SEO Consultant
1. What does an SEO Agency do?
An SEO Agency works with businesses and their websites to improve their Google ranking, leading to higher reach and exposure for your business. An SEO Agency uses a multi-faceted approach including working on different aspects of your website, to improve areas such as speed, functionality, content, and user experience, as well as off-site optimisation. A good SEO Agency works as part of your internal marketing team, providing a supportive service to
improve your website traffic, conversions, and ultimately sales.
2. How to Choose an SEO Agency?
It can be daunting choosing an SEO Agency but spend time considering who you want to work with. Beware agencies that promise instant results, or anything that sounds too good to be true! Look for agencies that listen to your business needs, and that clearly explain their strategy. Good SEO should be a combination of short-term fixes, and long-term gains, so ensure that your agency is building a coherent and considered plan that will have long-term benefits for your business. Choose an agency that will work with your marketing team, and that will provide a service that sits with your overall marketing plan and budget. If you are unsure keep asking questions, a good agency should be patient and willing to spend time discussing your queries.
3. At what point should I hire an SEO company?
There is no “right” time to hire an SEO company. Many people implement SEO as soon as they launch their site, to ensure that they gain maximum market exposure from the beginning, while other clients come to us having never ventured into SEO after decades in business. If you want to improve your Google ranking and gain more exposure for your business, then that is the point at which you should hire an SEO company. Some businesses use their marketing team to carry out SEO work, this can be an option, but often outsourcing this highly specialist service is more cost-effective for your business.
4. What Services Do 3W Consulting SEO Agency Offer?
Here at 3W Consulting Liverpool SEO Agency, we offer a range of SEO services to our clients. We understand that all businesses are different, and we will always create a bespoke SEO strategy plan for each business, that has been tailored to their unique requirements.
Site Audits
We always begin with a site audit. This shows us, and you, your website’s current position, what is working, and where the weaknesses are. It will highlight technical issues and content issues, and it will give us the framework on which to build a considered SEO plan for your business.
Keyword Research
Keyword research is a very important component of SEO. Learning which words and phrases people use to find your website, means that we can build content around these keywords, which will improve your Google ranking, and ensure that more people find your website.
Content Strategy
“Content is King” is just as true today as it ever was. Google rewards good quality, meaningful content, so ensuring that the content on your site is informative and helpful to your customers, is a vital part of your SEO strategy. We will create a content strategy for your business and can provide you with well-researched and professionally written content for your website.
Link Building
Link building is another key component to building a cohesive SEO strategy. Link building is any link between your site and another. Whether you a referencing an industry body, or linking to a product that could help your clients, links show that you are well informed and helpful. Google rewards links, and implementing a positive link-building strategy will ultimately help to improve your organic rankings.
5. Questions to Ask When Evaluating SEO Options.
There are a number of important questions to ask when you are choosing to work with an SEO professional. Takeyour time considering these, so that you choose the best SEO professional to support your business growth.
1. Does the agency or consultant have the infrastructure and resources to meet your needs?
Whilst you may want to start off with a relatively small SEO budget it is important to ask whether the agency or SEO consultant that you are choosing to work with has the capacity to cope with your expanding requirements. Don’t be afraid to ask questions! A one-man band may give you a brilliant service and be more than capable of providing you with the level of input that you require, but you may need to work with an agency to ensure that they have the capacity to deal with your rapidly growing requirements.
2. Does the SEO provider have relevant experience?
Ask questions! Do they have experience in your industry or a similar industry? Can they show you examples of how other companies have benefited from their SEO? It can be hard to understand their level of experience if you have limited knowledge of the subject area, but find out how many years of experience they have – a seasoned professional will generally have more knowledge than a new start-up company.
3. Does the SEO resource fit your budget?
A good SEO agency should be able to provide you with the best package to suit your budget. Be wary of companies who suggest that you have to spend thousands as a minimum. SEO should be part of your long-term marketing strategy, and you should be able to budget this accordingly. A well-managed SEO campaign with a small budget can still have excellent results over time. Discuss your budget with the agency, and don’t feel pressured into overspending on your SEO.
Local SEO
1. What Is Local SEO & How Is It Different from Regular Website SEO?
Local SEO is a vital tool for bricks and mortar businesses, and local service providers, where the geographical location of your potential customers is an important factor. Regular website SEO targets people searching across the country, but if you are driving to increase footfall to your retail shop in Liverpool, there is little sense in being seen by people in London. Local SEO will ensure that you increase your visibility to people who are in the right geographical location to convert them into customers.
2. What Types of Businesses Can Use Local SEO?
Any business that wishes to reach people nearby can use local SEO. A plumbing company may wish to expand into a nearby town to increase their business, or a hairdresser with a hard-to-find physical location can promote their business through local SEO. A national company that is opening a new regional premise, may want to drive local SEO to support their regular SEO, to ensure the success of their new venture. Any business that wishes to attract local people will benefit from local SEO.
3. Why is SEO important for small businesses?
SEO is no longer just used by big businesses. With the majority of customers searching for services or products online, you must be seen. Many customers actively want to support small businesses butcan struggle to find them, by investing in local SEO, you will ensure that you are
visible to the people who are looking for you.
4. Where should (Liverpool) small business owners begin?/How SEO can work for your
Liverpool business?
If you are a business owner in or around Liverpool it is worth considering how local SEO could benefit your business. Maybe you have a new product or service that you want to communicate to your prospective customers? Maybe you are struggling with aggressive competitors? Whatever your position, we can help. We are on hand to discuss your business with you, and help you to grow your business.
5. What’s the SEO “to-do list” for a local business?
When you come to us we will explain how we work, and put together an SEO strategy that is designed around your business, your budget, and your growth ambitions. We will lay this out clearly for you in a proposal so that you understand each step and how this will help to achieve your Goals.
Some steps to accomplish:
- Keyword Research – ensuring that your content contains the correct keywords, including local place names, so that your website is easy to find when potential customers search online.
- On-site Optimisation – ensuring that your website is working quickly and effectively to optimise the website traffic and convert more customers.
- Claim your Google My Business Profile – it is important that you claim your Google My Business Profile so that you can edit the information and ensure that it is helping not hindering your business. We can take care of this for you.
- Build local citations – local citations are stating the address, contact number, website, and email of your business. When your details are consistently appearing on the internet, then this gives your business validity.
- Get reviews – reviews are an excellent way to showcase the trustworthiness and validity of your business. Many potential customers will read reviews before making a buying decision. Reviews are also beneficial to SEO, as they further increase your online reputation showing you as a professional and reputable business.
- Get links on local websites – building relationships with other local businesses is important. If you have a retail shop and you recommend a local café to your customers, you create reciprocal positive relationships. The same applies online, if you link to other local businesses, recommending them to your customers, you build local relationships, and offer your customers an incredible service, beyond your core offering.
- Ongoing content creation answering your prospect’s customers’ questions – generally people are looking for an answer to their problem – dripping tap, need a plumber; hairy dog – need a dog groomer. Your website must answer their question – why is my tap dripping? How often do I need to clip my dog? Content creation is an important aspect of building your reputation as an expert in your industry. Your potential customers will be reassured by your knowledge, and more likely to engage with you.
Google My Business Optimisation
1. Is Google My Business worth it?
Google My Business is an important resource. Once you have claimed your business listing, you can ensure that all the details are correct, such as spending times and contact details, and then you can begin to build good reviews and work towards getting your business listed in the top three pack.
2. Why are online business listings important?
With more and more people looking to the internet to find local businesses, it has never been more important to ensure that your online business listings are correct. Businesses that have moved premises or changed details, can be disadvantaged if people cannot get hold of them. Customers will rarely spend time hunting for your details, you need to make sure that they are easy for them to find, otherwise, they will go elsewhere.
3. How can online reviews help?
We tend to trust reviews over a company’s own declaration. People often ask friends for recommendations, and online they use reviews in much the same way. Good reviews that reflect well on your business are extremely beneficial, as well as having a positive impact on your SEO.
4. Why is localisation important?
If you are targeting people in a certain geographical location, then localisation is vital. Localisation shows where you are and ensures that you target the right people. If you have a brick-and-mortar store in Liverpool, there is no point targeting people who are in Devon. Localisation ensures that you are targeting the correct people, and focusing your resources on the right potential customers.
Ecommerce SEO
1. Why Does SEO Matter For Ecommerce?
SEO ensures that you are found by people looking for a certain item. SEO works with your products, building content and on-site optimisation so that it is your product that is found by potential customers.
2. How to improve Ecommerce SEO?
Many Ecommerce sites have little to no content on the website, but simply the product. Ensuring that there is good content, containing the correct keywords to draw people onto your website will improve the traffic to your website. Technical SEO such as speed and load time will have an
important bearing. Where Ecommerce sites often have many images and videos, it is
extremely important that the website is technically proficient to ensure that it works
well. We can work with you to improve the customer experience which translates into
more sales for you.
3. What are the SEO strategies for SEO Ecommerce?
Strategies include; keyword research, competitor analysis, content creation, site structure, technical recommendations, and reviews. We work with you and your website, to ensure that the plan that we produce is tailored to your business, and what will work best for you.
4. Is it more expensive than regular SEO?
We will always work with your budget to design an SEO strategy that suits your business. There are many SEO tools that we can use for Ecommerce SEO, and if you want to pursue them all simultaneously then this can be costly. Using a structured SEO plan over time will enable us to work on all the aspects of your Ecommerce SEO without leaving you with a hefty bill.
SEO
1. What is SEO and how can it help my business?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, and it is the practice of improving where your website appears in Google. Given that most people turn to Google for information and answers, and the majority of those only look at page one, it is incredibly important to optimise your website. The more traffic that you send to your website, the more potential customers you are acquiring, and ultimately this will improve your turnover and profit.
2. How long does SEO take to work?
When we work with businesses we aim for a combination of quick fixes, and long-term strategy. There are often many quick changes that we can make based on our site audit that can have instant results. Long-term strategies such as content creation improve the quality of your site over time. Using a combination of strategies will enable you to see ongoing results over a period of time.
3. How Do I Improve My Website’s Authority?
As part of our SEO strategy, we will work on improving your website’s authority. Whether this is by creating content to show you as an industry expert or working on creating reviews that reflect well upon your business, we will work with you to promote your trustworthiness.
4. Can I Just Buy a Whole Bunch of Backlinks?
You can – but don’t. This is considered bad practice and you will be heavily penalised by Google if you do so. This is not something that we ever suggest to our clients and does not fit with the ethical and professional service that we offer to our clients. It was a common practice some
years ago, but Google has cracked down on this, and you will risk your website if you
get caught by Google.
5. Why don’t I just pay for ads?
Pay-per-click is another route that many businesses try. For some companies, it can have good results. The main difference between paid-for ads and SEO is that once you have paid for an advert, that money is spent, and once the advert has come down you have nothing left – other than the option of running another advert. SEO is an investment. If you concentrate on building the quality and integrity of your website you are investing in this incredible tool for attracting and converting clients.
6. What Parts of SEO Should I Focus on First?
When you come to us we will carry out a site audit. This will provide us with the framework for building an SEO plan, which will lay out the best order in which to carry out the various SEO tasks. Generally speaking, it is important to resolve any technical aspects of your website before driving more traffic to it. Ensuring that the speed and functionality of the website are optimised, means that when you work on other elements of SEO to increase the traffic you will have more conversions.
7. How much do SEO and Web Presence services cost?
We provide SEO services for a range of budgets. Whether you are a start-up with a small marketing budget, or a well-established business, with a substantial marketing budget, we will be able to help. Our prices are structured to be affordable and competitive and give our customers an excellent return on investment.
Content Creation
1. What are Keywords?
Keywords are the words used by potential customers when they are searching for a solution to their problems. These may not be the same words that you use to describe your product or service, as your potential customers may not know what they are looking for. Keywords are extremely important to ensure that your website is found by your potential customers.
2. How do I find the right and relevant keywords?
When you work with us we will carry out keyword research for you, this will ensure that we understand which words, or phrases your potential customers are using when searching online.
3. How do I effectively use keywords?
Keywords need to be written throughout your content, in a readable and helpful way. Keyword jamming, where you simply add strings of words to your web pages, is penalised by Google, so your keywords must be used correctly throughout your website.
4. Do I need to have blogs? Does it improve SEO?
Regular, informative, and well-written content is rewarded by Google. Using blogs can be a useful way to improve your Google ranking, and if these blogs are written from an SEO perspective can be a vital component of your SEO strategy. We create content plans as part of our SEO strategy for our clients. If you have informative and useful blogs on your website, your customers will see you as an authority in your industry and are more likely to buy a product or service from your business.
5. How Can I Write SEO-Friendly Content?
We offer SEO-friendly content creation as part of our SEO services. Some customers choose to write their own content, using our specialist software to ensure that the content is SEO-friendly. However, many clients, find that outsourcing this aspect is economical and efficient.
Link Building
1. What is Link Building?
Link building is when you have links to other resources or websites from your own site, and other businesses link back to you. Link building can
help to improve your Google ranking.
2. What are the effective link-building strategies?
When you work with us, we will explore how best to build links for your website. As ever, it depends on the nature of your business and how you interact with other companies. Link building is often reciprocal, so it is important to forge relationships with businesses so that you can work together. For example, if you run a chain of hair salons, you can link between each salon, you can link to the products that you use, you could link with local clothing shops – “Need a new dress to go with your new hair?” The possibilities are endless, but building relationships is at the heart of building links.
3. How Can I Get More Links to My Site?
When you work with us we will discuss how to improve this for you. Whether you have existing relationships with businesses that you can cultivate, or you can provide associated services to customers, there are always opportunities to increase the number of links on your site.
4. Can I buy links?
Yes, but it is not considered good SEO. Indeed if Google discovers that you have bought many links, you could be penalised. It is more prudent to build
genuine links over time than risk buying links.
Implementing an SEO Strategy
1. Where Should I Start My SEO Strategy?
You should always start with what you want to achieve, and what are the challenges that you are facing in your business. Once you have laid out your goals, we can create an SEO strategy that is tailored to your business needs. Whether this is to increase your local presence or to target a new sector of the market, we are here to help.
2. How would I know if the SEO strategy is effective for my business?
When you workwith us, we are constantly monitoring the impact of the work that we do. Through detailed tracking and measuring, we can ensure that our SEO strategy is generating the results that we want. We provide you with regular reports so that you can see changes to website ranking, traffic, and ultimately sales. This tracking allows us to take ongoing adjustments to your SEO strategy so that we can react to real-time changes and provide you with a responsive and professional SEO strategy.