What are SERPs?
SERPs is a bit of industry jargon you may have heard used on various websites and is actually an acronym for Search Engine Results Page(s).
So whenever we refer to SERPs in the blog and elsewhere, it is in relation to the results pages generated by search engines in response to a search query. This incorporates everything from PPC adverts and organic search results, to news and local listings.
Why Does Fresh Content Help SEO?
SEO professionals are forever extolling the virtues of fresh content when it comes to improving the ranking of a site within search engines. The reason for this is simple, indexing of pages or, more importantly, the frequent indexing of your pages.
Whenever we update a website we give search engine crawlers fresh information to index. The more they visit your site, the greater your chances of improving your ranking for the all-important keywords on each individual pages. By improving linking structure, both externally and internally, we provide an easier passage for the spiders to crawl a site all of which goes to improve your ranking opportunities.
Why Does Website Content Need To Be Unique
There are a number of reasons for why you should write unique content for each page of your website. Duplicated copy, whether plagiarised from another site or from your own pages, can do more damage than good; particularly when it comes to visitor perception and search engine rankings.
Simply copying and pasting content from one page/site to another may provide a quick and easy solution, but it won’t benefit your website. Each page of a site ought to be fundamentally unique, therefore it needs to be treated as an individual entity; this includes having its own body copy, Meta and headings.
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Why are Headings Important for SEO?
Headings come in a number of HTML forms. The highest of which is H1, with H2, H3 and H4 headings providing ample support. But why are they important to SEO?
A web page is just like any newspaper article, essay or press release in so far as it requires a certain structure. This structure is, or at least it should be, a single heading (H1 heading) followed by the primary body copy which is interspersed with sub-headings (H2, H3 and so forth). This guides the reader through the content and highlights the key points.
How Does Website Content Improve SEO?
Content is an essential part of any website. It provides visitors with vital information, encourages them to navigate through the site (preferably to your major revenue pages) and engages with them. However, content also provides search engines with vital details regarding a website’s relevance to certain phrases.
Search engines all have their own unique complex algorithm, which manages their ranking system. Within this algorithm are numerous contributing factors, all of which are taken into account and used to create SERPs that will accurately reflect a user’s search term. One of the most important ranking factors is the content of your website.
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Could SEO Harm My Website?
Over the years there have been lots of stories of people being dropped from Google due to poor SEO practises. Indeed, for an SEO company like us, it’s not rare for us to be work with people who have suffered as a result of some unethical optimisation.
When it comes to SEO, there are three layers of practitioners:
White Hat – Good, ethical optimisation within Google’s rules
Black Hat – Deliberately flouting the rules to make quick gains, often not worried about the consequences
Grey Hat – Slightly questionable practises, although not illegal in the most part; usually somewhere in between the two, which often means that it may be punished.
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Why is Link Building Important to SEO?
Links are the lifeblood of the Internet. If there were an online currency, it would be represented by this network of interconnecting sites. As with any currency, your fiscal strength is determined by the amount you have in the bank; the more you have, the stronger your position.
The search engines have to act as a moderator for the Internet. It is there job to sift through the trillions of pages and order them in terms of relevance. To do this they first need to be able to judge a site’s authority, one of the key factors used to determine authority is by reviewing the linking structure.
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What is Local Search?
As a branch of SEO, Local Search is a process, or series of processes, designed to optimise a website within a specific geographical locality.
The primary benefit of Local Search is that it increases your website’s visibility when people look for businesses and services within their area. This helps to narrow your site’s focus, whilst helping to ensure that it is seen by consumers who are more likely to be interested in what you have to offer.
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What is SEO Copywriting?
In the simplest terms possible, SEO Copywriting refers to the writing of copy that has been optimised for use on Internet websites.
Whilst a Copywriter in the past may have produced content for advertising or marketing purposes, an SEO Copywriter is required to create site content that seamlessly integrates key terms and phrases. The reason behind it is to create website content that will inform users, whilst helping individual pages to gain strength and rank higher for their unique keywords.
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What is Black Hat SEO?
This is a term used by many industry professionals to describe anything that is deemed to be against the rules of search engines or is otherwise ethically questionable.
Black Hat SEO has been in operation for almost as long as search engines have been ranking sites. Modern algorithms make it far more difficult for websites to achieve a misrepresentative position as a result of underhanded SEO work. However, that wasn’t always the case.
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Why do rankings fluctuate?
It is not all that uncommon for rankings to go up as well as down over a period of time. Even following prolonged SEO work, there will be some terms that slip for a time before regaining their position. This can be just a few places or, in more extreme cases, dozens of rankings; so why does this happen?
Well there are a number of reasons for a fluctuation in rankings. The most common one, particularly where temporary shifts are concerned, is a reshuffling by the search engines. When the likes of Google or Yahoo make small changes to their algorithms, some sites may experience sudden drops or gains in their rankings. Over a short period of time these will level out and a stable position will emerge once again.
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How will SEO Help my Website?
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is all about improving your website’s authority and ranking on sites like Google. The higher your position within the search engines, the greater your chances of attracting specially targeted traffic.
In terms of on-site changes, SEO is limited to your content. A website’s copy is the perfect opportunity to implement all-important keywords, which will ultimately help search engines recognise what the impetus for each page is and can rank it accordingly.
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How are Search Engine Rankings Decided?
All search engines rankings are determined by a complex algorithm. Very few know the exact programming of the algorithm, but through testing and universally available information, SEO experts are able to put together strategies that will help improve a site’s rank.
Yahoo, Bing, Google and Ask will all have their own unique algorithm, which in turn means that their search results can differ. Whilst there are similarities across each search engine, the programming tweaks ensure that each has their own identifiable SERPs. This is why some people prefer to still use sites other than the standard industry favourite Google, and will continue to do so.
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What are Keywords and why are they Important to SEO?
Keywords are one of the most important parts of any SEO project. Essentially, they are the terms that you would expect people who come to your site would search for. By defining these key phrases, you can then optimise your website’s pages to accommodate them.
They can be as specific or as vague as you choose. It is often a good idea to use a search term like Google AdWords or Wordtracker to hone in on exactly what will have the best results for your site. These will highlight the best related words and phrases, how often they’re searched for and what level of competition they currently have. The greater the search volume and the fewer competitors vying for the same term, the better your chances of success.
Can You Guarantee a Top Ranking Position?
One of the most regularly questions asked and the easiest to answer, no we can’t. Nobody can in fact. The only way that anybody could guarantee a top spot is if they were working for the search engine itself and were privy to the extremely sensitive information that determines how the algorithm functions. Needless to say, that is extremely unlikely.
SEO is a process built around continuous development. Even the most seasoned specialists invest a great deal of time to learning each and every day; it doesn’t stop. There’s no magic answer in search engine optimisation, it’s about building knowledge and implementing the changes that will provide the greatest benefit to an individual site. Website strength is then gained over time, helping the search engines to see its value to the searchers and subsequently ascribing greater authority to the site and its pages.
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