Leveraging LinkedIn Personal Branding: Growth Tactics in the Finance Sector

by Steve OBrien | 19 Aug 2024 | Digital Marketing, Finance

Reading Time: 7 minutes

In the highly competitive finance sector, establishing a strong personal brand from LinkedIn personal branding, writing guest posts and articles has become a professional necessity for those wanting to stand out and grow their business. As digital marketing evolves, finance professionals need to leverage online presence to their advantage to build credibility, social proof and start to drive significant business growth.

At Woya Digital we always want to understand more and research what works in our specialist sectors. We asked 12 finance industry thought leaders questions about the benefits of a professional personal brand and how utilising LinkedIn personal branding can achieve business goals. From sharing expert insights and blogs about financial topics to participating in groups and publishing authoritative content, these strategies could help you position yourself as a trusted expert, attract new clients, and ultimately propel your overall finance business to new heights.

Read the LinkedIn Personal Branding insights from the finance industry experts who we asked the question: “Can you explain how building your personal brand online has supported your business growth within the finance sector?”

Table of Contents

Establish Credibility Through Insight Sharing

Building my personal brand online has significantly contributed to my business growth in the finance sector. By sharing insights and expertise through various platforms, I’ve established credibility and trust with my audience. Engaging in discussions about market trends and innovative strategies has attracted potential clients and collaborators who resonate with my vision.

This visibility allows me to connect with industry leaders, opening doors for partnerships and networking opportunities. My brand embodies my commitment to transparency and education, which appeals to customers seeking reliable information. A strong personal brand has transformed my online presence into a powerful asset that drives both engagement and revenue.

Ace Zhuo, Business Development Director (Sales and Marketing)
Tech & Finance Expert, TradingFXVPS

Expand Business by Blogging Financial Topics

Building an online personal brand has been crucial for expanding my business. By regularly blogging about financial-planning topics and sharing insights on LinkedIn, I’ve increased my visibility and established expertise. Traffic to my website has grown over 50% this year, leading to numerous new clients.

Early on, I struggled to attract high-net-worth clients. To overcome this, I began writing extensively about issues important to business owners and executives, like tax planning and succession planning. Publishing this content built credibility and trust, allowing me to reach key decision-makers.

Connecting with other thought leaders has amplified my messaging. Appearing on podcasts like Sharkpreneur and co-authoring articles with attorneys and CPAs has expanded my network and referral base. Collaborating with complementary professionals is a win-win, raising awareness for all parties involved. While time-consuming, building a personal brand through education and community involvement has been integral to scaling my business.

For those looking to grow, start by identifying your key audience, develop relevant content and expertise, then find ways to distribute that knowledge to the people who need it most.

David Blain, CFA, Chief Executive Officer,
BlueSky Wealth Advisors

Enhance Reputation with Financial Tips

Building my personal brand online has been crucial for growing Leverage in the finance sector. By sharing useful financial tips and updates on LinkedIn and our blog, I’ve connected with more people and built trust.

For instance, posting weekly financial advice on LinkedIn sparked great conversations and boosted my visibility. This has attracted new clients looking for reliable guidance.

Engaging with followers by answering questions and joining discussions has created a community around Leverage. Clients feel more connected and confident in our services.

Hosting webinars and online workshops has also helped us reach a wider audience and showcase our expertise. These sessions often lead to new business inquiries.

Overall, building my personal brand online has enhanced our reputation, expanded our client base, and supported Leverage’s growth.

Rhett Stubbendeck, CEO & Co-Founder,
Leverage Planning

Develop Personal Brand for Market Authority

In the early days of any business, developing a personal brand allows your target market to put a face to your business. It enables you to establish domain authority and credibility with your prospective customers. I had a stated goal of publishing on LinkedIn daily in 2022—this was around the same time I was launching my business.

In that first year of posting consistently, I was able to develop a personal brand that became synonymous with the business I am building. It’s been helpful for the market to attribute value to the business based on the thought leadership that is developed on the personal side. The next step in the equation is to segment personal brand from business brand in order to reduce the marketing dependency on me, the founder.

Roman Villard, Founder,
Full Send Finance

Roman Villard - Featured

Boost Visibility Through Forum Participation

I boosted my professional presence by actively participating in online forums and discussion groups. By consistently providing valuable insights and practical advice, I positioned myself as a knowledgeable and reliable expert in my field. This proactive engagement improved my visibility and credibility, leading to meaningful connections with potential clients impressed by my expertise.

Focus on joining relevant industry forums and groups, addressing common issues with well-researched content, and engaging thoughtfully with members. This strategy will elevate your reputation, broaden your network, and attract clients who value your expertise and are more likely to seek your services.

Sacha Ferrandi, Founder & Principal,
Source Capital

Sacha Ferrandi - Featured

Share Industry Information for Business Growth

As a tech CEO in the finance sector, building an online personal brand has been like growing a robust digital portfolio. By consistently sharing relevant industry information and our company’s advancements, I’ve made our brand a standout in the finance realm. Potential clients and industry partners have a clear picture of our expertise and dedication, and this clarity drives them toward us. Essentially, my online personal brand has significantly expanded our reach and accelerated our business growth.

Abid Salahi, Co-founder & CEO,
FinlyWealth

Become Thought Leader in Finance Sector

By regularly sharing my insights and expertise on bridging loans, commercial mortgages, development finance, and business loans, I’ve been able to establish myself as a thought leader in the industry. This visibility has helped me reach a wider audience, connecting with potential clients and industry peers who might not have come across my services otherwise.

Maintaining an active online presence has allowed me to stay current with industry trends and shifts, ensuring that my knowledge and strategies are always up-to-date. Engaging with my audience through social media and other online platforms has also fostered a sense of community and trust, which is crucial in finance. This direct line of communication has enabled me to respond to enquiries quickly and provide personalised advice, further strengthening client relationships and driving business growth.

Gary Hemming, Commercial Lending Director,
ABC Finance Limited

Showcase Expertise in Publications

I work in the B2C finance sector (secondary mortgage market). When private mortgage holders consider selling a note, trust and authority are big factors. As the public face of my company, it’s not just the company’s brand that matters, but also my personal brand. Being featured in publications like GoBankingRates, Yahoo Finance, or Realtor.com helps tremendously in showcasing the expertise. Unfortunately, there are some black sheep in the industry, but people are getting smarter in vetting them out.

Abby Shemesh, Chief Acquisitions Officer,
Amerinote Xchange

Build Trust Through LinkedIn Insights

In finance, everything is based on trust. Building my personal brand online has had to do with establishing credibility and showing experience. Sharing insights on LinkedIn and speaking at industry events have been ways to help establish me as an intellectual leader in the business community and drive business opportunities from people who value my different perspective. My online presence has become a magnet for business growth, allowing me to forge real connections and create a reputation that speaks for itself.

Chris Yang, Co-founder,
Coins Value

Chris Yang - Featured

Attract Clients with Credible Content

By sharing insightful content and engaging with industry trends, I’ve established credibility and attracted a loyal audience. This visibility has led to increased client trust and opportunities, positioning me as a thought leader and driving business expansion.

Alan Noblitt, President,
Seascape Capital, LLC

Connect Broadly with Authentic Content

Building my personal brand online has been a game-changer for my business growth. It all started with consistent and authentic content. Sharing my insights and experiences helped me connect with a broader audience. People began to see me as a trustworthy source of information in legal funding. I made it a point to respond to comments and messages on LinkedIn, which built a sense of community. This interaction helped me better understand my audience’s needs, allowing me to tailor my services to meet those needs more effectively.

Jared Stern, Owner and Marketing Manager,
LawsuitLoans.io

Create Relatable and Engaging Digital Presence

Building my personal brand online has really supported my business growth in the finance sector. Our firm encourages advisors to develop personal brands and sees it as a great perk for employees. With the firm’s support, we now create content in a more relaxed and genuine way, which helps us stand out and build authority in our field.

When you’re recognised as an expert, it’s easier to connect with people and form valuable partnerships, which can benefit both parties’ businesses. A strong personal brand attracts higher-quality investors and clients because people prefer experts to solve their problems. Plus, being established as an authority allows you to charge premium prices because clients are willing to pay more for trusted experts.

For me, creating a personal brand means making finance relatable and straightforward. I keep my digital presence engaging and accessible, from LinkedIn profiles to website bios. I also make sure to engage with clients actively on social media, avoiding a one-way interaction. This way, I build trust and credibility, positioning myself as an authoritative figure in financial planning and wealth management.

Eric Croak, CFP, President,
Croak Capital

Ready to give your personal brand an online boost? Get in touch with our financial services SEO team today and let’s discuss how Woya Digital can support your personal finance brand, LinkedIn personal branding and digital PR campaign.

Link Building Strategies in SEO for Finance Businesses

by Natalie Karr | 30 Jul 2024 | SEO

Reading Time: 5 minutes

At its core, search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies are all about making sure your website looks its best in the eyes of Google. From boosting your load speeds to keyword research, these strategies come together to make up your overall SEO strategy, to create a pretty impressive website with a clear focus on customer experience.

But, not every financial services sector SEO tactic takes place on your website. There are some techniques that work hard behind the scenes to push your business up the search rankings, one of which is link building. To make sure you don’t skip this subtle but mighty tactic within your SEO strategy, we’ve put together a no-nonsense guide with everything you need to know.

Table of Contents

What Is Link Building?

In the world of SEO, link building is sort of like collecting green flags for your website. Every time an authoritative site adds a link that points to you, a little (metaphorical) green flag pops up next to your name, letting search engines know that you’re a more credible source.

The more credible the website that links to you, the bigger your green flag will be. Secure a link from a government page, online newspaper, or industry leader and you’re winning at financial services SEO. This can increase your domain authority (DA), which in turn boosts your overall SEO. It makes a lot of sense when you think about it. If lots of other quality websites trust your content enough to link their audiences to it, it must be good, right? Google thinks so, anyway.

There are different types of links to be aware of during link building, including:

Backlinks: These are the links that point to your website from a third-party site. For example, if a local, online newspaper publishes a story about your business opening and includes a link to your website, this would be a backlink.
Outbound links: These are links that point from your website to a third-party site, and they’re often used to source statistics or claims. By adding credible outbound links, you highlight the reliability of your content.
Internal links: These are used to link to other pages within your own website. For example, when writing a blog you might link to your financial services pages, giving your readers a quicker way to learn more about the services you’re discussing. Internal links also come with SEO bonuses, helping Google find, index, and organise your site pages.

In the financial services industry, link-building is particularly important. You need to prove that you’re following legal guidance and different financial authorities, like AAT and ACCA. Adding authoritative links to financial resources makes it easier to prove your compliance and boost your SEO simultaneously.

Why Do We Conduct Link Building?

Link building is a crucial part of the work we do when carrying out financial services SEO. To give you a little insight into what you can expect from these strategies, let’s take a look at some key reasons it’s an SEO priority.

Boost Your SERP Ranking

The number and credibility of your backlinks drastically increase your DA, making it clear to search engines like Google that your site is worth ranking. In fact, the top result in Google has an average of 3.8x more backlinks than others in the top 10 positions, showing just how crucial this is for finance SEO.

It can also highlight your relevance for industries and topics, helping search engines match you to target audience search queries.

Drive Referral Traffic

Securing a backlink from a high-traffic website can put your financial business in front of a large audience. If you manage to earn a link from a relevant website – like a financial paper or blog – you’ll be tapping into a pool of your specific target audience, driving high-quality leads to your financial business.

Build Credibility and Trust

Backlinks and outbound links can drastically increase your credibility, both in the eyes of Google and your target audience. In terms of SEO for financial services companies, backlinks tell search engines you’re a trustworthy source. The more trustworthy you are, the higher you’ll rank

Your outbound links also signal credibility to your audience, showing you’ve done your research, backed up your claims, and are fully-fledged industry experts. You’re proving that you know what you’re talking about which, in the financial industry, is a strategy that can’t be underestimated.

Benefits of Link Building in SEO for Finance Businesses

What can your financial business expect to see from link building? Just some of the benefits include:

Increased online visibility: Shine the spotlight on your website and boost your finance SEO success, using links to push your website up the SERPs. By securing a higher spot for relevant search results, you’ll earn valuable online visibility and gain a competitive edge.
Higher-quality organic traffic: Show off your business to a targeted audience with backlinks from relevant sites, tapping into a pool of high-quality leads who are already interested in what you have to offer.
Strengthened brand authority: Earn gold stars from reputable websites and show the financial industry that you’re a key player, using backlinks to boost the authority of your brand. This works both for search engines and your target audience, helping you cover all of your bases for a winning SEO strategy.
Networking opportunities: Build partnerships and create a network of industry players, collaborating on projects to become an industry leader. From guest posts to sponsorships and everything in between, your connections can become valuable assets for your business growth.

Effective Link-Building Strategies for Finance SEO

The trickiest aspect of link building is, of course, securing those all-important links. This is a strategy that relies on third parties and, without a bit of industry know-how, it can be difficult to secure the links you’re looking for.

This is why a lot of financial businesses hand the task over to the experts, like our link-building services team at Woya Digital. To boost your SEO, drive high-quality traffic, and increase your credibility, we focus on:

Guest blogging on reputable financial blogs – We contact relevant businesses and publishing platforms, building up a network of external websites to publish our financial blogs. Each blog will include links straight back to your website.
Creating high-quality financial services content – By publishing new, informative, and credible quality content to your website, we can naturally build backlinks to your site.
Listing your website in industry directories – Directories with a high domain authority are a useful source for building your backlinks. They also help you reach your target market and increase your online visibility, making them highly beneficial for your business growth strategies.
Building relationships with other industry leaders – By networking with other businesses, we’ll put your website on the map. This can lead to partner projects, such as a collaboration whitepaper or guest posts.
Sending out press releases – We’re experts in all things PR. We’ll send out press releases for newsworthy events (link a new service or a business milestone) to relevant publications, generating media coverage that naturally creates backlinks.
Creating comprehensive guides and whitepapers – Larger publications give us a chance to dive deep into financial topics and create informative research papers, incorporating statistics and facts that other financial businesses will love to link to. This naturally builds your backlink portfolio and shows off your industry insights.

We can carry out each and every one of these strategies, using a multi-pronged approach to secure you a whole network of high-quality backlinks and organically drive traffic to your website. It’s time-consuming and complex, but it’s a finance SEO strategy that gets results.

Kickstart Your Link-Building Strategy

Ready to add green flags, yes votes, and a big old thumbs up to your website? Give search engines a clear sign that your business is credible and reputable with link building, driving a whole lot of positive attention your way. It’s a core aspect of a financial services SEO strategy, instantly boosts your DA, and places your website directly in front of the audience you’re trying to reach.

At Woya Digital, we carry out comprehensive link-building strategies for financial businesses. From guest posting and digital PR to listing your site on all the relevant directories, we take care of your links so that you can get on with running your business.

Ready to give your brand an online boost? Get in touch with our financial services SEO team today and let’s talk links.

Content Marketing for Financial Services SEO

by Natalie Karr | 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.

Table of Contents

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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Unpacking SEO On-Page Optimisation

by Natalie Karr | 29 Jun 2024 | SEO

Reading Time: 9 minutes

SEO is a broad topic and (contrary to what some people think) not about the odd bit of keyword stuffing inclusion into written text.

In reality, SEO strategy efforts need to focus both on on-site SEO and off, and need to form part of a continuous improvement cycle that is constant.

One element of SEO is on-page optimisation, and here, our experts at Woya Digital explain what that really means and what activities form part of it.

The SEO On-Page Optimisation Checklist

On-Page SEO is the optimisation of content within a webpage to demonstrate to search engine algorithms what its about, who its for and on which related queries it should feature on search engine results pages (SERPs).

This includes not just the physical written content within a page but also ‘behind-the-scenes’ type features such as coding that can’t be physically seen by the user but is present in the foundations of the website.

While there’s no one area of Search Engine Optimisation that matters more than another (in part because we’ll never know exactly how Google weights each element of a website against its ranking practices), SEO on-page optimisation is a critical part.

The origins of SEO are set in keyword research, and this still forms a critical element for easy signalling to web crawlers what content is about. More recent updates to Google have involved the inclusion of other on-page SEO elements such as load speeds and accessibility as part of a ‘people-first content’ focus to differentiate between sites where their topics are similar.

SEO on-page optimisation factors include User Experience (UX) factors and so is responsible for not just making the domain easily searchable but also for providing an easy-to-use website experience that’s useful and reliable.

On-Page SEO: Quality Content

SEO originated as a process within which search engines would scan sites for the target keywords being inputted by users into their search queries – and this very much still exists, albeit in a somewhat more sophisticated way than 20 years ago.

Today, the approach of stuffing content with keywords (keyword stuffing) is considered outdated and will harm search engine rankings. The key to ranking well from content now lies in the quality of that being produced, be it written or in another form.

Content Relevancy

Content should include some of the expected target keywords and terms that users will be typing into their search engine queries but more importantly, must be relevant.

The page’s content published on a site should match the search intent behind the keywords rather than just featuring them multiple times.

There are four types of keyword intent, and brands need to ensure that they’re producing quality content relevant to any that may apply to them. These include:

Navigational keyword intent – where a user is searching to find something specific, for example the search ‘McDonalds menu’. This is a user looking to find an exact webpage for a specific brand. Marketers must ensure that relevant searches for their brand match up to the correct pages.
Informational keyword intent – where a user is searching to find information on a topic, for example the search ‘What’s Vitamin A?’. This is a user looking to find details around a topic. Marketers must ensure that users are presented with the info they’re looking for and not with heavy sales content or details of anything unrelated.
Commercial keyword intent – where a user is searching to differentiate between options, for example ‘Honda vs Subaru’. This is a user looking to compare two different, but similar, things. Marketers must ensure that their pages match up to provide preferential information on their own products and that details are comparable in scope to their competitors.
Transactional keyword intent – where a user is searching to complete a specific action, for example ‘Buy Star Wars magazine’. This is a user looking to buy something online – the holy grail for those brands with online shops! Marketers must ensure that their pages offer the transaction that the user is looking for quickly and easily.

Content Freshness

Content should be refreshed regularly to ensure it is current. This means that marketers should be adding optimised new content routinely in order to demonstrate the brand’s ongoing relevancy but also to demonstrate current knowledge within its industry.

Regularly adding a new, quality, optimised blog post to your website is one way in which to maintain content freshness, and further reinforce your authority as an exert in your field.

Content Length

The length of webpage content must also be considered. For some searches, users will expect the information they seek to be present ‘above the fold’ on the page and immediately viewable.

Others will want to ‘deep dive’ into information and read on. Content should, therefore, be optimised to the appropriate length based on the keyword or term, topic and competition.

On-Page SEO: Technical SEO

There are a number of optimisations that can be made on-page but also ‘behind-the-scenes’ – in the coding and mark-up of the page itself.

Meta Tags

Meta tagging titles and meta descriptions allows for brands to set exactly what will be displayed in searches.

This gives the opportunity to specify their messaging clearly and concisely in order to best draw attention from those carrying out searches.

URL Structure

Structuring a URL to coherently demonstrate a webpage’s place on a site as well as what information can be found on it allows for search engines to do the same and reinforce their relevance.

Header Tags

Header tags used correctly through written content provides search engines with a hierarchy of the information provided, letting them know how to read it and what to prioritise.

Internal Linking

Linking within a website’s content to other pages on the same site helps users navigate to find more relevant information without leaving to browse elsewhere, increasing the amount of time users spend on a site and lowering their chances of them visiting a competitor.

Internal linking also helps search engines navigate a site more easily.

Anchor Text

Anchor text is the clickable text in a link, be the navigation internal or external to the site.

It is best practice SEO-wise to have the clickable text relevant to the link rather than generic. For example, where a link is directing to a webpage on greenhouses, the anchor text should read something like ‘great greenhouses for new growers’ rather than ‘click here’.

Page Speed

Page speed is a critical component of UX on any site – and user expectations are at an all-time high with an all-time low level of patience.

Webmasters must ensure that pages load within seconds (and preferably quicker) so that users do not get distracted and click off to find the same information elsewhere. Page speed is now a key Google ranking factor and therefore it’s imperative that any large images, videos or other formatting features are optimised for speedy loading.

Mobile Responsiveness

The majority of web traffic is now accessed on a mobile or portable device and so it is no longer acceptable for websites to be created with only traditional computer web browsers in mind.

All websites must be mobile responsive, able to adapt appropriately to the size of the browser upon which it is being accessed without compromising on format or quality. This is an absolutely crucial factor for search engine ranking and Google confirms this.

Canonical Tags

Canonical tags are used to let search engines know which version of a page to display in search results in cases of duplicate content.

This allows for link equity to be consolidated and improves the chances of accurate indexing of a website.

XML Sitemap

An XML (Extensible Markup Language) sitemap allows for search engine web crawlers to find and index all webpages on a site.

Without a sitemap in place, brands may find that their websites are indexed in a way that doesn’t benefit SEO-wise, and so this gives an element of control over how they are presented.

Robots.txt

A robots.txt file is coding within a website that instructs web crawlers on which pages to index and which not to.

If a website has several pages they’d prefer weren’t included amongst search engine results, this file should always be present.

Schema Markup

Further to the above two points, instructing web crawlers on how to display pages amongst search results, schema markup (sometimes known as ‘structured data’) allows search engines to categorise content and pull from it themes to feature on enhanced listings.

There are currently 32 different types of schema and exactly which is appropriate for a brand will vary. An SEO specialist should be approached for guidance on schema markup and to ensure that it’s being used to its maximum potential.

On-Page SEO: User Experience

UX was previously thought of as a separate discipline to SEO, but Google (and other search engines) now consider it a critical factor – ranking those sites that deliver a good experience above those who don’t automatically.

Navigation and Breadcrumbs

Websites can only be useful if users are able to find their way around them, so it’s important that navigation is prioritised to make it as easy to use as possible.

Breadcrumbs are a popular tool used on larger websites that act as navigation aids, presenting visually the current location on a site at a glance.

Prioritising navigation also allows webmasters to ensure that no pages are left without any internal links to them, as this is detrimental to their SEO value.

Page Layout

When working on website navigation, marketers should consider how the layout of a page impacts on the site’s overall UX.

While all information a user is looking for should be available ‘above the fold’ of a page, there may be value in leaving some information elsewhere to encourage longer browse time and further engagement.

If a page isn’t well constructed and formatted, users will simply click off to another site, in turn decreasing its SEO value as search engines believe the site not to be of use because of its high abandonment rate.

Call To Action Placement

Not all users will arrive onto a website and immediately want to make a purchase, fill out a contact form or complete another desired conversion action.

This means that on pages where a conversion isn’t going to happen immediately, a call to action (CTA) can be helpful to encourage and guide them on through to the next step. The placement of these CTAs is key – they must be simple enough to see and use, but not so frequent that they’re ignored.

Calls to action, when utilised properly, can drive further internal traffic and increase user browse time.

Image Optimisation

Images on a page need to be sized as such so that they load quickly and don’t delay the page load speed, but they also need to be optimised for accessibility purposes.

The inclusion of alt tags on images allows for search engines to index the images themselves and for those with screen-readers and other non-visual facilitation tools to access content.

Multimedia Elements

Content isn’t just text, and the use of varying multimedia allows for different audiences to find a brand’s content useful.

Not everyone wants to read a blog or article. Infographics, videos and audio files can all be present on a website and can all be optimised to prioritise loading speeds (for direct SEO impact) and to encourage onward sharing (for indirect SEO impact).

On-Page SEO: Local SEO

Businesses that have a physical setting serving a geographically-set audience can benefit hugely from optimising their website to alter their search engine results to appear tailored to the user based on where they’re located.

NAP Citations

NAP is an abbreviation of Name, Address and Phone Number. In SEO terms, NAP citations are the coding of this information to present it along with a business’ website where it features in search engine results.

This information allows users to make contact with a company without needing to scroll any further, avoiding them clicking through to or making contact with a competitor.

For local searches, Google will rank websites with NAP citations in place above those who haven’t.

Local Keywords

Local relevant keywords are those that contain location-specific words or phrases to indicate that a search engine user is making a geographically-limited query (ie. ‘gardeners Norwich’ or ‘Doncaster cakemakers’).

The use of target keywords on a website helps drive people in the target location to the site – and in turn, as more local web users visit a site, the higher it will rank locally.

Geo-Targeting Content

Tailoring content to include information relevant to users in a certain geographical demographic allows for local SEO ranking and can be hugely impactful for those looking to target particular audiences.

Businesses don’t need to limit geo-targeting to one city or even country, and can replicate the success of it across varying territories (as appropriate), and in different languages.

On-Page SEO: Social Signals

When content on a website is useful, it will be shared by those who found it to be of benefit.

So many users now active on social media, and these channels allow for content to be shared. The easiest way for marketers to facilitate this content sharing is to include social sharing buttons on their webpages for one-click access to a pre-bundled post on the main social media channels.

While Google doesn’t insist on brands having a social media presence to rank them high, the backlinks to a site demonstrates its authenticity and usefulness and so the SEO impact is indirect.

On-Page SEO: Analytics and Monitoring

SEO is an ongoing activity and something that must be constantly worked at for websites to rank as the algorithms behind search engine rankings shift and change.

Of course, where marketers know what works for their website in SEO they can continue this, and where approaches aren’t working, they can make changes to better the performance.

SEO performance on Google can be monitored through Google Analytics software. This interacts with a website through the implementation of a small piece of code within it, and monitors the performance of the domain in search engine results and the behaviour of users on site.

Google Analytics is complemented by Google Search Console integrations for additional insights and metrics but these further insights can be a little more difficult to navigate and so often require an SEO specialist to report on and work through.

On-Page SEO: Forward Focus

On-page SEO is something that marketers and webmasters have full influence over and so can impact both directly and indirectly on their rankings – an area of digital marketing that often feels like it can’t be controlled.

Signalling to a search engine what a site is about and who its for helps the algorithm best judge how and where to rank it amongst the competition. When done right, on-page SEO can be hugely beneficial to ranking position, but when done wrong, websites will stagnate and suffer.

Woya Digital are SEO specialists and work with websites spanning all a wide range of industries to rank high and gain competitive advantage. No matter how simple or complex a website is in structure, there’s lots that can be done. Get in touch with the team today and let us take a bespoke approach to your on-page SEO to help you rank high, rank locally and rank all the time!

Keyword Research for Financial Services SEO

by Natalie Karr | 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.

Table of Contents

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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The best place to start with any project is a little detail.

Introduction to SEO For Financial Services Companies

by Natalie Karr | 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.

Table of Contents

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:

Improving site speed
Optimising for mobile devices
Indexing your individual web pages

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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The best place to start with any project is a little detail.

Google Spring Cleaning – Google Core Update March 2024

by Ian | 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.

Table of Contents

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

by Ian | 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.

Table of Contents

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

by Ian | 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.

Table of Contents

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:

- Organic search traffic
- Organic conversion rate
- Keyword rankings
- Organic search visibility percentage
- Website bounce rate
- Page speed and core web vital scores

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!

Why SEO Keyword Research is a Foundation Aspect of SEO

by Ian | 6 Oct 2023 | SEO

Reading Time: 7 minutes

With internet users carrying out over 8.5 billion searches every day on Google alone (that’s 99,000 every second), every business needs to be well represented online in order to be found in appropriate queries, particularly above competitors’ listings.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is now a mainstream marketing activity and a critical area to strategize in order to gain competitive advantage. One area of focus within this wider aspect of marketing is SEO keyword research – and here we’re going to tell you all you need to know about it.

Table of Contents

What is SEO Keyword Research?

Keyword Research is the process of identifying, analysing and understanding the search terms that users type into search engines relevant to a business’s products or services.

If a business is able to understand how their target audience searches for products, services or brands appropriate to their sector, they can target these queries and gain the necessary comprehension around their usage, popularity and ranking difficulty in order to use them successfully.

It is worth noting that SEO keywords do not just necessarily comprise of single words but also phrases, questions or word combinations that may be entered into a search engine.

Why Do We Do SEO Keyword Research?

While businesses may have a rough idea of what they think internet users input to search for queries relevant to them, human behaviour online rarely mirrors exactly what is expected.

SEO keyword research provides tangible and genuine insight into user behaviour in order to inform content and SEO strategy.

Without properly researching keyword usage, businesses are simply making assumptions as to their marketing opportunities within search engine rankings – and can easily leave gaps in their SEO efforts in which the competition can thrive.

Why Keywords Are Important To SEO

SEO keywords form the actual queries that users enter into search engines and so give the best possible indication of what target audiences are looking to find and will find useful.

Understanding exactly what queries are used has multiple benefits for an organisation.

Marketers who conduct effective SEO keyword research are able to keep abreast of marketing trends and shifts in online user behaviour, allowing them to tailor their content and strategies to fit and ensure they’re always right where they need to be within SEO rankings. In turn, this leads to increased traffic to the domain and online presence, and ultimately, lead generation and customer acquisition.

In comprehending the questions users ask of their search engines, marketers and webmasters can ensure they’re able to answer these on their site and as a result receive the traffic from these users as they search out whatever it is they’re looking for.

While the inclusion of keywords within website copy used to be very much the main SEO focus of digital marketers, today it forms just part of wider SEO strategies. However, it is arguably a more comprehensive exercise to tailor content and marketing efforts accordingly – as user behaviour moves away from the simple typing of a few related single words and further into full phrases, questions and brand references.

The way people interact with their devices is now more involved than ever and marketers must understand and work with this for the best possible results.

Why is SEO Keyword Research the Second Step, and Not the First in the Woya SEO Process?

In order for marketers and webmasters to best understand how to formulate their SEO strategy, they must first have an idea of the current performance of their website: what works and holds the interest and engagement of users, what doesn’t, what can be improved to better meet users’ needs, and how it is that users find them in the first place.

This is why website analysis forms the first step in the SEO process, to provide the foundation from which all other SEO efforts can work.

Understanding search intent

Search intent, or user intent, is the intention behind an individual making a query on a search engine. This uncovers what it is they hope to achieve by completing the search. There are four main types of search intent:

- Navigational Intent – users are looking for a specific website or page, i.e. ‘tails.com’ or ‘Facebook login’
- Informational Intent – users are looking for more information on a certain topic, i.e. ‘what is a durian fruit?’ or ‘orange marks on elm tree’
- Transactional Intent – users are looking to complete a specific action, i.e. ‘buy Game Of Thrones DVD’ or ‘fill in school registration form’
- Commercial Intent – users are looking to complete some research before making a purchase decision, i.e. ‘best SUV for families’ or ‘hotels in Newquay reviews’.

Once the intent behind searches being made is understood, content and pages can be tailored to meet each, providing a useful site that meets the user’s requirements.

Seed Keywords

Seed keywords are fairly generic words or phrases that often act as the initial query in a search.

These can be used as the gateway enquiry that a brand uses in its SEO keyword research, from which to identify more specific related terms.

For example, for a business selling baby clothes online, seed keywords for its website would be generic terms such as ‘babygros’, ‘sleepsuits’, ‘baby sleep bag’ and ‘newborn clothes’.

When initiating a keyword research project, seed keywords can be input into a research tool from which to generate other, more particular, terms. More specific queries will offer a more tailored search experience, be cheaper to work with and will be more likely to drive conversions from visitors.

Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are specific search terms that demonstrate a user is looking for something specific from their query. These search terms are used less frequently than more generic seed keywords, but are easier to target.

For example, if a business sells baby clothes online, long-tail keywords for its website would be specific queries such as ‘buy blue sleepsuit 3-6m’, ‘best baby sleep bags for newborns’, and ‘spiderman Babygro tiny baby size’.

Long-tail keywords demonstrate search intent easily and so organisations can swiftly and effectively target these searches to meet the user’s needs and drive conversions.

Keyword Difficulty and Competitiveness

Keyword difficulty is the process in which a keyword research tool grades the difficulty it takes to rank for a set search term.

This grade is made based on a number of different factors including the competitiveness of those already attempting to rank for the term, the content quality on the site attempting to rank for it and the overall domain authority of the website attempting to rank for it.

Understanding keyword difficulty allows businesses to prioritise their efforts on search terms for which they stand a realistic chance of ranking and therefore driving conversions, so they may avoid investing unnecessarily on generic keywords for which they will rarely be seen.

Unfortunately, keyword difficulty grades vary hugely in their calculation criteria and display ranking based on the SEO keyword research tool presenting them. This can cause inconsistencies in SEO strategy and so it is always recommended that organisations work with a specialist agency when embarking on this part of keyword research.

Search Volume Analysis

The SEO metric of keyword search volume indicates how many times per month a stipulated keyword or term is searched for, on average.

This usually refers to Google but can also be analysed for other major search engines. This average likely varies between months of the year, based on regional, seasonal and thematic fluctuations.

These metrics usually pop up when a marketer is crafting a paid-for search engine marketing campaign, as the price they can expect to pay per click (PPC) will depend on how popular the keyword is. Balanced with other metrics, it can generally be expected that those keywords searched often are more expensive to work with than those not.

Analysing SEO keyword search volume allows organisations to understand which terms they should be prioritising for use.

Keyword Opportunities

Keyword opportunity is a Google KPI that analyses the potential for improvement in search rankings. Comparing current rankings to Google’s estimated search traffic volume, opportunities can be identified and efforts required to achieve rankings assessed.

Keyword opportunity can also determine the website’s current traffic share; although it should be noted that this is estimated.

Keyword Relevance

The term keyword relevance refers to how appropriate a search engine finds a keyword (or set of keywords) to a website’s content.

Judging what a website is about through its content’s topics, the search engine’s algorithm is able to determine how best to rank web pages when a relevant search query is made.

Keyword relevance used to be judged purely on the prevalence of relevant keywords within a site’s content, but today there are a wide variety of factors at play to determine appropriateness – and so it is not necessary to have an exact match between the search query and the text on a website.

SEO Keyword Research Tools

Keyword research tools are software tools that automate the research of relevant keywords to a seed keyword.

This presents a range of topic ideas for content through related keywords and phrases, and can be split by search engine to further appropriate targeting. From here, organisations can target their content strategy to fit the queries being made.

There are a number of online SEO keyword research tools that offer free versions, including Semrush, Ahrefs and Moz, as well as a number of tools offered by Google itself.

The difficulty most organisations find in the navigation of keyword research tools is that their metrics vary and can be tricky to ascertain tangible insights from. This is why many choosing to invest properly in their SEO strategy work with specialist agencies rather than relying on free software tools.

Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI)

Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), is a mathematical practice that classifies and retrieves information – and is used by search engines.

Through a process called Singular Value Decomposition (SVD), the search engine scans through unstructured data to identify any relationships between terms and the context within which they appear.

LSI allows search engines to better judge what it is that users are really searching for without getting hung up on the specific individual meaning of words. A common example for explaining LSI is the product ‘silly string’. While neither of these words would be relevant individually, combined they refer to a specific item.

LSI is critical in keyword research in order for both search engines and marketers alike to best understand user behaviour when making queries online.

Analysing Click-Through Potential

Click through rates (CTRs) determine the performance of keyword usage and ads.

To calculate the CTR = the number of clicks received divided by the number of times it has been seen: clicks divided by impressions.

Through comprehensive keyword research, marketers are able to understand the average CTR for their industry and can identify areas for improvement in their own.

Updating Keyword Research

Keyword research is not a ‘one-and-done’ activity, but instead should be completed periodically in order to gather insights.

As industries and businesses change, so too do the search queries used to find them. In addition, emerging terms in language can be identified for content tailoring and changes in user behaviour can be monitored and worked with.

Keeping on top of SEO keyword research allows businesses to adapt and overcome challenges as they arise and identify areas for potential and growth ahead of the competition, gaining in traffic, leads and sales.

How SEO Experts Woya Digital Can Help

Woya Digital is a team of SEO specialists who support businesses through every step of their SEO strategies; from conception to completion, including white label SEO services for other agencies.

Working through our SEO marketing success strategy with a bespoke approach to fit every organisation’s idiosyncrasies online, we guarantee success and growth digitally – surpassing expectations to rank above the competition and grow the bottom line.

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