The sole purpose of search engine optimisation is to improve a website’s effectiveness at being found organically by search engines and Internet searchers.
How does Google determine page rankings?
There are hundreds of “ranking factors” (see below) that determine how well your site ranks in SERPs (search engine results pages).
Essentially, a website is judged by its authority and relevance to a search query. Simply put, the highest ranking pages are deemed the most effective at answering a searcher’s question (e.g. news and government sites).
Because only Google knows the exact factors and the extent of their impact, no one can fully guarantee your website will be ranked #1, especially in the long term.
Google changes its algorithm regularly – think Panda and Penguin updates – to improve the quality of search results, which means that poor quality websites will suffer in the long run.
However, SEO has been around long enough for industry professionals to establish best practices that improve rankings and a website’s ability to be found.
Netinspire specialises in these best practices, which can be categorised as:
1. On-page optimisation
2. Off-page optimisation
3. Violations
1. On-page optimisation
This covers the optimisation of all ranking factors occurring within a website, chiefly content, site architecture and HTML tags.
Content
Your website content is possibly the most important aspect of long-term SEO success because it is what attracts searchers to your website (i.e. your content consistently provides the best answers to searchers’ questions).
Do your pages have original, well-written content of substantial quality? Is it tailored to target audiences to effectively convince and convert them? Are the articles fresh and regularly updated for relevance?
Our content team is skilled at creating original, quality content that is highly relevant and useful to target audiences, from in-depth articles to concise blog posts, and visually interesting infographics. We take the time to understand your audience and the search keywords they use to find your content.
Architecture
Does your site load quickly and work well across mobile devices? Does it manage duplicate content well?
We can identify and solve any technical issues that could be preventing your site from ranking well, or at all.
HTML
Have you optimised your HTML tags with the relevant keywords? Are your tags descriptive enough to entice searchers? Have you ensured that you are not overstuffing tags with keywords?
There are numerous technical considerations to manage, which can be overwhelming and easily overlooked by the less inexperienced.
2. Off-page optimisation
This includes the effective management of external elements not within your website, influenced by site visitors and other publishers. These elements can be categorised as follows:
Trust
Do visitors actually read your content or do they “bounce” away quickly? Does the website domain have a history of credibility?
Trust is key in judging a site’s relevance and authority. Every positive interaction with your content (e.g. shares, comments, time spend reading) is a seal of approval.
Links
Are links to your website from trusted sites? Have you purchased links or inadvertently spammed other sites? Are your links relevant to the pages they are pointing to?
We implement link-building strategies to grow the number of incoming links from trusted, authoritative websites.
Social
Does your content receive many shares on social media? Do key influencers within your industry mention your site?
Social signals play a part in letting Google know if a website is relevant and popular. Netinspire provides a social media service, where we promote your site content to your chosen target audiences.
Personal
Google considers the personal aspects of your site visitors, such as their location, and history of interaction with your site.
We take a two-pronged approach to SEO by targeting the right audience and tailoring your content to ensure it is always relevant and useful.
3. Violations
The practice of SEO can be confusing to the uninitiated. This could lead to the accidental incurring of Google penalties, resulting in plummeting rankings.
Removing a penalty is often a long, painful process, and something that should be avoided.
For example, Panda is an algorithmic penalty, so even after fixing issues causing the penalty, there could be months of waiting for the next algorithm refresh to see rankings improve.
Examples of violations
- Buying links
- Spamming other sites with links to your website
- Too many pages of low-quality content
- Duplicate content
- High bounce rate
- Overstuffing keywords
Customised SEO service
Leave the complex and time-consuming work to Netinspire’s experienced team, who will focus their efforts on improving your website ranking. To find out more, please give us a call on 01782 524600.
