SEO Preston

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of optimising websites to increase their organic ranking on search engines like Google and Bing. As organic search is one of the first ways in which people discover content, services or products online, ranking higher in search engines usually leads to an increase in website traffic and leads.

In Google and most other search engines, the results page is often made up of paid ads, a ‘map pack’ and organic positions. The top 3 or 4 positions will likely be paid ads, followed by 3 map positions and finally 10 results, which are often referred to as “organic search results” or the “SERPs”. Paid ads are often referred to as search engine marketing (SEM) or paid ads (ppc).

Search engines use an algorithm or set of rules to determine what pages to show for any given query. These algorithms are extremely complicated and take into account over 200 different ranking factors to determine the rankings of the search engine results page. Mainly, there are three core metrics search engines use to rank a website.

• On-Page Content: One of the main ranking factors for a web page is the on-page content. In short, Google reads the website heading tags (H1, H2, etc) for keywords in the titles, in the URL and within the written content on the page. Generally speaking, the content on a website must match the intent behind the search query (someone searching for “bread recipe” expects to see content about bread, and a recipe).
• Technical SEO: The technical SEO is the way the website works, how quickly it loads and ensures that the code is readable by Google. There are also other techniques that can be used such as optimising the sitemap and robots.txt to help Google in crawling the website properly.
• Backlinks: Links from other websites play a key role in determining the ranking position of a page on the search engine results page. A link is seen as a “vote of confidence” from one website to another, since website owners are unlikely to link to a poor-quality website. Every website has a domain authority (or website score), the higher the authority, the more effective a back-link would be. Imagine a link from the apple website to your business website, that would be an extremely powerful link.

Our search engine optimisation services start from £500 per month, and run over a 12-month period. This is because SEO is a slow process, and in some cases results can only be seen after 9-12 months, sometimes longer. Not every SEO project takes this long, and we have achieved page 1 rankings within the first couple of months in some cases. Every project is different and dependent on keywords, budget and area of focus.

On page SEO involves optimising elements on your website, such as content, meta tags, and site structure. Off page SEO refers to actions taken outside your site, like link building and social media marketing, to improve domain authority.

While paid ads provide immediate traffic, SEO delivers long-term organic results without ongoing ad spend. A strong SEO strategy ensures sustainable website visibility and lower customer acquisition costs.