Four ways you can improve your businesses onsite SEO

Most digital marketing agencies up and down the U.K add blog posts to their website on a regular basis, often these SEO related blog posts detail quite complicated things that a business owner can do to improve their online marketing.

For example, one week the business may well be talking about how to build high-quality backlinks, then the next week on how Google’s RankBrain could change how us SEO’s implement white hat seo.

So, this got us thinking, surely its time for a blog post that returns back to the simpler forms of onsite seo?

 The type of seo that business owners of Britain could implement themselves, that’s if they were to follow white hat methods.

So without further do, here’s 4 ways you can improve your businesses onsite seo

However, before we do start its important to remember that you should follow Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, or if you are optimising your business for another search engine, such as Bing, then you should follow their advice.

We say that because a lot of businesses here in Cardiff, South Wales where our SEO agency is based, and other businesses based all across the U.K and the world for that matter can sometimes implement low-quality SEO.

And this can mean that Googlebot can spot the low-quality SEO work, it will then inform the algorithm and this can mean that a business incurs a penalty, penalties fall broadly into two categories, they are algorithmic penalties, and manual penalties.

If a business was to incur a penalty, such as an algorithmic penalty, that’s because let’s say the SEO company built low-quality backlinks, then this can mean that the company drops down pages, or sometimes the business can be removed from Google.

So, this is why if you are going to implement SEO yourself, that your business follows white hat methods, plus if you are unsure, you should consult with a respected white hat SEO agency.

There are many seo companies to choose from here in Cardiff, however do make sure that you do find a white hat seo agency.

So, without further ado, here’s four ways a business here in Wales could improve their organic SEO.

#1 Meta titles and meta descriptions

It’s so easy to write a blog post but then forget to add a meta title or a meta description right at the end. Yet, as any good marketing company will tell you a well written meta title and meta description can improve your businesses click through rate (CTR).

So, for example, let’s say your business sells candles, but not just any candles these are your luxurious candles, the ones you see in interior design magazines.

Now the actual candles that your looking to purchase are bees wax candles, yet when your looking for a business that sells such candles, well, none leap out from the page and state they sell such candles.

Yet there’s one business, this business has employed a good seo consultant, so they’ve got a meta titles and meta descriptions are descriptive, and one reads like this:

Meta title: 100% natural bees wax candles, made right here in the U.K, plus free delivery!

Meta description: We make our bees wax candles from 100% pure bees wax. Plus, if you order today, we are offering free delivery for a limited time only!

Now as you may agree this is quite a persuasive meta title and meta description, so if you see this business appear in the SERP’s (search engine results pages) well, it may just persuade you to click on the business.

What you have to remember is which ever Cardiff SEO company you employ, when they get your company on the first page of Google, for say “beeswax candles”- well you still have to compete normally with 10 other businesses which are also ranked in the SERP’s, plus there will most likely be PPC adds, and there might even be a local business, one which you can walk or drive to locally to purchase bees wax candles.

So, as you can see, even when the SEO agency has your business on the first page, you still have to compete with a lot of other businesses, so this is why the company should write a meta title and a meta description which will make shoppers click on your business rather than a rival business.

So for example, it could be something as simple as offering free delivery, or mentioning a brand that you stock, as that may well be what the shopper is looking for, for example a certain brand of candle.

#2 Alt tags

Here’s another ranking signal that a lot of seo agencies forget to talk about, that’s to say often alt tags are not discussed by some marketing agencies, preferring to talk about link building for example.

Yet we think alt tags are important, and here’s why, for most businesses they now face more competition than ever, so yes the crucial parts of seo are important such as links and content marketing, but also its more important than ever to think about how all the less important ranking signals can be optimised, as this may just give your business an edge over some of your rivals.

And one way you may wish to improve your businesses seo is to use alt tags. So, for those that do not know what alt tags are, they are simply a description of what that picture is about.

So, for example, let’s say your business sells 100% organic cotton t-shirts, and there will be people looking to purchase such t-shirts.

So, if the t-shirt’s alt tag was labelled “black V-neck t-shirt, made from 100% organic cotton”- well this would be a great way of improving that pages seo, as it makes it easier for people to find a 100% organic cotton t-shirt.

Why does it make the t-shirt easier to find?

That’s because Googlebot, which Google uses to crawl and index the web will spot that the product has an alt tag, and it will read the alt tag, for example organic cotton t-shirt.

It will then spot that your business sells organic cotton t-shirts.

So if the seo agency then supports this seo work by building high-quality backlinks, and improving all the other seo signals in a white hat way, then writing these alt tags is just another way that the business can improve its seo.

Granted, there are over 200 seo signals, and alt tags are well down the list, that’s in terms of how important alt tags are when improving a businesses seo, however with that said, when your selling thousands of different products, and you have hundreds if not thousands of other businesses as competitors, then every thing you can do to improve your seo will count to your companies advantage.

#3 Blog

Whether you’re a dentist running a dental practice in a busy city, or you make handcrafted tables in the countryside, we think its really important to have a company blog.

And what we mean by blog is to add high-quality, well-written blog posts to your website.

And here’s a top tip, make sure your blog posts are useful-what do we mean by useful?

Well, all too often seo agencies and businesses write content marketing because that they think will improve their businesses seo, however, all too often the work does not offer any real use to anyone.

So, for example, it may well just be 500 words written about tables which do not really offer any useful information to anyone at all.

But how about an article that describes how to make an eco-friendly table, for example how to make a scaffolding board table, from recycled scaffolding boards.

Okay, so we know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking why would a business give this advice away for free? Well let us explain.

There may well be say 1000 businesses that also make tables from used scaffolding boards, yet if your business publishes an article that explains how to make such a table, well many people may share a link on social media.

Then as more and more people read this article they may choose to link to the article, then when they link to the article your business may obtain more and more backlinks.

If the backlinks are of good quality then this may help your businesses seo, so then by giving away this advice for free what you’ve actually done is help to improve your own companies seo. That’s if your business does obtain good quality backlinks.

Which means that your business may now be selling more recycled scaffolding board tables.

Yet, with that said the backlinks must be good quality if they are to help your businesses seo, plus all of the work must be white hat.

#4 Bounce rate

Your digital marketing agency or your business should be monitoring your businesses bounce rate.

You can use Google Analytics to monitor your businesses bounce rate, so you don’t need an expensive SEO tool, as Google Analytics is free.

The reason for monitoring your company’s bouncer rate is if a large percentage of your visitors are leaving your companies website straightaway then should prompt your business to look at why.

Why are so many shoppers leaving your website?

It’s just the same concept as if you were to open a shop in the middle of Cardiff’s city centre, and in the first week, you see people walk in your shop, then leave after a few seconds, you would want to know why- why are so many shoppers leaving the shop?

So let’s say for example your business sells bespoke handmade furniture online, yet 90% of the businesses visitors are leaving the website straightaway.

Well, your digital marketing agency may recommend that the product descriptions are changed, so for example more detail is offered about the product, this may then reduce the bounce rate to say 60%, then the business adds a video for each and every product, this way the customer can get a much better idea of what each piece of furniture looks like.

Then the bounce rate drops to 20% on average across the site, so what we mean by this is your seo agency should be looking at all the different ways your business could reduce its bounce rate.

Does your business need help improving with your white hat seo? If so then why not give us a call?