to earn their long-term loyalty.

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How Content Marketing Supports A Financial SEO Strategy

We use content marketing for both on-page SEO and off-page financial services SEO. It offers a wealth of opportunities to gain some lovely SEO points, including through:

    • Keyword Targeting: We carry out keyword research to find the terms your target audience is searching for and work them into your content, helping search engines match your blogs, white papers, and videos to the audience they’re intended for.
    • Content Planning: Research fuels our content planning sessions, helping us pinpoint the financial topics that your audience is interested in. For example, if we see that your audience is searching ‘How do I register for tax as a sole trader’, we know that content answering this question is going to resonate with your target market.
    • Optimising for SEO: There are a multitude of ways we optimise content to rank higher in the search results, from adding multimedia components to using keywords in alt tags. This has an impact across your website, showing Google just how relevant, credible, and trustworthy you are.
    • Distributing and Promoting: From Digital PR to social media marketing, content distribution drives more clicks to your site, building trust with search engines, and encouraging them to increase it’s rankings.

Kickstart Your Financial Content Marketing

In the financial industry, content marketing builds credibility around your business. Informative content that’s easy for non-financial experts to understand can help bridge the gap between you and your audience, showing them exactly how you can help them and cultivating trust.

Quality content will drive high-quality traffic to your website, engage the audience, and encourage them to stick around for longer.

At Woya Digital, we offer complete content marketing services for finance sector businesses. With a team of experienced SEO experts, we’ll work with you to build a winning strategy that drives long-term success. Book a free consultation with our team today.

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Keyword Research for Financial Services SEO

Keyword Research for Financial Services SEO

21, Jun 2024 | SEO

Reading Time: 6 minutes

One of the most important components of SEO is keyword research.

Keywords guide the direction of your SEO efforts, determine the types of search queries you should look to rank for and differentiate your site from your competitors. 

But, before you dive into the deep end of keyword optimisation, it’s important to take a moment to pause and consider strategy.

This is where keyword research comes in. To ensure your marketing efforts see the payoff you’re expecting and your business is found by the right audience, you first need to identify the right keywords for your SEO.

From what exactly keyword research is to why it’s so essential for your financial services SEO strategy, uncover everything you need to know in our handy guide. 

What is Keyword Research?

Keyword research involves finding those all-important words and phrases that are going to earn you some pretty significant SEO points, and support to get your website ranking in search engine results pages. 

Keyword research helps you make conscious decisions to improve the relevancy of your site, ensuring you’re targeting terms that are specific to your business and optimal audience.

If you don’t conduct research, any optimisation done using keywords is going to be guesswork. 

Let’s take a quick look at an example to learn more:

  • Business One wants to optimise using keywords but they skip research phases. Instead, they think optimising for financial services will bring some decent results to their online doorstep. What they don’t know is that this keyword has a super high volume of competition that makes it incredibly difficult to rank for and a low search volume among their target audience.
  • Business Two adds keyword research to their SEO strategy. They see that financial services isn’t a smart choice, but that accountants in Sussex has a drastically lower volume of competition and a decent search volume among their niche, ticking the boxes for local SEO.

Both finance industry businesses move ahead with their optimisation. Business One struggles to rank in any of the top spots and, with around half of all leads clicking on the first 3 spots in Google, they don’t see any significant changes to their traffic.

Business Two moves up the ranks for accountants in Sussex quickly to claim a top spot and, thanks to the targeted demographic, sees an uptick in leads looking for exactly what they’re offering.

Types of Keywords

A quick note here that, during research for financial services SEO, you will uncover different types of keywords. These include:

  • Head terms: Keywords that can be vague or general but carry a super high search volume, like ‘accountants’, for example.
  • Long-tail keywords: A more specific key phrase that usually contains 3-5 words and has a lower search volume but is great for targeting more niche demographics, like ‘financial help for small businesses’.
  • Semantic keywords: Keywords or phrases that are related to your target keyword. The keyword ‘accounting’ for example, might have semantic keywords like ‘accountancy help’ and ‘tax accountant’.

Why Do We Conduct Keyword Research for Financial Services Companies?

At Woya Digital, keyword research is a key part of our financial sector SEO strategies. Why is it so important in our strategy?

Market Demands

Keyword research helps our finance SEO experts understand your audience. We look at what exact terms they’re typing into Google and the services they’re looking for. 

This helps us optimise for their queries and create a customer-centric SEO strategy.

Target Audience Insights

Keyword research also reveals the pain points of real customers based on their searches. 

Let’s say that there are a few high-volume terms that relate to tax, as an example. This gives us an indication that your audience is in need of tax guidance and help, and this should be a key focus of our financial services SEO strategy, by also advising our content strategy.

Competitive Analysis

Competitor keyword analysis looks into the keywords or phrases that competing companies are ranking for, investing in, and gaining traffic through. 

By identifying the terms they’re going after, we can then create content that attempts to rank better than them, and boost your business higher, giving you a competitive edge.

Content Strategy Development

Content strategy makes up a big chunk of SEO services and feeds into lots of other rank-boosting techniques, including keyword optimisation. 

As soon as we’ve identified target keywords and terms, we’ll focus on creating content that incorporates them. 

Not only is this excellent for ensuring your website gains the understanding of search engines, but it also helps you create relevant content that engages your audience.

Benefits of Keyword Research for Financial Services Providers

Keyword research provides solid foundations for strong financial services companies SEO strategies and guides the direction of campaigns. 

When using well-researched keywords in your content, you will see a whole range of business-boosting perks, including:

  • Increased visibility: Targeting the right keywords in your content will help your website rank higher in the SERPs. You’re telling Google that your business is relevant to audience queries, increasing your online visibility and organically driving traffic.
  • Higher-quality leads: Well-researched keywords target specific demographics. These are the audiences who are actively looking for a business just like yours, earning them the title of high-quality leads.
  • Enhanced user engagement: Once you know what your audience is searching for, you’re better able to help with their queries. Creating relevant, high-value content shows you understand your target market, and this will increase user engagement and highlight your business as a source of relevant expert information and knowledge.
  • Improved conversion rates: When you’re proving to your audience that you have the solutions they need, they’ll be far likelier to trust you with their finances. Aligning user intent, keywords, and your content can culminate in higher conversion rates.
  • Increased ROI: By pinpointing the right keywords for your business, you can focus your marketing resources on areas you know will see more impactful results.

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How Keyword Research Drives Our SEO Strategy

Identifying the right keywords feeds the next steps in your SEO strategy, and enhances results, making it a key priority. When working on financial services sector SEO strategies, our team begins with in-depth research to guide our decision-making.

Identifying the Highest Value Keywords

We always want to target the highest-value keywords for your business. These include keywords with high search volumes, lower competition, and that we think will drive higher-quality leads to your site. 

We’ll also take into account the current ranking websites to work out how likely you are to outrank their pages (government websites, for example, are notoriously tricky to beat).

Tailoring Content to Audience Queries

Our high-value keywords directly influence the financial services SEO content we create. Using insights into what your audience is searching for, we can create content that:

  • Answers their questions
  • Meets their needs and interests
  • Directs them towards relevant services

If we know, for example, that a lot of people are looking for terms related to small business tax expenses, we know that there’s an audience for this type of content. 

We will then focus on content that answers key questions about expenses, boosting audience engagement and satisfaction, and earning your business some key brand awareness points.

Optimising On-Page SEO

We carry out both on-page and off-page SEO.

Keyword research helps guide our on-page optimisation, filling your site with relevant terms that we know will help you rank. 

We’ll specifically target those high-quality keywords for the on-page elements that gain the most attention from search engines, including meta tags, image tags, and headers.

Enhancing Off-Page SEO

When building domain authority, we’ll use keyword research to boost your off-page SEO too. 

Your high-value keywords inform our link-building and outreach strategies, boosting your credibility in the eyes of search engines and helping you reach more of your relevant audience.

Start Building A Financial Services Industry SEO Strategy

If you’re a business owner in financial services, SEO keyword research could be the starting point of skyrocketing your business growth.

From identifying your target audience needs to outshining your competitors, understanding the terms your potential clients are searching for can drastically improve your market understanding. 

Optimise your SEO efforts to drive conversions, enhance user engagement, and establish yourself as an industry leader with high-value keywords.

At Woya Digital, we take keyword research seriously as a part of any digital marketing strategy. With a team of experts and years of industry experience on our side, we can help you develop keyword-driven financial SEO strategies to drive leads to your website.

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Introduction to SEO For Financial Services Companies

Introduction to SEO For Financial Services Companies

11, Jun 2024 | SEO

Reading Time: 6 minutes

There are over 80,000 financial businesses in the UK and – looking at the averages – around 80% of them have a website. That puts the number of companies in financial services vying for online visibility at a whopping 64,000 – which provides a good indication of the level of competitiveness to rank.

With so many businesses out there, it can feel impossible to secure the attention of your target audience. That’s where search engine optimisation (SEO) comes into play.

SEO helps to push your website up the search engine results pages (SERPs). By implementing factors that we know search engines like Google love, your website is much more likely to reach those coveted top spots for relevant search terms, driving more traffic to your site and boosting brand awareness. 

Find out more about SEO for financial services companies, and why it’s such a crucial part of your digital marketing strategy.

Importance of SEO for Financial Service Providers

In financial services, SEO plays a critical role in driving on site conversions. But what exactly can you expect to see from your SEO strategy? 

Increased Online Visibility

When using a search engine like Google, the vast majority of users don’t look beyond the first page of search results. The top three organic search results claim almost 70% of all Google clicks, with the last users spread out over the next few websites and a couple of brave browsers dipping their toe into page two.

The point here is that if you’re not ranking in those top spots, the majority of your target audience simply won’t see you. Even with a dazzling website and competitively-priced services, you won’t get the visibility you need to drive sales.

The overarching goal of SEO efforts is to stop this from happening. Our SEO campaigns aim to skyrocket your site up the ranks so that all (relevant) eyes are on you, enhancing your online visibility for more powerful marketing.

Building Trust and Credibility 

Users trust search engines – it’s one of the reasons they stick so heavily to those top results. 

They trust that search engines are going to find them reputable, relevant web pages that meet their needs. So, when your website turns up at the top, they also trust that you’re the business they’re looking for.

This drastically improves your credibility in the eyes of your audience. When you’re in the top spots, you have a bigger sway over your leads purely because of your pole position, driving eager consumers who are ready to trust you. 

You’re also likely to see engagement increase, which will further bolster loyalty as your credibility increases, creating a trickle-down effect of advantages. 

Targeted Traffic

Your financial services SEO strategy is focussed on driving high-quality leads to your website. It places you directly in the eye-line of the users who are already on the hunt for what you’re offering, giving you access to an audience who are almost ready to convert. 

Rather than throwing an advert out there and hoping to secure a few interested leads, it’s a targeted method of digital marketing that brings relevant traffic straight to your digital doorstep. 

When it comes to your long-term marketing success, this is important. High-quality leads are more likely to convert.

Cost-Effective Marketing

With an experienced financial services sector SEO agency by your side and solid strategies in place, SEO becomes a strong contender for one of the most cost-effective marketing methods.

One of the reasons for this is that it is a long-term strategy rather than a quick scheme to push short-term sales. SEO builds solid foundations that will generate results into the future, attracting leads over a much longer period. 

A snowball effect can often be seen with SEO, in which it becomes more effective over time, boosting your return on investment (ROI) as it does.

The alternative method to SEO is pay-per-click (PPC), which works a little differently. Paid ads aid in generating a quick uptick in website traffic and driving some snappy sales, but as soon as you stop paying for PPC, it stops working. SEO, on the other hand, provides ongoing ROI that pushes your investment further.

Pair the two together – SEO and PPC – and you can secure short-term boosts and consistent long-term growth.

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Core Components of SEO for Financial Services

To gain more insight into the world of finance industry SEO services, here are some of the core components of a winning SEO strategy.

Keyword Research

Optimising your website with relevant keywords is one of the most important elements of SEO. These are the key words and terms that your audience is searching for – like accountant near me or financial services.

By identifying key search terms, and optimising your website with them, you are telling Google that your website is relevant to these words. Google can therefore identify and rank your website according to searches including these terms, boosting your visibility for the right audience.

Content Optimisation

Regularly updating your website with fresh, keyword-optimised content is a smart way to gain SEO points.

As part of Woya Digital’s finance sector SEO services, we optimise content to ensure it ticks all the boxes for search engines and audiences. Balancing keyword-rich, informative content with the perks of regular upgrades provides a big push for your on-page SEO.

Link Building

When a reputable website links to you, you gain a bit of their credibility in the eyes of search engines. The big stars of SEO are giving you a shout-out and Google’s always listening. 

This strategy is known as link building, and it involves boosting the number of inbound valuable external links pointing towards your website to increase your domain authority. Your domain authority is an indicator of your website’s reputation and reliability within a niche, and the higher it is, the better.

Technical SEO

SEO can get pretty technical at times, with a lot of heavy coding work and website development needed to ensure you rank. Some of the technical SEO factors that require focus include:

All of this comes together to build a strong, high-quality site with a well-put-together back end, which search engines love. This drives the performance of your website too, creating a better user experience that boosts your credibility and cultivates a clear, consistent brand identity. 

Local SEO

Many financial services sector businesses have a local focus. Even those aiming for national – or even global – reach, can and should optimise for local search, too, in order to win over potential nearby clients.

Local SEO ensures you’re visible to more localised leads through a number of techniques, including the creation of local pages, the use of local keywords and location-based search term optimisation and setting your business up on key local search platforms, like Google My Business. 

The Benefits of SEO for Financial Services Companies

We’ve highlighted the importance of SEO for businesses in the financial industry, but before we wrap up, here’s a quick run-through of some of the additional benefits you can expect with an effective SEO campaign:

  • Enhanced customer experience: Techniques including improving page speeds and creating responsive websites cultivate a smoother online user experience for your leads, boosting your brand image.
  • A competitive edge over industry competitors: By climbing up the rankings, you’re literally placing your business above (and in front of) your competitors for a larger share of the market.
  • Increased brand awareness: Increased, prominent visibility in the relevant SERPs will result in increased brand awareness and familiarity.
  • Build authority: Generating relevant and engaging SEO content presents your financial business as a knowledgeable leader in the larger financial niche, shining the spotlight on your credibility and expertise.
  • Improved conversion rates: By targeting higher-quality leads and focusing on strategic marketing (such as including internal links and calls to action) your conversion rages will naturally increase.
  • Access to performance metrics: A crucial aspect of SEO involves analysing data that can drive many other business decisions, creating a more streamlined marketing approach.

Investing in SEO for your Financial Services Company

SEO ensures that your business is positioned directly in front of your key audience. It brings visibility to your website, drives conversions in a natural, non-invasive way, and increases your credibility in the eyes of high-quality leads. If you want to secure those top spots for your business, SEO is an important aspect of any effective marketing strategy.

As a financial services industry business, investing in SEO is crucial for driving organic traffic.

Our financial services SEO team at Woya Digital are here to support you in driving your business up those search engine rankings. We know the importance of online visibility for your business and, with years of industry experience and technical SEO expertise, we can create a tailored SEO strategy designed to direct leads to your site, over your competitors.

Ready to boost your online visibility and drive sales? Get in touch with our financial services SEO team to learn more and book a free consultation with our experts.

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Google Spring Cleaning – Google Core Update March 2024

Google Spring Cleaning – Google Core Update March 2024

25, Mar 2024 | SEO

Reading Time: 4 minutes

The March 2024 Google Core Update was rolled out with the aim of improving search quality by targeting content abuse and promoting original, valuable content, leading to significant changes in site rankings and Google search results.

Google wrote: “The March 2024 core update is a more complex update than our usual core updates, involving changes to multiple core systems. It also marks an evolution in how we identify the helpfulness of content.”

Woya Digital provide insights and strategies for adapting to this Google update and improving website rankings.

Introduction to the Google Core Update March 2024

The Google March Core Update represents a pivotal moment in the evolution of search quality and spam prevention.

By introducing new spam policies that specifically combat different types of content abuse, Google is taking a proactive stance in enhancing the relevance and usefulness of search results.

For instance, the update is designed to diminish the impact of scaled content abuse, where large volumes of low-quality content are created to manipulate search ranking. This move by Google underscores the company’s commitment to prioritising high-quality, informative content that genuinely serves users’ needs.

The emphasis on displaying more helpful and relevant results through the integration of innovative signals highlights Google’s dedication to refining the search experience for users. By focusing on reducing unhelpful and unoriginal content, the core update strives to direct traffic towards reputable sites that offer valuable information.

For example, websites engaging in site reputation abuse by publishing third-party content on well-regarded platforms to manipulate rankings will face penalties under the new policies. This strategic shift not only benefits users seeking reliable information but also encourages site owners to uphold content quality standards to maintain search visibility and credibility.

Key Changes in the Google Core Update

This Google algorithm update brings about significant changes aimed at improving the quality of search results and combating spam. One of the crucial changes is the crackdown on scaled content abuse, which is where websites churn out a massive amount of low-quality content to manipulate their rankings.

Websites that generate numerous pages with little to no content value just to increase their online visibility will face penalties under this update. By targeting this abuse, Google is striving to ensure that search results are populated with authentic and valuable content, enhancing the user experience and Google’s credibility.

In addition to tackling scaled content abuse, Google’s update also takes a firm stance against site reputation abuse.

This involves identifying and penalising websites that engage in manipulative tactics (Black Hat SEO) to deceive users and search engines, compromising the integrity of the search results.

Sites attempting to boost their rankings through dubious means such as publishing misleading information or participating in link schemes will now face consequences. By addressing site reputation abuse, Google is reinforcing the importance of maintaining a trustworthy online environment and promoting ethical practices among site owners.

The proactive classification of expired domains repurposed for boosting Google rankings as spam further underlines Google’s commitment to combating deceptive tactics and ensuring a fair playing field for all websites.

Impact on Website Rankings and Search Results

The March Core Update has brought about significant changes in the SEO landscape, causing a ripple effect across various sites and their rankings.

Websites that have relied on low-quality and irrelevant content are now facing the consequences of being deindexed by Google. This move reinforces Google’s unwavering commitment to delivering high-quality and relevant information to users, thereby enhancing the overall search experience.

This update also highlights Google’s shift towards prioritising quality over quantity. This means that websites are now being evaluated based on the originality, depth, and value they offer to their audience.

Websites that churn out shallow, duplicate content solely to manipulate search rankings are being penalised. This shift not only compels site owners to reassess their content strategies but also encourages them to focus on creating valuable and engaging content that resonates with their target audience.

Ultimately, the emphasis is on elevating the standard of online content to ensure that users are presented with accurate, relevant, and insightful information in their search results.

Strategies to Adapt to the Google Core Updates

Adapting to the Google Core Update of March 2024 entails more than just following the latest SEO trends; it requires a fundamental shift in the approach to content creation and user experience (UX).

Site owners must now focus on demonstrating expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T) in their content to meet Google’s updated criteria.

For example, a medical-focused website aiming to rank well post-update should ensure that their medical articles are written or reviewed by professionals in the field, providing accurate and reliable information for users.

In addition, user experience is paramount in the wake of the Core Update. Websites that offer seamless navigation, fast loading times, and mobile responsiveness are more likely to rank higher in search results.

By proactively adjusting strategies to meet these new expectations, website owners can not only maintain their rankings but also improve their online presence in the long term.

Expert Opinions and Analysis on the Google Core Update

Industry experts like Jeff Coyle and Barry Schwartz have provided valuable insights into the implications of the March 2024 Core Update on website rankings and the broader digital ecosystem.

Jeff Coyle has highlighted the importance of creating original, in-depth, and valuable content to align with Google’s emphasis on quality over quantity post-update. Barry Schwartz has emphasised the significance of user experience and expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (E-A-T) in content to maintain or improve search rankings in the wake of the update.

Expert recommendations not only acknowledge the seismic shift caused by the update but also highlight the need for website owners to proactively adapt their strategies to meet the evolving search landscape.

By looking into the patterns of websites affected by the update, businesses can identify underlying weaknesses in their content and SEO practices. This analysis allows for the execution of tailored strategies aimed at enhancing website performance and search rankings.

Adapting Strategies for Google Core Update Success

The Google Update of March 2024 flags a big shift for website owners and digital marketers, highlighting the critical role of quality content, user experience, and compliance with Google’s guidelines in achieving success in search rankings.

As the SEO landscape continues to evolve, stakeholders must stay abreast of the latest Google algorithm updates and adapt their strategies accordingly. Focusing on producing content that is original, in-depth, and valuable for users can significantly enhance a website’s visibility and credibility.

Website owners need to place a strong emphasis on expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (E-A-T) to align with Google’s search quality guidelines. By demonstrating expertise in their respective fields, establishing authority through backlinks and citations, and fostering trust with transparent and accurate information, websites can bolster their reputation and improve their chances of ranking well in search results.

Website Redesign SEO Checklist

Website Redesign SEO Checklist

19, Oct 2023 | SEO

Reading Time: 10 minutes

There comes a time in the life of most websites where the organisation responsible for it chooses to overhaul its look, feel and function, whether this be for branding, business direction, user experience (UX) or simply aesthetic purposes.

It can be easy for those working on a website redesign project to get caught up in new functionality and fresh visuals, and as a result one of the most critical elements of a web presence is often forgotten: SEO.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the practice of making a website as easy to read by search engine algorithms as possible, in order to rank highly on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

When a website is properly optimised, it benefits not just from competitive rankings in relevant search results, but also from enhanced UX and higher levels of satisfied, engaged users.

SEO is by no means a ‘one-and-done’ exercise, but instead an ongoing activity that can formulate part of a wider program of continuous improvement. If SEO is overlooked in a website redesign process, the presence of it in search engines will fall and the full cycle will need to be restarted all over again. 

Cover all your SEO bases with our website redesign SEO checklist.

The Foundation: Understanding Why SEO Matters in The Website Redesign Process

The world’s thirst for knowledge has shifted and grown with the advent of the internet and increased accessibility to vast connectivity has seen search engines become the ‘go-to’ resource for most questions and queries.

To ‘Google’ is now a verb, with over 8.5 billion searches happening daily on that one search engine alone, and the Google Index holds up to 60 billion active web pages at any one time.

It is no surprise therefore, that SEO efforts now form a key component of a digital marketing strategy – as without it, web presence would simply get caught in the ether and underestimated, ignored, or missed entirely.

Optimising a website’s content, structure and UX to be easily navigated by both users and search engines’ automated bots alike is critical to the gain of organic web traffic. While there are indeed a number of traffic-generating options that businesses can pay for, organic traffic refers to traffic sourced without any payment being made, so it can be ensured that the reason for visiting the website over and above any others is genuine and intended.

This makes organic traffic extremely valuable – and SEO is the best way to obtain such traffic and attract visitors in this way.

With those visiting websites through organic means already holding genuine search intent behind their visit, these users are most likely to follow conversions, gather information for purchase decisions, make purchases and hold an overall positive perception of the site. This makes organic traffic a fantastic source of business growth and when managed properly, can increase sales.

If SEO is ignored or forgotten during a website redesign process, all these benefits are lost; and negative consequences can be felt as a result.

URL Structure & Mapping

URLs specify the location of a web page or other online resource and allow users to identify where on a website certain information resides. URLs are considered a minor ranking factor for search engines but give weight to the overall domain authority as well as offer up another opportunity for keyword usage.

Well written URLs can serve as anchor text and provide an easy navigation system for web crawlers to understand and index a website’s structure.

Where new pages are being written and included as part of a website redesign, it is important that URL structure is kept consistent and that all external and internal links are checked and tested to preserve link equity. If links are broken, a ‘404 Page Not Found’ error can occur, and users are likely to click off to another website.

If pages are to be replaced, webmasters can code in 301 redirects to allow a permanent redirection from one URL to another.

This maintains the search engine ranking of the existing URL but allows for users to access a newer page version. Search engine crawlers do recognise that the content has been replaced but do not impose ranking penalties.

Retaining Quality Content

Website redesign processes need not entirely replace a site’s content. There’s no need to fix what isn’t broken!

Top-performing content should be kept unchanged or minimally updated, as it has already proven its worth to users.

Retaining content that has historically been of success for a website allows for the SEO weight to be maintained and those who have accessed the content in the past to continue to as they have previously – or better yet, share onward with others.

Where content has been successful from an SEO and brand perspective historically but now contains outdated information, it can be updated without compromising the existing ranking.

A byline or paragraph at the top of the page, dated and with a summary of the updated information along with a link to a more up-to-date page is considered best practice.

Mobile-Friendliness & Responsive Design

Searches now occur from mobile devices more than they do desktop computers; likely due to the convenience of being able to access information in any place at any time. This means that traditional website builds are no longer enough to present content suitably for all visitors and so website redesigns should always follow a mobile responsive, if not mobile-first approach in its build.

While Google insists that no one on-page factor affects search rankings alone, mobile usability impacts on overall UX for most, which is considered vital to SEO. Additionally, if a website redesign doesn’t cater for mobile devices in its formatting and structure, those who do encounter it in search engine rankings simply won’t click through to the domain or will rapidly click away once they do.

Those managing a website redesign project are likely to have formal testing measures in place but there are a variety of tools that can be used to check the mobile compatibility of any domain.

This includes the manual testing of site resources across various devices but also the use of Google Search Console’s online Mobile Friendly Test by either URL or code to provide a ranking of its performance.

Site Speed & Performance Optimization

We live in a culture of instant access to information and as a result, society expects to be able to get what they want instantaneously online.

This means that where a decade ago web users would accept waiting a few seconds for pages to load, user behaviour now dictates that pages should load immediately, and they are rarely likely to wait should anything take any longer.

The loading speed of a webpage and the content on it is a Google Core Web Vital. Core Web Vitals are considered a significant search engine ranking factor. Referred to as the LCP (Largest Contentful Point), Google’s web crawlers analyse the time that the largest content on a page takes to load ready for user interaction – and as far as rankings go, the quicker the better.

Google’s free PageSpeed Insights tool allows webmasters to test and grade their websites to benchmark their performance and get an idea of how well they perform in the search engine’s algorithm as a result.

Optimisations can be made fairly easily in most cases through the use of image compression, utilising CDN practices or minimising code usage. Where issues remain, webmasters can consult with SEO specialists to identify issues and resolve them as they occur.

On-Page SEO Essentials

Aside from the usage of SEO keywords and relevant terms throughout written content, there are several on-page SEO essentials that are design-critical. It is important that webmasters need to remember the inclusion of these throughout the website redesign process.

The title tags and heading structures of written text need to be kept correct and consistent throughout for not just formatting purposes but also to demonstrate to web crawlers topics and theme importance.

Also, meta titles and descriptions should be included on all pages in order to demonstrate appropriate information in search engine results. Similarly, images used should be optimised and always include ALT tags describing their contents for enhanced accessibility.

Internal linking strategies should be put to mind just as external are, providing easy navigation for users. This increases the amount of time users are likely to spend on a site and allows for plenty of direction made to pages aimed at driving conversions.

XML Sitemaps & Robots.txt

Web crawlers ‘crawling’ through websites are key to the relevant algorithms understanding what a website is about, who it’s for, and how to rank it amongst other content for searches.

When undergoing website redesign, webmasters and marketers must ensure that these bots are able to navigate the site swiftly and accurately so that the calculations made in its ranking are correct.

XML Sitemaps are files listing out the essential pages of a website; in essence mapping them out for web crawlers to follow. Sitemaps can be submitted to Google (and other search engines) to provide directions for its indexing. This ensures that even tricky-to-reach pages, such as those without any internal links pointing to them, are recognised and indexed.

Existing website redesigns should also include a refreshed robots.txt file. These files control the behaviour of web crawlers, so that only webpages that the webmaster wants indexed are – and others are left un-indexed.

Secure & Accessible Website: Importance of HTTPS

Google doesn’t want to direct its users to unsafe or insecure websites as this in turn would give a negative perception of them and their services. Google prioritises ranking secure websites above those without adequate safety precautions in place as a result.

The use of HTTPS is a ranking factor as part of overall UX. HTTPS encrypts the connection between browser and site to safeguard the interception of any data between the two.

Where websites don’t use such safety measures, they are unfavourably ranked by Google and in some cases, excluded from ranking altogether. This makes it a must-have for website redesign projects!

Another security item those working on a website redesign must look to include is an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) Certificate.

This is a digital certificate that authenticates a website’s identity, and the owner of the website and associated subdomains, as well as proving encryption of SS/TLS. SSL Certificates must be obtained from a CA (Certificate Authority) and once verified and granted, should be installed and activated on the website’s origin server. As a further security tool, this too boosts SEO through the demonstration of security commitment from the domain.

Duplicate Content Issues

Where new content is being produced as part of a website redesign, it should be checked that duplicate content doesn’t appear across the site too. While basic admin areas such as footers and calls to action may be duplicated, there is rarely value in large portions of duplicate text.

In some cases, duplicate content exists within a website for genuine reasons. Content of this type can be differentiated through the use of canonical tags coded in HTML to flag the preferred version of a page and identify between duplicate, near duplicate and similar pages. In website redesign projects, these tags can flag distinctions to web crawlers as they revisit the site.

There are various software tools available online for the detection of duplicate content, both within one website and across other sites (whether intended or not). Sites such as Siteliner and Copyscape can highlight incidences of repeat copy across the internet, which can be of great use to webmasters and marketers working on digital content.

Structured Data & Schema Markup

Schema markup is microdata added to a webpage in order to create a ‘rich snippet’ of extra information to the page’s results in search engines. Schema.org, the central resource for schema markup, was created as a collaboration between Google, Yahoo, Bing and Yandex in 2011 and since has guided hundreds of thousands of webmasters in enhancing their results in SERPs.

When done correctly, schema markup gives further information to search engine’s web crawlers on the context of a webpage in order to better inform their results presentation.

This impacts positively on positioning pages in the right order, at the right time, on the right queries. Rich snippets, when included on search results, contain information such as ratings, prices and images – and give more data to users on first glance; improving the chances of a clickthrough from a SERP.

Schema.org can be considered the best central resource for information on structured data and schema markup. In addition, there are tools to test the structured data of a website which webmasters and marketers can use to their benefit such as the Google Structured Data Testing Tool. This allows for the real time testing of coding

Social Media & SEO

A presence on audience-relevant social media channels is expected by most consumers but does not directly impact SEO. However, as a marketing channel focused on reputation building, it holds indirect affect on rankings as a brand builds its overall authority.

Social media sharing options on all appropriate content provides the facility for users to spread content they find useful or interesting onward to others, amplifying reach and furthering the possibility for brand exposure.

This is an often forgotten but is a key win in website redesign projects – as adding these tools only takes a few minutes but can have a vast impact.

It’s important that brands keep consistency across all platforms. While approach and exact content may differ depending on what works for each channel, users must be able to immediately recognise who a brand is and what they do based on their messaging – no matter where it is they see it.

Monitoring & Reporting: Post-launch Considerations

Once a website redesign has gone live, there are several checks webmasters and marketers should carry out to ensure they’re best possibly placed SEO-wise.

Noindex tags are on-page codes that instruct search engines not to index a page. Often inserted into webpages as they’re being tested, they block indexing by search engines entirely and so must be removed before launch. If the site has gone live without this check being carried out, it must be done as soon as possible!

Setting up Google Search Console and Google Analytics to interact with a website can be done by inserting a small piece of code. This verifies live indexing and will gather statistics on user behaviour through the site to report on how its being used and supply information on what’s working and what isn’t – allowing for a cycle of continuous improvement in web performance to begin.

Monitoring tools will also be able to flag where crawl errors occur, links are broken, or other issues present so that they may be rectified swiftly.

Keyword presence and performance and traffic levels should also be monitored on an ongoing basis. Where performance isn’t as expected, improvements can be made, and where wins are experienced, further work can be put into enhancing these areas.

Website Redesign SEO Checklist Wrap-Up

Website redesign projects are all too often chalked up as a rebranding or aesthetic exercise, with the likes of SEO forgotten as it’s considered ‘taken care of’ through the usage of keywords in copy.

This can have devastating consequences for the ranking of a website and as a result, for the competitiveness of the organisation.

A well-planned SEO strategy must include content considerations alongside on-page and off-page factors and the implementation of appropriate coding. With a well-rounded approach to SEO is taken after a website redesign, the website may avoid negative ranking impact altogether – and could even benefit positively without interruption.

No matter how far-reaching a website redesign is, it should be embraced and considered a good opportunity for new learning.

Entering a cycle of continuous improvement provides the chance for businesses to get better and better, growing their web presence and shifting their digital marketing and SEO strategy to fit algorithm changes and user behaviour demands, meeting and exceeding needs and expectations.

With the help of a specialist SEO agency like Woya Digital, website redesigns and the onward management of domains can be hugely successful: elevating brand perception, reputation and sales. Don’t underestimate the power of SEO… instead run with it and open up a world of digital possibilities!

Start Your Campaign With An SEO Website Analysis

Start Your Campaign With An SEO Website Analysis

14, Oct 2023 | SEO

Reading Time: 7 minutes

With the ever-changing goalposts and frameworks presented by search engine algorithms and the myriad of both off and on-page tasks required to improve and optimise website SEO, where do you begin?

There is a ‘right’ way to go about a successful SEO campaign and the most effective relies on certain steps being carried out before others. At Woya Digital SEO and search marketing experts, the first step we take to create a baseline for work forms the first element of our strategic SEO marketing success strategy: an SEO website analysis.

What Is An SEO Website Analysis?

SEO is the practice of optimising a website in order to best demonstrate to search engines its relevancy, authenticity and trustworthiness – all in the hope of ranking as high as possible on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), and outranking competitors.

SEO encompasses both on-site and off-site activities as well as organic and paid-for tasks that can be undertaken to help boost ranking and reputation and ultimately, gain competitive advantage.

A site analysis is an SEO website audit of a site’s current status in SEO-relevant terms – a kind of health check. This analysis will flag improvements that can be made, highlight factors that are already performing well, present opportunities arising from existing content, and outline any threats from existing internal or external factors. Usually, results data is visualised in charts and reports to make clear the impact of work required moving forward.

An SEO site analysis is best carried out by an independent SEO expert who is able to examine the data first-hand, but can be carried out by a piece of software known as a ‘crawler’. A crawler, similarly to the programming used by search engines themselves, works through the site’s data as an automated process and ranks its SEO factors through machine learning.

A detailed SEO audit should be completed before any SEO activity takes place, but can (and should) be carried out regularly to provide periodic check-ins on the status of the website.

Why An SEO Website Analysis Is The Optimum Starting Point for Any Campaign

Before embarking on any business project, it’s important to know the point from which work begins.

A comprehensive SEO website analysis allows for a baseline to be created and understood, and the effort of SEO-related issues to be enacted as efficiently as possible. Without an initial SEO website analysis having been completed, efforts may be duplicated or time spent on activities that will have little positive effect.

When carried out regularly, an SEO website analysis offers a moving picture of the success of SEO work and helps provide guidance in the face of ever-changing algorithm requirements.

The Importance of Analysing SEO Data

While Google and other search engines don’t share their exact algorithm changes and schedules for developments, it’s believed that changes are made as often as weekly. This means those striving for search engine rankings improvements will find the goalposts moving and the impacts of their efforts shift.

In taking the time to analyse SEO data, businesses are able to ensure that not only are they focusing their time and resources in the right areas, but that they’re able to adapt swiftly to any changes in direction and can often predict how and when shifts in algorithms are to be made.

Key SEO Metrics to Track

There are a variety of metrics that should be monitored on an ongoing basis in order to understand the impact of SEO work.

While these may vary by business and website dependent on project focus and/or industry, sector or competitive position, the following are generally considered the most important to measure:

The Best SEO Analysis Tools

There are a variety of tools, free SEO tools, and paid available to assist in SEO website analysis.

Google have their own, free-to-use, tool known as Google Search Console. The most popular software amongst those looking to rank on the world’s largest search engine, it integrates specifically with its own Google algorithm to enhance positioning where possible.

Using Search Console, webmasters are able to:

    • Submit a sitemap to Google
    • Check the crawl rate and view statistics on when a Google crawler has accessed the website
    • Write and check a robots.txt file to discover any inadvertently blocked pages
    • Check both internal linking and external links to and from the website
    • Receive a list of any pages that Google has struggled to crawl, alongside details of any errors presented
    • View site speed reports
    • View page experience reports (including information on core web vitals and HTTPS data)
    • Receive notifications from Google on any manual SEO penalties
    • Check and monitor security issues

SEO Website Analysis Focus Areas

Technical SEO Website Analysis

Technical SEO refers to factors for optimisation on a site that are known to impact on Google’s appetite for ranking.

This includes mobile responsiveness, the creation of a sitemap, the improvement of loading times and page speeds, creating an easily ‘crawled’ site structure and the identification of any duplicate content.

Analysing technical SEO often identifies areas for ‘quick fixes’ for webmasters to implement changes that are vastly beneficial.

On-Page SEO Analysis

On-page SEO is the practice of optimising the content of a website in order to help it better rank within a search engine. This commonly includes optimising title tags, including keywords in headings and ensuring internal links are working.

The analysis of on-page SEO allows for webmasters to find changes that can be made on their site and to swiftly identify any improvements to be made, or worked into a workflow.

Off-Page SEO Analysis

Off-page optimisation is activity that takes place off of a website to increase its rankings. This includes the activity of building backlinks, encouraging branded searches, and increasing shares across third party social media channels.

Off-page SEO work often follows a relationship marketing approach and can form the foundation of solid strategic business partnerships. Off-page analysis presents businesses with a good indication of not just the status of their professional relationships but also the SEO positioning of others relevant to them.

Where another website has a high DA (Domain Authority) that proves positive for backlinks, it can be considered that that business is likely ranking well and their own SEO efforts are having a positive impact. The business can then decide how to proceed with the ongoing maintenance of any relationship with that organisation.

UX – User Experience

User Experience (UX) is still considered a relatively new aspect of SEO but has grown hugely in its impact on ranking in recent years.

Google and other search engines now hold great weight in the ability for a website to be easily navigable, well accessible and helpful to its users.

The analysis of UX provides not just guidance on how a website can be better structured or formatted in order to gain a good ranking online amongst searches, but also in opportunities for improvements to be made and conversions to be increased.

SEO Competitor Analysis

Competitors offline do not always translate directly to the online space, so it’s imperative that businesses understand who they’re up against in both markets.

While there’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach for industries or sectors, there are always benefits to be gained from understanding competitors’ strategies through a competitor analysis.

Understanding what others do well can help give insight not just to how to duplicate and imitate efforts for ranking gain, but also to find where others aren’t performing, and ensure your business is visible where others aren’t.

Local SEO Analysis

Local SEO refers to a geographically-localised online presence, managed through Google Business Profile which ranks organisations based on a variety of factors for those making relevant searches in or to a set physical area.

Generally speaking, local SEO offers a variety of search engine advantages that general SEO doesn’t – and it can be considerably easier to rank higher when localising efforts.

The analysis of local SEO can throw up a whole different picture compared to more general SEO initiatives, as well as provide a good overview of who and what the business should be focusing on.

SEO Content Analysis

Website content demonstrates to search engines its topic, relevancy and credentials in its field.

Long gone are the days of simply scanning for keywords and now a series of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) measures are used to help identify, understand and really work with the authentic ways in which users actually carry out searches.

Content needs to meet users’ needs and satisfy them, and ideally encourage them to carry out a conversion or share content further. Content analysis helps identify gaps and opportunities for further content creation, but also can help identify issues such as misspellings, broken links or duplicate material.

International SEO

International SEO is the practice of optimising an online presence to best demonstrate to search engines which countries a website is targeting as well as which languages in which products and services are offered.

Analysing international SEO can help identify those who really are competitors abroad but can also ensure that the correct audiences, in their correct languages, are being catered for through the business’s web presence.

Structured Data and Schema Markup

Structured data is that which populates a fixed field within a file.

This markup helps search engines understand how to display and interpret the content within it, and schema is widely agreed upon amongst all of the major search engines so that it remains consistent throughout.

While analysing markup and structured data holds SEO benefits, it also allows webmasters to be sure that their formatting is correct and easy to read by users.

Social Integration

Social media demands a vast amount of hours spent online by the general public, and a huge amount of marketing spend and effort by businesses.

Where content on websites is considered useful, relevant or entertaining, it can also be shared across third party social media channels, expanding its reach and creating link pathways by users back to a website.

Social integration of content can be analysed in order to identify what really works when it comes to creating value for an audience, and will help success be repeated in future content creation.

Penalty and Traffic Drop Analysis

Where traffic drops suddenly from a website or page within it, it is likely that some kind of issue or error has occurred – or even that a search engine penalty has been incurred by the website that has resulted in less traffic being funnelled to it.

It is critical that marketers and webmasters stay on top of any changes in traffic activity as they are likely to indicate a problem. The ongoing analysis of issues provides an immediate indication for change to be made and any errors fixed. Without the identification of this kind of fault, users simply won’t be shown the website, even where other significant SEO work is being carried out.

SEO Keyword Analysis

The way in which engine users actually complete their searches changes all the time as technology develops and language and linguistics change. This means that not only do the keywords and phrases change over time as people’s searches do, but businesses need to amend their own content to meet these needs accordingly.

Keyword analysis can throw up some promising direction to be taken by those creating content in their quest to meet the needs of their audience and also help identify trends in searches that marketers can cater their messaging toward.

Do you require an SEO website analysis to begin putting together the steps of your SEO campaign? Or perhaps you are an agency and require white label SEO support for your customers? The Woya Digital team can help and guide you by following our SEO marketing success strategy. Book an SEO call with us today!