How SEO Works: Simplified

by Natalie Karr | 2 Mar 2021 | SEO, White Label SEO

Reading Time: 6 minutes

The three letters SEO are known all too well by those working in digital marketing, but often remains the domain of technical specialists and so misunderstood by others.

The acronym SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, which is indeed a technical practice, but there are vast benefits to it being understood by everyone in a business – especially where business owners are looking to pay for (or already pay for) SEO services.

While there’s really no need for everyone to comprehend the technicalities behind SEO, the basics can be helpful and so here we drill down to the foundations of SEO practice and take it step-by-step to help explain how SEO works, in an easy-to-understand way.

What is SEO?

SEO is the process of optimising content on a website so that the machine-learning algorithms behind search engines are able to identify their relevance and presence, placing them as high up on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) as possible.

When we talk about SEO, we are primarily referring to the optimisation practices required to best boost a website’s exposure on Google. This is because Google holds (by far) the majority market share in most countries and territories when it comes to visitors, and so it drives more traffic than its competitors.

That said, there are areas worldwide where Google is not the most popular search engine – but, broadly speaking, working on SEO for Google will not inhibit the performance on other search engines and so activities can be enacted no matter the specific focus.

When A User Searches

For the maximum efficiency, digital marketing departments should link their SEO actions to every point of the search process. First, a user performs a search by typing their query into a search engine – usually a keyword or phrase, but occasionally a full question. Immediately, they are then presented with results deemed appropriate by the algorithm; and that are hopefully helpful to answer the query made.

In order to judge the order in which the results are ranked on the SERPs, there are two main factors considered by the search engine’s AI:

Relevance – the search engine must be able to scan through the content on the page and judge it to be appropriate to the user’s search term. Where the keyword or phrase has more than one meaning, it should be the appropriate one for the intended query; which can be a challenge for machine learning.
Authority – the search engine must be able to judge that the webpage (and overall site) that it is directing to must be trustworthy and safe for the user to visit.

How to Demonstrate Relevance and Authority

A business’ web content must demonstrate its relevancy and authority in order to rank on search engine results for user searches made appropriately to the theme or topic.

In order to demonstrate relevance, a website’s content must clearly demonstrate its overarching theme, topics and niche. Search engine’s programming determines this through its content including words, keyword usage, meta tags, videos, imagery and comments.

This allows the machine learning to build up a picture of what the site is about and who it would be relevant for.

This makes it critical for websites’ content to remain relevant to its key theme or topic, to be presented in a way that is appropriate for the audience and to be useful enough that it can be easily shared. Those producing web content for the site must ensure that relevant keywords, phrases and language is used throughout all published content and copy – and in technical areas such as tags and names.

In order for a website to demonstrate authority, it must appear genuine and trustworthy. This is most commonly demonstrated through safety and security authentication as well as links from other sites (and links to other sites) appropriate to the theme.

If other domains online deem the site relevant and honourable enough to link to, a search engine will take that to be a positive reference and endorsement of authenticity, appropriateness and trustworthiness.

The Two Main Types of SEO

There are two primary types of SEO:

On-page SEO – SEO activity that it is carried out on a webpage and is created and curated by the business.
Off-page SEO – SEO activity that is carried out on other websites linking back to it.

On-page SEO is usually the first port of call for those looking to improve their exposure on search engines.

This includes, but is by no means limited to:

- The basic coding of a page should be well tagged with keywords and phrases used
- Site architecture should be easy-to-navigate with a comprehensive site map in place
- Content should be published that is relevant, engaging and shareable
- Links between internal sources should be clearly marked and functioning correctly
- Images must be appropriate to the site’s theme
- All content should load quickly and be well accessible.

Once a site’s basic SEO functions have been optimised, a business can turn its focus to off-page SEO. Generally speaking, this includes, but is not limited to:

- Links put in place to the site from others (preferably from high-authority sites)
- PR and social media campaigns launched to generate interest and discussion of the brand
- Facilitation of reviews on third-party websites mentioning or linking back to the site.

Both on-page and off-page SEO combine to help best demonstrate to search engine algorithms the appropriateness of ranking a site well when certain queries are made by users.

While on-page SEO should be managed first, the impact of off-page should not be underestimated and will contribute toward the overall efforts made, particularly when it comes to demonstrating the authenticity and authority of the site to the search engine algorithms.

Check out our SEO packages for smaller businesses

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Judging SEO Success

There are several measures by which businesses can judge the success of their SEO efforts – but it must be noted that all SEO activities should be enacted on a ongoing basis and not as a one-off piece of work.

How to monitor the continual progress of SEO work is often misjudged by those who don’t understand how it all works – it can be more complex than expected!

Domain Authority

Every website has a DA (Domain Authority). A DA is a score given to a site numbered between 1-100 that ranks how likely it is to show up highly on SERPs, typically with 1 as the lowest and 100 as the highest.

Exactly what is considered a high score varies between industry but generally speaking, anything above 25 can be thought of as good. Positive and fruitful SEO efforts will elevate a website’s DA score and so this improving over time can indicate progress made.

It is worth noting, however, that DA (and indeed, further search ranking) is impacted heavily by the age of a domain – as search engines are unable to build up a picture of authenticity or reliability on an immature website. This may disadvantage new businesses in the short term but the DA score will soon build and rankings improve.

Search Rankings

Perhaps the most notable example of SEO success is the SERP ranking presented when you type in a relevant query. However, this used as a measure of success in the simplest term does not work as accurately as many would assume – because there’s a lot more at play when it comes to displaying search results than most think!

While search engine rankings are what is being targeted with SEO work, it is not often that any two people typing in a matching query will be met with the same rankings. This is because the search engine takes into account the person’s search history, location and personal settings when presenting results – and so a quick check often won’t highlight the most accurate ranking.

There are specialist tools that can be used to judge the ranking of a website. It is always recommended that businesses use specialists in this space rather than trying to search for their own sites in order to avoid influencing traffic levels inaccurately.

What’s more, specific specialist services will be able to advise on areas for improvement as well as a more direct picture of action vs influence when it comes to DA improvement and SERP exposure.

Combining this with other factors such as paid-for advertisement placements, backlinking strategies and PR campaigns can help hugely improve SERP performance as well as positive public perception and brand image.

While SEO efforts are often best left to specialists in the field as well as technical web experts, there is benefit to everyone in a business understanding how and why it works. This allows for everyone to do their bit and play their part to contribute toward a wider positive public perception of the brand; both online and off.

Woya White Label SEO Services

by Natalie Karr | 18 Jan 2021 | Digital Marketing, White Label SEO

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Whether you’re a web developer, digital marketer, designer or content manager, you already know how vital SEO is to everything we do online.The challenge for many businesses is that SEO is complex, varied, and requires expert knowledge.

Offering a professional SEO support service isn’t just a great way to expand your audience reach, and add value for your existing clients. It can also boost your services by delivering tangible, quantifiable results that back-up the work you specialise in.

So, what’s the best option if you’re considering adding SEO to your offering, or want to upgrade your client services?

Employ a fully trained, skilled and experienced SEO expert, or team of staff.
Undertake appropriate qualifications to upskill, with regular updates as standards evolve, algorithms change, and your clients grow.
OR – consider Woya White Label SEO Services

Here we’ll run through the benefits of adding SEO to your repertoire, and why a white label SEO service is a cost-effective, bespoke choice that will transform your returns.

Why is SEO Such a Sought After Service?

Simply put, business thrives and dies online.

A study published last year to try and clarify how important digital traffic is to business success found that:

An incredible 93% of website traffic arrives through a search engine – so, if your clients are not ranked, or are difficult to find online, they might be restricting their business to just 7% of the potential market share.
Marketing agencies who offer clients a combination of organic and paid search engine advertising generate 25% more clicks and a 27% higher return on investment. Therefore, if you design incredible websites, or put together awesome advertising campaigns, you NEED outstanding SEO to realise the achievable returns!
There are around 70,000 searches on Google every second of the day. We all know that there are many search engines, but given that Google has the lion’s share of the market, to get in on that action, your clients need a fast-moving SEO strategy to keep pace with the demands of a fluctuating algorithm.

These stats are just a snippet of the data out there – but quantify some of the key reasons businesses and self-employed professionals are crying out for SEO that delivers.

Benefits and Applications of our White Label SEO Services

As we summarised at the start of this article, you have a few options when it comes to adding SEO to your catalogue.

For many digital service providers, particularly freelancers, small businesses and agencies, the costs of employing a full-time SEO team are unviable. Costs include:

High-level salaries for the most skilled SEO professionals.
The need to have a varied team to cover all SEO applications depending on your client base’s needs.
Regular training refreshes and courses as SEO best practice changes.

SEO isn’t always straightforward, and to achieve the best outcomes requires diligence, time, professional strategising, and continual oversight to evaluate performance and make tweaks as needed.

Therefore, it isn’t just a case of hiring an SEO employee. To deliver real results, you need to invest substantially in allocating time to that crucial service area. White Label SEO offers a streamlined solution, to allow you to offer best in class SEO to all of your clients, without any of the extra outlay, and all of the returns.

You commission Woya as your white label SEO provider to carry out defined services, according to the packages you sell to your clients, all delivered under your branding.
Access to a team of highly experienced SEO pros at the top of their game – offering their services to your clients through your business channels, at a fraction of the cost of employing a similarly qualified team member.
Fast, tailored SEO services adapted to your business sector.
Cost-effective packages, enabling you to expand, change, or reduce your SEO service offerings, with zero impact on your bottom line.

You can offer SEO as an add-on to your existing work; for example, as a web developer, you might provide a premium package to include a website audit, and have the opportunity to position yourself as a serious competitor with a full-service offering.

Some digital marketing businesses require a comprehensive SEO option, all of which can be delivered on a white label basis, with you retaining direct communication and relationships with your clients.

Prices are all agreed in advance, and flexible depending on your workload. Therefore, you can pick and choose what SEO you want to offer, price up your services accordingly, and have complete control over your profit margins.

White Label SEO Packages for Businesses

We know that all businesses are busy! Your bottom line matters, your time is limited, and you need fuss-free solutions to meet your business growth aspirations.

To make the process as straightforward as possible, Woya offers a selection of white label SEO packages to choose from. It’s up to you whether at any point in time you’d like us to take over a piece of work if deadlines are working against you, or if you’d prefer to retain any particular task.

Some of our most popular white label SEO packages include:

Initial On-Site SEO, from £390 per month for three months. Ideal for new clients, to cement your relationship and build on their opportunities for success! SEO includes crafting a solid optimisation plan, implementing the vital actions, and providing white label reporting, under your business branding.
Standard Markets SEO, from £1095 per month. You’ll need this package for clients competing in regular market conditions who need an ongoing, dedicated SEO service to carve out their market share, provide continuous improvements and growth, and evolve as quickly as the business climate changes.
Competitive Markets SEO, from £795 per month. If you work with clients in an area of rapid growth, heavy competition, and huge potential profits, your SEO needs to pack a punch to make a difference. Woya works on behalf of clients in some of the most lucrative industries, providing ongoing, dedicated support across all SEO areas.

Woya offers the full spectrum of SEO, so whether you’d like to add an SEO link-building service to your marketing packages, need a professional to take over client communications to get their SEO on point, or would like ad hoc services to avoid signposting a valued client to another business, we’ve got your back.

The Woya Difference – Reseller SEO That Makes Sense

We’re not your typical SEO agency.

We don’t create limiting, off-the-shelf packages that have a minimal capacity.
We don’t offer SEO that ticks all the boxes but doesn’t add up.

What we do is maximise business growth, throwing the weight of our years of market-leading SEO expertise to deliver the ultimate returns for your clients, at an affordable price to your business.

Our team is continually expanding. We have a large team of pros who work around the clock to dramatically improve businesses online visibility, and create a digital presence that stands out from the crowd.

Woya works with clients of all sizes, offering white label SEO to enhance your business scope. From freelance web designers to established marketers, new businesses who want to create a compelling service offering, to experienced digital marketing teams who would like to improve their SEO services, without putting a massive strain on their budget.

Check out our white label SEO service reseller packages online for more detail about what’s included – or give us a call for a chat to see how we can support your business!

Why SEO is Critical for Your Online Business Growth

by Natalie Karr | 18 Jul 2020 | SEO, Digital Marketing

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Small business marketing is often a case of having to pick and choose which strategies to implement and campaigns to operate within a tight budget and without a great deal of resource. Yet the real investment to be made in online marketing and business development is often a technical one – and that is, SEO (or Search Engine Optimisation to refer to it by its full name).

SEO can make or break a website, but what is it, how does it work, who ‘does’ it and how can you manage it? Read on for the full lowdown and to answer the most common questions that we get asked regarding online business growth.

What is Search Engine Optimisation?

Search Engine Optimisation is the intensification of a website’s content for it to become as noticeable as possible to the automated algorithms of search engines – preferably boosting its profile to the top of search engine results pages (or SERPs, for short). With search engines bringing up hundreds of thousands of results for most words and phrases searched, identifying relevant information for users is key.

SEO is a marketing practice in its own right and should absolutely form part of any company’s digital marketing strategy for online business growth.

Why is SEO SO Important for Online Business Growth?

The world ‘google’ is as much a verb now as it is a name, and society is increasingly dependent on the search engines they can access through their smartphones and other tech devices to find information quickly and efficiently.

Businesses should view search engines as a marketing channel. Any person looking for a product, service or industry relevant to them should be able to easily access information on their brand; so that they can gain awareness of the brand and its products/services, and ideally, eventually, make a purchase.

SEO is important for businesses because as society moves more and more online, so do their buying habits. There are very few industries not yet with any online presence at all; and for those that do have some, businesses without any SEO will find that their brand is ranked below the search engine results displaying information on their competitors.

SEO is imperative amongst small business marketing and online business growth as it is something that can deliver an inordinate amount of results for a relatively small outlay of finance and resource.

How Does SEO Work?

SEO works by tapping into the automated programming within search engines that determines where to rank what in terms of the results individuals using the search see. This is achieved by ensuring that the algorithm recognises a website as relevant, appropriate, genuine and an expert in a specific niche. It should be able to judge the who, what, where, when, how and why about a brand… just from a millisecond automated scan of the content on its website!

Put simply: search engines are library catalogues. The programs that manage them are the librarians.

The exact ways SEO works change all the time as algorithms and programming develop and grow. The technology involved in search engine operation is always improving and so SEO is never just a job to be done once and never again – businesses serious about it should aim to continuously advance and enhance their efforts toward it.

What Benefit Does Good SEO Give a Business Over Poor SEO?

Good SEO increases a brand’s visibility in search rankings, so when done better than a competitor, gives competitive advantage.

Being top of the search rankings for a relevant search to your business isn’t just important – it’s damn near imperative!

Think of your own search engine behaviours. Do you scroll through pages and pages of results to find the info you want or do you just click through to the first few? Your business needs to be where people will see it, otherwise it will lose out to those who are.

What Do SEO Services Include?

Some marketers have training in SEO and can implement it and optimise a website and its content, however this training needs to be taken in a continuous cycle and the content updated with it. If you are going to invest in SEO services, we highly recommend working with an SEO expert.

SEO experts are consultants who stay up to date with the near daily changes and are able to use this knowledge to implement SEO into a site on an ongoing basis, for best results and online business growth.

Being an SEO specialist is a full-time job. SEO consultants have to ensure every part of a website fits with the current search engine algorithms. That includes, but is by no means limited to: ensuring all written content is optimised, ensuring the website page layouts are optimised and work across different devices, building backlinks to and from other websites to build authority, ensuring every page on a website is tagged and categorised correctly, ensuring every image on a website is tagged and categories correctly, and ensuring that all the ‘backend’ data of a website is optimised.

How Long Does SEO Implementation Take?

The development of good SEO isn’t just a job that can be done once and then not re-visited. The nature of the internet and search engine technology is that it changes all of the time, so it needs to be a continual focus for businesses who want to remain at the top of their game online (and at the top of the search engines!).

It’s impossible to say how long an initial review and ‘go over’ of a brand’s website would take, as it depends on two factors: how bad the website’s SEO currently is, and how much content is on the site. However, an SEO specialist will be able to advise on the initial work required and then recommend an ongoing plan to keep on top of the situation.

SEO specialists are worth their weight in gold, and seeking one out is one of the most effective marketing strategies a small business can invest in. Ranking ahead of the competition in a marketing method where people are already seeking out relevant information? It’s a win-win!

Woya Digital is a digital marketing agency focussed on your business growth! Our SEO packages are paid monthly with no upfront investment making our service affordable for any size business! Get your FREE SEO Website Audit Report NOW!

Local Citations to put your Business on the (Google) Map

by Steve OBrien | 16 Dec 2019 | Digital Marketing, SEO

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Businesses (especially smaller ones) have to do whatever they can to get their name heard, and with the internet providing everyone the opportunity to carve out their own little space online, it can often be difficult to stand out from the crowd.

When targeting customers or potential customers in a specific geographic area, local citations can be key to a business ranking highly on Google maps. A small focus on SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) can boost your profile on Google and help you feature higher than your competitors.

What are Local Citations

A ‘local citation’ isn’t a Google term, but instead refers to a really basic form of marketing on the internet. It is simply an instance of your business’ NAP (that is: business Name, Address and Phone number) appearing online – be that on your website or on others. This may be in business directories, press articles, advertiser sites or reviews of your firm.

How Do Local Citations Benefit a Local Business

Aside from it being a small ad boost, every time someone sees your information; a local citation helps reiterate to Google (and therefore Google Maps) that you are a leading business in your area and that you are a genuine business. Google’s algorithms are well developed to identify spam and disingenuous entries and so good, organic reach through local citations is an easy way for it to understand proper local businesses.

What are the Elements of a Local Citation

The three main elements of a local citation are your NAP: business Name, Address and Phone number. The key is to keep them entirely consistent throughout all citations online – any differentiator will break the link between the citation and it relating directly to your business. It may be worth considering therefore if you have a ‘Ltd’ in your name or a space/unusual capitalisation/sub-brands, that you instead revert to one shorter name for your public-facing communications to avoid any confusion.

Other elements that may be included in citations (but aren’t imperative) include e-mail addresses and links to social media profiles. Where you can, keep the names of such profiles consistent and ensure you refer to yourself in the same way across all of your marketing.

Why Local Citations Matter

Local citations are the best way for Google’s automated algorithms to understand who you are and where you are; and that you’re genuine! The internet is full of bots and false entries, and citations are genuine reviews to show you’re not one of them. Citations alone are responsible for about 10% of Google’s decision in who to rank where on Maps, and with 76% of visitors accessing local results and then visiting one of the businesses featured within 24hrs, it’s a no-brainer that it’s an area of your online presence worth investing in!

Search marketing, SEO or search engine optimisation helps websites to rank well in Google and other search engines. At Woya Digital we are specialists in small business growth through digital marketing, including Local SEO services. We make SEO services affordable for small businesses through our pay monthly marketing packages, with no upfront investment. Find out more about how we can support your business growth!

Latest Google Update Released

by Steve OBrien | 25 Sep 2019 | General, SEO

Reading Time: 3 minutes

We seem to have entered an age where everyone blames their social media, web content or marketing related failures on ‘algorithms’; even if perhaps that’s not really the case. In an attempt to stop internet users scapegoating their tech updates, Google yesterday, for the second time announced a broad core algorithm update in advance of it actually happening and impacting on websites. What does a Google update actually mean for your business and web presence? Read on ….

What is a Google Broad Core Algorithm Update?

‘Broad core algorithm updates’ aren’t specifically aimed at combatting any one issue, but rather at improving Google’s overall systems efficiency. These updates can take anything from a few hours to a few days to roll out across all content online. Whilst there’s no set schedule for these updates to take place, they do usually happen every few months. This means that what can be considered ‘Google friendly’ content changes frequently.

What happens when a Google Update is implemented?

The effects of algorithm updates vary depending on exactly what work has been done ‘behind the scenes’. The most notable impact is usually a change in the search rankings of content; so you may find your pages suddenly rank considerably higher or lower than they did before. This happens as Google reassesses all of its content to better align it and list it out.

For businesses who rely heavily on organic search for traffic to their websites and resulting sales, any change in SEO situation can have devastating effects if not managed adequately. It’s important, therefore, to work on your website optimisation regularly.

What should I do about a Google Broad Core Algorithm Update?

Monitor the situation when it comes to your SEO. Any pages that have dropped in the rankings aren’t necessarily being penalised for poor content but may just sit differently alongside new criteria standards. Regardless, action should be taken after each update to ensure that your rankings are able to recover. No one set action will guarantee full recovery but doing nothing will almost definitely inhibit any chances of it – even if another update is just around the corner!

When creating new content, it’s important for it to remain as relevant and current as possible. It is this, and not necessarily stuffing pages with keywords and links, that will help the content stay well ranked. Seek advice from SEO experts and work with them at each update, staying mindful that the approach to take will need to differ every time, dependent on what changes have been implemented.

How soon can SEO action taken recover a site from a Google Brand Core Algorithm Update?

There’s a common misconception that any remedial action taken won’t take effect until the next algorithm update is run. That’s not true: any recovery should be noticeable the next time that an automated ‘crawler’ (a bot that scans the site’s content to judge its fit amongst other pages and analyse where it should sit in the search rankings) scans it. This happens periodically and doesn’t wait for further updates. This means that rapid recovery is achievable, if effective action is taken quickly.

At Woya Digital we are constantly work to ensure that our clients website SEO is optimised and brought in line with constant security and Google updates. Take advantage of our awesome Instant FREE SEO Site Audit Report which we’ll send you to highlight all the things that can be improved on your website, and to optimise your website SEO ranking.