Optimise your website so it can be seen
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO for short) is the process of optimising a website so that it appears at the top of a search engine’s results. Appearing on page 1 in Google, Bing or Yahoo is considered ideal when someone enters particular keywords.
Google uses a search algorithm, which is a formula that is frequently updated, to determine where a website should rank in its search results. It does not reveal the algorithm, but sometimes when a major update is implemented, it releases a statement about the latest update, which may give guidance on the new factors influencing website ranking.
Google will rank a website based on relevance to the search term that has been entered and also the quality of the website.
How does Google determine if a website is relevant?
For relevance, Google looks at how well a web page fulfils the purpose of the query. Google will look at a web page and an entire website in terms of keyword usage and topic relevance.
What does Google consider a quality website?
- It is structured in a logical manner – good navigation
- Good content that is clear and well presented
- Authoritative – the level of expertise
- Safe and trusted – has a good reputation
- It is responsive – mobile friendly
- Web pages load fast
What about writing content for websites?
We want to create a website that is effective for your business. The website content must be well planned in order to include the most relevant focus keywords.
Whether you are thinking about creating a new website or rebuilding an old one, we will carry out keyword research and content optimisation. This detailed, content-driven approach is what makes the websites we create different from the norm. The websites we create are unique because they take a content-driven, detailed approach. While many people get caught up in the website design, the content must be given the same (if not greater) priority.
Writing great website content requires planning and supporting information. These could include images, links, and downloads. Writing content for websites should be informative, original and natural.
Consider including a blog on your website, as going forward after the website has launched, it is important for search engine optimisation. Google loves fresh new content, and it helps maintain your search ranking position.
These are our top tips to keep in mind when creating content for websites:
- Think about who you are talking to (your typical customers)
- Write compelling and meaningful content that speaks to and engages users of the website
- Avoid lengthy content and lots of detailed waffle
- Consider what people will type when searching for your business (search words)
- Collect assets such as images and PDFs to use on your website
- Plan your blogging strategy and get a blogging calendar (dedicated calendar only for your blog)
Free website health check
If you have an existing WordPress website that is not performing as well in the Google search results as you would like, then we can work with you to make it work harder for your business. We offer a free Website Health Check that we can perform on your current website to establish its current state of health so that we can tailor an SEO strategy to bring the website back to life!
First, a solid foundation is essential for WordPress SEO success. We have seen many websites that have been neglected for a long time and are in need of urgent updates. We will check that the navigation makes sense and there are no broken links.
Your content may be stale and not relevant anymore, so it would need updating. To Google, content is king.
We will test how fast your website is, and if we determine that it’s slow, we will check if it’s the hosting or the web pages themselves. Sometimes it may be both. A lot of websites run on cheap hosting that may seem appealing but will be on a crowded server, all competing for the server’s resources, and as a result, will affect the page loading speeds. Google does not like slow websites, and it will have a negative effect on SEO. It may mean changing your hosting plan or even your hosting provider. We can help you with speeding up WordPress and boosting the overall loading time of the website.
Our website health check includes:
- Website Speed
- Broken Links
- Updates Required
- Errors Reported
- Security Status
- Mobile Check
- Search Engine Performance
- Content Quality
- Recommend Changes & Improvements
We will send you a detailed Website Health Check report in the form of a PDF. It will contain the results of each test and recommend any improvements, if any, for the website.
Once your website is in good health, you should consider an SEO campaign, which we can assist you with. This can include advertising on Google or writing content for social media.
If appearing at the top end of Google search results is important to your business, then optimising it for search engines will pay for itself as it will be found more easily by potential clients and customers.
How long until my website ranks at the top of Google?
A new website will not rank immediately at the top of Google’s search results. It is widely known that it can take between three and six months. Yes, you read that right!
It all depends on your industry’s competitiveness and how popular your keywords are. High ranking in highly competitive fields may take up to a year.
Here are some reasons why it may take up to a year or more to attain a high-ranking position in competitive fields:
Domain Age
Google considers a web domain that is less than six months old a “new” site and therefore less reliable or trustworthy than other, older, more established websites that are considered safe and secure. Rankings can still be achieved for new websites if they are built well and fully optimised, but rankings are more likely to rise after 6 months from the moment the website went live.
Keyword Competition
High-competitive words and phrases are those that are frequently searched. They are known as competitive search terms. Older, more established websites in their industry have more chances of ranking highly for popular search terms. If your website is new, it will be easier to establish trust and rankings for less competitive keywords before targeting highly competitive keywords. We advise clients to start with branded keywords, then target local keywords before moving on to regional or broad match keywords, for example:
Step 1 – Sunshineweb Website Design
Step 2 – Website Design Worcester
Step 3 – Website Design Worcestershire
Step 4 – Website Design
Content Quality
Search engines (like Google) use robots to crawl your website, and they look for certain trends and characteristics. They look at how frequently new content is published, whether it is original, and whether it makes sense to the average reader. It should not be stuffed with keywords to such an extent that it is nonsense, as this will cause negative SEO and is not good for the user experience. Length also matters, and 300 words is the minimum to rank well. More content means Google can better understand what your content is about, helping it move up in the search rankings.
Regularly adding fresh, original and meaningful content to pages, posts or a blog is essential, as it will keep the search engine bots coming back to check your website for new content. This not only maintains your current website ranking but can also increase it.
Meta description
The meta description summarises a page’s content. It is crucial because that is what is shown on the search engine results page on Google. It is the first thing that your customer sees about your website. It may only be a couple of sentences, but it should be made as relevant to what the searchers are looking for as possible.
Backlinks
Backlinks are links from one website to another website. Backlinks are extremely valuable for SEO as they serve as a “vote of confidence” from one website to another. Some backlinks have more value than others. The most desirable backlinks are those from trusted, well-known, and high-authority websites. Search engines are clever, and they know if you are using black hat SEO techniques by buying random backlinks to your website. It is important to secure good-quality backlinks of various types, for example:
Directory links
Resources/References links
Competitor links
Peer links
Industry links
Social links
HTML Markup
Important HTML tags for SEO are page titles and headings, as they help Google and the reader understand what your content is about. They should be relevant to the textual content on the page and also to the search term that searchers may use, which will help your website rank higher in the search results. Adding internal links to other posts and pages on your website as well as appropriate images for the textual content, including alternative text for screen readers, are also very important.
What we don’t do
We don’t perform black hat SEO, which is a deceptive SEO technique. The phrase “black hat” was first used in Western films to differentiate the “bad guys” from the “good guys,” who wore white hats.
Black hat SEO is a practise that violates guidelines set by search engines and manipulates them to improve rankings. It may work in the short term, but it can get your website banned from Google and other search engines or placed lower in the search results. Black hat SEO should be avoided at all costs because search engine algorithms have become more sophisticated over time.
Examples of black hat SEO involves stuffing your content with keywords, resulting in a bad user experience, and paying for backlinks to a website to make it more popular and credible.
We only perform white hat search engine optimisation, which is a more ethical approach that follows the guidelines and terms of Google and other search engines. It is the best way to get your website to the top of the search results. Over time, white hat methods will always outperform black hat methods.
How can we help?
Sunshineweb offers an expert SEO service to help improve your website’s ranking position.
Always keep in mind that content is king when creating a successful website. It is the foundation for any SEO techniques that may be performed on your website later.
If you have difficulty writing content for your website, we can help you create informative website content. We can either review your content and optimise it for SEO or advise you on the changes that you should make so that you can do it yourself.
We believe that you are the best person to write about your business, as you know it inside out. If you are struggling, we can handle it for you and create your content.
Our SEO audit inspects the critical elements on each page of your website that have the biggest impact on search engine rankings.
We analyse your website to ensure every page is optimised and then ranked to deliver maximum traffic from search engines.
