First, what is SEO & why do people bother with it?
SEO (search engine optimisation) encompasses a wide range of measures that can be taken that lead to a website being ranked more favourably by the search engines. Typically, if you operate a recruitment company in London for example, you’d be hiring the services of an SEO Company in London to do all this for you.
The measures taken by SEO Service providers in London can include:
Offsite (off-page) SEO
- Guest Content - Quality content posted on third-party websites
- Social Media - LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube,
- Back-linking - References to your URL from trusted / influential sources
Onsite SEO
- Keywords - Plant relevant keywords on your site
- Internal linking - Frequently referencing page links in your content
- Quality content - Creating user-friendly, high value content targeted to your audience
- Titles & Descriptions - Add meta descriptions and title tags
Technical SEO
- Optimising images - Reduce the size of images to speed up your site
- SSL Security - Make sure your certificates are valid
- XML Sitemap - Add an SML sitemap file to help search engines evaluate your site
- Responsive Design - Your site is adaptive to the device it’s being displayed on
Local SEO
- Local Directories - List your businesses with relevant local listings
- Google My Business - Ensure all details are uploaded to your ‘Google My Business’ account
- Local keywords - perform local keyword research & implement new keywords accordingly
- Social Media - Interact with local businesses, events and organisations on social media
- Local Reviews - Engage with your customers and reply to reviews
Now you know exactly what SEO encompasses, and it sounds like a lot right!? And yes, it can be a lot of work, which is why many SEO companies in London have been kept very busy by businesses very happy to pay them to do it all for them. But what if you could do away with SEO services in London altogether, sounds great right? You then wouldn’t need to pay SEO companies in London to do the work! - Let’s look at a few of the drawbacks and considerations with regards to SEO, that perhaps some SEO companies aren’t so quick to tell you about:
SEO doesn’t work overnight
SEO takes time to work. As opposed to paid ads (Google Ads, sponsored ads, etc), any work you do with regards to SEO is a long term strategy. For a medium-sized business we’re talking months, perhaps six months plus if you’re in a highly contested industry.
There’s no shortcuts
There’s a lot of man-hours that must be sunk into SEO and whether you choose to do that work yourself, or pay SEO companies in London to do the work on your behalf, there’s no getting away from the fact that someone will have to put the work in. There may be a fair bit of research involved too, and you’ll likely have to look into keywords, reach out to partners and spend time managing your social media.
Content is king
You’ll need to create lots of high quality content all in the name of SEO that will engage your audience and make your website more favourable in the eyes of the search engines. Again, some of this you might be able to do yourself, but you may also need the help of SEO companies in London to produce videos, translate content into different languages, etc.
Is you site up to the increased traffic?
If your SEO endeavours work then you can expect more visitors, but are you ready for them? You’ll need to make sure your servers can bear the strain, and that you have customer service agents ready to reply to the increased enquiries you’ll be getting.
Increased Brand Recognition
Surely increased brand recognition is a good thing right? Your increased exposure will lead to more customers becoming more aware of who you are and what it is you do. Many businesses grow organically over time, giving them the luxury of establishing and evolving their core beliefs and ambitions. Have you done enough work on your brand identity in advance? It’s actually quite difficult to rebrand and you really don’t want to unless you really have to, so take the time before you hit the ‘big time’ to firmly establish who you are, what it is you do and why you are doing it, because you really don’t want to have to change your origin story at a later date if you can help it!
Conclusions (not delusions)
So there we have it, a few reasons why SEO isn’t always cheap and / or easy. Having said all that, SEO does definitively work in 2022, and with a bit of time spent doing some research and chatting through the issues above with professional SEO Service providers in London, you can expect SEO to deliver the results you are looking for - as long as you’re prepared to wait a little bit for them!
One final word of caution here, when reaching out to SEO companies in London, be aware that some of them can promise you the world, bamboozling you with technical jargon and basically pushing you into purchasing SEO packages that are inappropriate or perhaps even ineffective for your specific business. So always try to speak to a SEO provider that’s open and honest about what you can expect with regards to SEO, and tailor a strategy that can be evaluated and adapted over time. Establish a budget upfront and stick to it, you can always spend more when the results start to appear, but if you blow your marketing budget in one, there’s no do-overs with SEO.
So then, best of luck in 2022 with your digital ambitions, and remember that if you’re looking for an SEO company in London that will take the time to truly understand your business, what your ambitions are and what you want SEO to achieve, whether that’s with; building your brand, generating more leads, bringing back repeat customers, or reaching new markets, Web Choice are a full service digital agency providing a comprehensive suite of SEO services.
Contact Web Choice for expert help & advice on all aspects of SEO.
