Written by: Ryan Walsh

Date: 07/12/2024

 

About the author:

Hi, welcome to our blog. I have been an SEO agency for over 10 years. You can find me here on LinkedIn. We blog about everything related to organic and local search engine optimisation, so if you want to find out anything about improving your Google Business and local SEO or your mobile SEO, you’ve come to the right place!

 

Table of contents:

How to choose the right domain name for your business
Why you should choose the right CMS
Why fast website hosting is super important
Why you need to get the SEO foundations right
We explain what keyword research is
How to improve the on-page SEO
How to track performance

The best time to improve a business’s on-page SEO is when you first design your website. It’s a bit like building a new house: You need to get the design and the building’s foundations right so that the whole building has strength.

This is exactly the same with a business’s organic search engine optimisation. To rank highly on Google, the main pages need to be designed to offer optimum user experience, plus the text must be well written. Then there’s the on-page SEO. This must be done right, fine-tuned, and overdone, or Google’s algorithm will consider the whole website over-optimised.

If the page is not optimised enough, Googlebot will not understand what it is about. It’s a fine line, yet good SEO consultants have mastered it.

Choose a domain name.

First, choose whichever domain name you like, but don’t pick one where rubbish and spam SEO have been applied in the past.
Some domain names are available because another company has tried improving the SEO, failed, and just stopped paying for the domain name.

So, in a nutshell, you don’t want a domain name that has rubbish SEO applied to it, such as spam links.

John Mueller, a Search Advocate at Google, has said that a .com extension works fine, as it’s “internationally recognisable.” We would avoid the new domain names such as .cymru or .biz and stick to .com or co. Uk. The reason we that is, just look at the businesses on page one of Google right now that offer the same services.

Normally, there are only .com or .co.uk; it’s very rare here in Wales to see .cymru.

 

Domain name registrar

One of the first steps in improving your business’s SEO is to buy the right domain name—not a domain name where spam SEO has been applied in the past. Then, head over to a domain name registrar, Go Daddy or 20i, and register that domain. Sometimes, the first-year subscription is just 0.99 pence.

 

Which CMS should you choose?

There are many different content management systems to choose from. The vast majority of our clients have WordPress. CMS can be hosted platforms, so examples of these would be Squarespace and Wix.

Then, you have self-hosted platforms; an example is WordPress.

 

Choose a website hosting provider.

If you’re choosing a self-hosted solution, such as WordPress, you’ll want to choose fast hosting—the fastest hosting that you can afford. The quicker, the better, because the slower your website, the higher the bounce rate.

Set up a Google Search Console account and Google Analytics account (these are both free)
Your business will need Google Search Console for many different purposes, such as checking incoming backlinks, checking keyword average positions, and checking how many clicks your business has received.

Site structure:

So, this is when SEO consultants and web designers ideally need to work closely together. You need to start thinking about how the pages will be organised, which pages are needed, and how the drop-down menu will work.

If it’s a relatively simple brochure website, you can sketch the site map on a whiteboard and figure out the page layout.

Visit a direct competitor’s website for ideas on how they have organised their pages. Ideally, every main service or product category should have its own page. So, for example, “employment law” should have its own page separate from “family law”—this will help you improve the SEO for these two distinct and separate customers later on down the line.

 

Internal links

So think of links like this:

 

External links

External links are like external energy cables connecting to your house. They are the main supply and should be powerful enough to power everything.
Internal links

Then, internal links, like the internal wiring of your house, connect everything up and spread the power across your home from the main supply.

A lot of businesses say, “Link building is dead.” It is most definitely not. In a nutshell, if you’re serious about improving your business’s search engine optimisation, then you need links—a lot of good links. This will send link juice to your website, though, and this is important. Global brands and businesses on page one of Google’s SERPs typically have a lot of good-quality links.

Opt for HTTPS

So, you will need your website to encrypt information. For this, you will need SSL/TLS, and your website designer should take care of this and make it easy.

Then, in your browser, such as Google Chrome or Mozilla, you will see a small padlock added to your website.

Your website must be mobile-friendly

It goes without saying that most people find it simpler to buy products and find local businesses on their smartphones. Yet, for a business to appear, say, in Google’s organic SERPs on a smartphone or tablet, it needs a dedicated mobile version of the website designed.

This is important because you may have approached local web design companies for a quote for your dog walking business to be offered a quote you’re happy with. So you proceed, but then when you view it on your smartphone, it doesn’t look the same; the text is all over the shop, and so are the pictures. So this is because you haven’t got a mobile version of the website designed.

 

Start keyword research

Seed keywords

An SEO consultant or agency must know which keywords they are optimising the company website for. For example, let’s say a solicitor’s practice. The services they offer are often vast. The SEO agency will need to know which keywords have the higher search volume, meaning the company will need to work out which are the most common words and descriptions shoppers are asking Google when looking for your business.

For example, running trainers, casual trainers, or hiking boots could be sold on the same website.

 

Write high-quality content marketing.

The content marketing added to your website must be original, well-written, and written by an expert on the subject (Google E-EAT). If you are not an expert on that particular subject you are writing about, consult with an expert who is. Their input is needed because of the Google E-EAT update.

The Google E-EAT updates rewards pages by ranking them higher if they show expertise, experience, authoritativeness and trustworthiness in their writing. So, content thin content marketing doesn’t cut it; the content marketing on the first page of Google these days has the following qualities:

 

High word count

Most of the pages that rank on the first page of Google have a high word count. For example, a blog post is often in excess of 1,000 words.
Yet regardless of a high word count, the work must be of high quality and well-written, and it can’t be copied from anyone else.

 

Written by an expert

So, this is crucial; the pages which rank on page one of Google make it clear that the author knows what they are talking about. It’s not, therefore, just some copywriter who is writing 700 words of waffle; it’s clear from the pages which rank high on Google that the author knows, to an expert level, what they are talking about, whether that’s talking about house plants or a hypercar, the author knows their stuff.

 

Interesting

The work should be interesting. It’s not just about showing that you’re an expert on what you’re writing about, such as e-bikes. It’s also about making the work interesting and engaging so that you want to read more. This means the business that publishes high-quality work will have readers reading the work for longer, which means a higher dwell time, which is good for the business’s SEO.

Shows an original perspective

So, the written work should show an original perspective, your perspective on, say, improving SEO or repairing a patchy lawn. Offer your best advice.

 

In-depth

The article should cover the subject you’re writing about in depth. For example, think about commonly asked questions relating to that topic. If you answer these questions and many more, you will be offering helpful content marketing.

Since the Google Helpful Content update, it’s more important than ever to publish content marketing that is useful to shoppers.

So, let’s say you’re writing an article for a solicitor’s website. Once you’ve answered one question, most people will often ask more questions.

So go the extra mile and aim to offer an answer to those questions as well. This work normally has a high dwell time, which means shoppers read it for longer, which is good for your business’s SEO.

Add your on-page SEO

Make sure to add on-page SEO (do this in a white hat way)

So, improving the on-page SEO is important; here’s how you do that.

 

Create a separate page for each leading service or product

So, this is crucial: don’t group all your business services on one page; create a main page for each service your business offers.
Page title

 

Add a page title

Use a keyword research tool, such as Ahrefs or Moz Pro, to determine which keywords have the highest search volume on the page title.

 

Add H1-H6 title tags.

Break the text up using H1 through H6 title tags. These will also help a reader skip to the section they want to read about.
They will also help Googlebot and Google’s algorithm understand what that page is about. For example, if all the titles from H1-H6 are about parts relating to a motorbike, it’s clear that the blog post is about motorbikes.

Alt text

Make sure you add description alt text to each picture you add to the page

Add internal links

Again, this can help Googlebot understand what the page or blog post is about by reading the anchor text that leads to that page.

Add meta titles and meta descriptions.

Write the meta titles and descriptions to increase the CTR and obtain more clicks.

 

Use social media to spread the word about a new article you have added to your website.

So, let’s say you have written a 3,000 monster article; you will now want as many shoppers as possible to read it.

You have offered advice on the best electric cars in 2024. That’s because, let’s say, you are a motoring journalist.

You could promote the article on social media, such as Facebook. You could also promote the post, meaning more people will see and possibly read it. This allows you to obtain more followers on your Facebook account, who may return to your website and keep reading your new blog posts.

Again, gaining higher dwell times and lower bounce rates shows Google and other search engines like Bing that people are interested in reading your work.

So, if the dwell time is high, this is good for SEO.

Many marketing agencies believe that if you have a large social media following, say 1000 plus followers, who are all commenting and engaging with your company’s Facebook account, then this is good for your SEO, as it helps bring in even more visitors to your company website.

Track performance

It’s essential to track the performance of your SEO to see how it’s improving; here are some ways you can do that.

 

Organic visitor numbers

Use Google Analytics to see how many organic visitors you receive to your website.

 

Number of backlinks
Use Moz Pro to see how many backlinks you are obtaining and whether they are quality links.

 

Keyword

Use Google Search Console to check the average position for SEO keywords.

 

How we can help:

We are an established SEO agency in Wales. For over 10 years, we have been helping Welsh businesses obtain more organic visitors via SEO.

 

For a quote, do call us. Prices start from £500.00 a month.