The Importance of SEO for Small Businesses

31, Mar 2022 | SEO

Search Engine Optimisation can seem like a daunting task for brands of all shapes, sizes and types. Big numbers and stupendous statistics often make a topic’s natural association reside with large, multinational corporations, but for SEO this is certainly not the case – it is important for even the smallest of business.

SEO is not just for Big Businesses

While the factors that impact how a business ranks on search engine results pages remain the same no matter the type of organisation or its size (in any terms), how it is practiced and its benefits can vary. SEO is by no means something that only large businesses should focus on, but something for any organisation that may have someone searching for it, or for a relevant product or service.

Of course, it is unlikely that many small businesses will have the same level of investment and resource to pour into their SEO management, but this doesn’t mean it should be any less effective. SEO for small businesses has unique benefits also in terms of location targeting, and can support higher ranking for relevant local users rather than larger companies who are unable to demonstrate the same localised focus.

Combined with a Google Business Profile (previously Google My Business) account, correct (and current) SEO improvement activity can gain easy organic ranking for geographically-appropriate users as well as a map entry, full business profile and even above-the-fold contact information and details. Local rankings are extremely effective as the map prominence really stands out amongst the usual text-only formatting. This can be hugely beneficial for those small businesses with bricks-and-mortar locations.

Although larger corporates are likely to have more budget, this isn’t to say that SEO for small businesses should just be a ‘DIY-when-we-have-time’ job. Instead, it should be delegated to a specialist agency for thorough and effective management.

Affordable SEO for Small Business

SEO for smaller businesses tends to be more finely focused and so can easily be managed on a budget that doesn’t impede on other marketing operations. Woya Digital offer pay monthly SEO packages designed to provide great value SEO for small businesses..

Any SEO agency that insists SEO requires vast amounts of money to be invested into it are chasing revenue and not results.

What does SEO ROI look like?

As with everything, what you get out is a reflection of what you put in – so it’s always worth working with specialists and heeding their advice in order to reap the most benefits.

The ROI of SEO for small businesses will translate into an improved bottom line and business growth over time, but further measures can be more easily identified over the short term. These include:

– higher levels of organic traffic to the brand’s website and any other online presence
– higher levels of visibility through more prominent rankings on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) for related queries (key words or terms)
– higher levels of brand awareness
– more contact queries directed to the business.

SEO efforts should have a discernible impact that can be demonstrated in measured reports within months of their input. SEO is a marketing activity that happens within constantly moving goalposts, so although the journey may not be wholly fluid, it should be always in an upward curve and positive trend. Long term, good SEO will result in higher profits and business growth as well as competitive advantage above others.

Investing in SEO for Small Businesses

The power of SEO for small businesses is often underestimated, because it can seem daunting and complex, as well as considerably time-consuming for organisations who don’t have lots of marketing staff or tech experts to spare. However, as consumer behaviour shifts permanently to increasing online search on mobile devices, SEO cannot be ignored by any business looking to maintain a customer base and gain competitive advantage.

Working with a supportive specialist partner will allow small companies to continue with business-as-usual and rest assured that their online visibility is increasing and exposing their brand, products and services to new relevant audiences.

We take an entirely bespoke approach to every business, managing their SEO in line with their goals and requirements. Monthly reports feed back results achieved and help demonstrate the ‘bang for your buck’, entirely transparently to present value obtained and the ROI gained. Contact the Woya Digital team to discuss how tailored SEO for your small business could help grow your organisation.

Does Blogging Help SEO?

31, Mar 2022 | SEO

The word blog is just 25 years old and the acronym SEO only a little less so – but both are now used daily by millions around the world as part of regular vernacular. Optimising content to best appeal to the programming algorithms behind search engines is a full-time job, and the approaches taken vary widely between businesses of all shapes, sizes and types.

Investing time in creating relevant content for a blog is a popular method of demonstrating expertise, positioning a brand as a thought leader and producing content for marketing online but does blogging help SEO or is it an unnecessary time investment?

Blogging: A Definition

The word blog is an abbreviation of the term ‘weblog’, which when launched back in the 1990s referred to a listing of text, images or other ‘objects’ arranged in a chronological order online and normally hosted on its own domain; not dissimilar to the social media feeds we’re all so au fait with nowadays.

Today, blogging refers to the creation of regular content – usually text and complemented with imagery, videos and other content. No longer just subject to a domain of its own, many blogs now sit within other websites. In the case of businesses, a blog is often used to produce and add content relevant to the brand’s product, service, industry or niche, to the brands website.

Why is Blogging Important?

Blogging has many benefits. And to answer the big question, YES – it does help SEO!

Blogs, when constructed properly with relevant content within, can help search engines identify the theme and intended/appropriate audience of the site and brand. This helps improve organic search engine ranking, but isn’t the only benefit to businesses blogging regularly. The opportunity for link building can reinforce authenticity to search engines; offering more potential for increasing traffic.

The algorithm behind Google and other search engines thrives on websites that produce regular fresh content as this indicates ongoing relevance, a willingness to work and a reinforcement of the purpose, theme and status of an online presence. As search engines ‘crawl’ and index websites, they work through internal link structures to further their understanding of the domain.

The creation of appropriate content through a blog allows brands to position themselves as experts in their field and to act as a thought leader, even where they’re a new or emerging business. This demonstration of expertise will appeal to potential and existing customers as well as other interested parties. The more opportunities that search engines have to understand what a website is about, who it’s for and how it operates, the more likely it is to rank more highly on SERPs (search engine results pages), the entire purpose of SEO activity.

Structuring and Optimising Blogs

One of the first cues that search engines use to comprehend relevance and theme is the written text on a site; from which the algorithm selects and analyses the language used. This means that the usage of language appropriate to the blog is critical for SEO. The inclusion of relevant keywords and key phrases are the most popular way for blog creators to demonstrate the topic of their site to a search engine – but there is a degree of science behind it.

Blog creators should carry out keyword research before they begin to write their blog content, and should structure their blogs according to search engine preferences, with relevant keyword usage in headers and body text. However – and perhaps most essential of all – keywords should only be used in an organic and appropriate manner. If the use of keywords or related phrases simply mean that the text within doesn’t make sense, the search engines will pick up on this and penalise the blog’s SERP rating as a result. Professional blog writers and content creators will be able to work just about any keyword or phrase into their written copy; but this is very much an art and is not a skill held by everyone.

SEO considerations do not just refer to the text on a page, however. Sites must load quickly, be as accessible as possible, be built with responsive design to adapt to whichever browser they’re being viewed on and sit on a secure domain. While these factors may not necessarily sit under the responsibility of a blog creator per se, they should remain under the control of the brand and prioritised as part of their ongoing SEO work.

The Onward Promotion of Blogs

Blogs present the opportunity for marketing across a variety of channels, to reinforce a brand industry leader perception and, they direct users back to a business’ domain.

Links from social media networks, other relevant websites and news sites to blogs all help further demonstrate their use and authenticity to search engines – as well as providing some much needed (and often evergreen) content that can be used as a marketing tool or even lead magnet time and time again.

Regular blogging under a consistent strategy is hugely beneficial to businesses looking to improve their SEO and should not be underestimated in importance of building relationships with customers; both potential and existing. While blogging may seem to some a bit of a wishy-washy practice bound to age, it has lasted the test of time in the virtual world – and will remain a digital priority for anyone serious about ranking well for their audience whenever a relevant query is made through a search engine.

For more information on how our expert blogging team could nurture your brand, contact Woya Digital to discuss service packages and options.

How Many Words Should a Web Page Have for SEO

16, Mar 2022 | SEO, Webdesign

Businesses must work hard to ensure that their web content and digital presence ranks in the right places online for those looking for relevant terms, products and services through search engines (which themselves are ever-evolving and increasingly crowding as more and more online content is published.)

The exact requirements for ranking on search engines in the appropriate results change all the time as the scope of their algorithm and programming develops and improves, but one crucial factor for SEO remains: copy content – the written text on a web page.

Writers, marketers and content creators frequently find themselves faced with briefs for increasingly long copywriting jobs in order to best stand out amongst digital competitors and meet best practice requirements for SEO – but does ‘the more the merrier’ rule really work for search engines, or does quality rule over quantity?

How SEO Works

Search engines work as simple matching machines for those typing in a query to them – matching up what it thinks is relevant content to the term/s entered. SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, is the practice of optimising online content in order for the algorithms behind search engines to recognise it as appropriate and of a sufficient quality in order for it rank highly when a relevant search query is made.

There are three main parts to SEO: the optimisation of the content on websites (organic content), the improvement of the overall user experience of websites (technical) and the usage of paid-for advertising on search engines (ads).

When SEO is written or talked about, it is usually referred to in terms of optimising websites for the algorithm behind Google. As the world’s biggest search engine, it holds an almost 92% market share and so for many is the primary focus before other, more localised search engine services are investigated into.

Optimising Content for Search Engines

For content on a website to be best understood for SEO, it should be clear, held in good context and relevant to the product, service, brand or theme of the website. For most websites, this means hosting content all in one language/dialect, all on a theme or appropriate topic, and written with clear and correct spelling and grammar. Although the programming behind search engines is automated and is entirely computer-based, it is now more accurate than ever.

The latest Google update, BERT (the Bidirectional Encoder Representation) is based on neuro-linguistic programming practices and so is as currently close to human interpretation as possible – so although some common sense should be used in the creation of copy, if a human could understand it, chances are the machine now will too.

How Many Words Should a Web Page Have For Good SEO?

No one knows the exact sweet spot for perfect SEO ranking – and indeed given that indications show the algorithm is updated and tweaked daily, even if they did, it wouldn’t be sustainable or appropriate for long. It has long been suspected that word counts of 1000+ words are best placed to rank well on search engines as this amount gives plenty of context alongside a comprehensive explanation of the topic to those users reading it. This was reflected for many years as high-ranking pages tended to sway toward more longform content compared to shorter, more brief copy.

However, as the Google algorithms have developed and improved in their AI, so too have the requirements for SEO. Now, with smarter programming, search engines are able to comprehend and compute what a website is about and the quality of its content through a lower sample size.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that the requirement for good SEO drops from a 1000+ word count to 800+ or even 500+, but rather that the algorithm switches its focus from quantity to quality. Comparisons of content between high-ranking and low-ranking websites no longer evidence such disparity in the lengths of text provided, but rather in the quality of such text alongside several other ranking factors. This means that the best thing publishers of content online can do is ensure it is of high quality, relevant to the site’s topic and easy-to-read.

Keyword Optimisation

The easiest way to demonstrate the relevant of content to a search engine for SEO purposes is to include the use of appropriate keywords or key terms within it. Keywords and key terms are the words or related words typed into search engines by users when they make a query, meaning the query input is easily matched with a resultant page if their usage is consistent.

Keywords can be researched using a variety of keyword tools but their use within text on a page should be natural and appropriate. It is critical that their use makes sense within the context of the copy and that they remain appropriate to the topic being discussed. Keyword ‘stuffing’, that is, the practice of using as many keywords as possible in text without considering the appropriateness of them, will result in negative SEO and will see pages penalised and ranked down on search engine results pages.

Other SEO Factors

Although content is an important factor on websites, it is no longer the only feature on which a search engine will judge its relevance or prevalence. Webmasters must ensure that their sites are easy-to-navigate, accessible on a range of devices, fast-to-load and that they deliver an all-round positive user experience throughout in order to rank well in SEO terms. There are numerous technical aspects of a website that are taken into consideration alongside the relevance and quality of the text featured and so these too must be optimised.

For support with your business SEO, spanning organic content, technical management and advertising, get in touch with the Woya Digital team. We’re always on-hand to help advise and make recommendations for improvement to help gain competitive advantage and rank as high as possible throughout all relevant search engines.

The Benefits of an SEO Audit

5, Mar 2022 | SEO

What we know about Google’s search algorithm is that it changes almost daily, with up to 200 tweaks and amendments made every year. These constantly moving goalposts is why many businesses struggle to keep on top of their SEO – and why a regular SEO Audit is important.

Where to start with an SEO Strategy

Every business with an online presence should have a strategy in place to ensure that the content they’re producing and publishing digitally ranks where it should on search engines – making and maintaining visibility amongst desired target audiences when they search for related queries online.

Exactly how each brand chooses to approach their SEO will vary, but commonly focused activity tends to include:

- Pages built and content produced for each relevant topic
- The research into and onward usage of relevant keywords and phrases
- A consistent content-producing and publishing schedule
- A plan for link-building
- A process for the development of new pages and sites that includes technical SEO
- Regular updates on the latest ‘best practice’ for SEO updates and strategy.

A comprehensive business SEO strategy will allow content to be produced in a way that plays into the search engine algorithms to keep organic search traffic as high as possible; although often working alongside paid-for ads.

What is an SEO Audit?

An SEO Audit is a full analysis of a website’s features that help or hinder its rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs). This entails analysing its areas of success as well as highlighting any areas where improvements could be made, in accordance with current SEO best practice approaches. An SEO Audit should form the first step in creating a tangible workplan to maintain a healthy SEO approach and to consistently improve performance – so the purpose of it is to build a foundation from which to work.

An audit will uncover any issues within technical SEO, the website structure, on-page SEO, user experience, content gaps, content opportunities, off-site opportunities and competitive marketplace standing; clearly mapping out any areas where changes should or could be made.

Although a very basic check through of any website for SEO purposes can be carried out by anyone with the relevant knowhow, it is always recommended that businesses use an SEO specialist for a comprehensive site audit. This provides more technical expertise as well as ensuring the latest in SEO best practice is adhered to; particularly important when you consider the constantly changing Google algorithm.

Why is an SEO Audit important?

A common misconception amongst brands is that as long as your website contains plenty of relevant keywords, it will rank well on search engines. Whilst this may have been the case many years ago, the Google algorithm has long moved on from the simple search of appropriate words and terms. Instead, high SEO ranking now relies upon a vast variety of factors including technical aspects of a website, accessibility functions and links from other trusted and authentic sources – although exactly what combination of successful factors is paramount is unknown.

SEO Audits immediately and discreetly highlight any areas for improvement, so any broken links, missed keyword opportunities or small technical amendments can be fixed. The constant changes to websites combined with human error means that mistakes do happen; and an SEO Audit can ensure they are swiftly rectified with minimum disruption to the site’s rankings.

Regular SEO audits are an essential way to ensure that a website is being worked on in the most appropriate way to adhere to current best practice in an ever-changing environment.

How often should an SEO Audit be carried out?

SEO Audits should be carried out regularly but not so often that the business doesn’t have the chance to enact any required changes and see the difference they make. Ideally, a comprehensive review of the site managed by an expert will take place either every quarter or every six months; with actions taken from it to improve the SEO position as quickly as possible once delivered.

Even if a business is managing their own SEO requirements without the involvement of a specialist service, it is recommended that they invest in a professional SEO Audit at least twice a year to assert their position and reinforce that the actions being taken are correct.

Free SEO Auditing Services

If you are paying for SEO services and do not receive regular reports, or find that your business isn’t feeling the benefits of the service, you should absolutely have an independent SEO audit carried out by a separate SEO provider. This will show you if the services you are paying for are being carried out as they should. Every SEO provide should provide their clients month reports.

At Woya Digital, we offer a free SEO audit report service. Request yours now.

Google SEO Ranking Factors

2, Mar 2022 | Digital Marketing, SEO

Search engines present what they deem to be relevant search results to users looking up various keywords and phrases, and to do this, their automated algorithm programs ‘crawl’ web content continuously.

These crawls pull up a variety of data and intelligence on websites, using this information to understand what a site is about, who its relevant for and what it offers. The elements of a website that are scanned and used by the search engine algorithms to determine where and how to rank them are known as SEO ranking factors.

It’s not known exactly how many webpages or websites are crawled by Google’s systems daily, but we do know that hundreds of billions of pages are scanned continuously; primarily based on previous searches made by search engine users. The crawlers work through site maps, paying attention to the usability and performance of the site overall, links to and from it, changes made to pages it has crawled before, and the content on the site itself.

Each of these SEO ranking factors are taken into account and this helps the system decide where to display a website on relevant SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

What are Google’s SEO Ranking Factors?

There is a common misconception that the only influence on search engine ranking is the written content within a website – and this has resulted in lots of websites being full of content that is stuffed with as many keywords and phrases as possible.

While this was effective in the early days of SEO, technology has moved on vastly since and this activity is now penalised by Google. There are now over 200 SEO ranking factors for Google alone.

Google’s SEO ranking factors change continuously and the algorithm changes and tweaks daily; so it’s nigh-on impossible to hit exactly the right spot for top organic SEO ranking all of the time. The 200+ SEO ranking factors that Google currently refers to includes, by is by no means limited to:

Domain factors – security, keywords in domain, domain history, geographic registration
Page-level factors – keyword usage, tags and meta data, content, page load speeds, image optimisation, responsiveness
Site-level factors – site architecture, site uptime, site navigation, Core Web Vitals
Backlink factors – links to and from the site and the authenticity of the sites linking
User interaction – user behaviour, content interaction, traffic, bookmarks
Algorithm rules – geo-targeting, safe search, shopping results, YouTube results, local results
Brand signals – branded text, branded searches, linked social media accounts
On-site webspam – pop-ups and ads, poor quality content, hidden links, on-site spamming
Off-site webspam – site hacking, unnatural links, fake links, fake likes, spam traffic.

This variety in ranking factors highlights just how much ongoing work there is to be done to demonstrate to Google how useful and genuine a business’ website is.

Ranking Factors for other search engines

Google has by far the highest market share of search engines. However, there are audiences using search engines other than just Google.

SEO ranking factors aren’t made entirely public for all search engines, but all of the algorithms operate along roughly the same lines. There are some differences that should be noted, though, including:

Bing have commented publicly that social media is a very influential factor in their SEO
Yahoo relies heavily on Bing’s search algorithm and so optimising for Bing will too optimise for Bing
DuckDuckGo does not track users and so results are never based on search history
Baidu hugely favours domains registered in China
Amazon essentially relies entirely on keywords.

Generally speaking, it is best to follow all of the principles of Google SEO in order to rank on other search engines too.

The Importance of Optimising SEO Ranking Factors

Google is an increasingly competitive search engine with 8.5 billion searches carried out daily, so there’s no shortage of traffic. If businesses are to gain competitive advantage over competitors, they must focus on SEO to ensure that they rank higher, are more likely to be found online.

The Most Important SEO Ranking Factors for Google

Not all SEO ranking factors are equal. Although there is no complete transparency over which are exactly the most influential in ranking score, the most important factors are more user-focused than content-focused.

Google prioritises site security, responsiveness and its overall customer experience as a very important SEO ranking factor. This also includes the crawlability of sites – because if it can’t be ‘crawled’, it can’t be assessed for ranking in SERPs.

Content does form an important part of SEO, and Google now considers high quality content more eminent than the presence of relevant keywords and phrases; although they too do influence.

SEO management involves a careful and curated balance of all elements of a website in order to provide the best and most relevant user experience possible – and this acts as an extension of the brand’s overall customer experience. This makes good business sense and cannot be underestimated in its contribution to the overarching brand perception.

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