I was speaking today to a client who told me that they’d performed a search on Google for SEO Liverpool and that I hadn’t shown up in the search results. I have to admit that the simple reason for this is, I’ve never once targeted that phrase. Liverpool, despite being the nearest city to where I’m based has lots of people involved in SEO and so from the outset I’d targeted SEO Merseyside instead, which, at the time of writing this post, I believe I rank top.
Why Do You Need SEO in Liverpool?
Liverpool is steeped in industrial history thanks to it’s favourable location, the famous docks played an important part in the industrial revolution and as such, Liverpool was always at the forefront of innovation. The city was the first to have an overhead electrically powered rail system and even to this day Liverpool continues to be at the cutting edge of commerce and also a leading contributor to the arts.
Competition in Liverpool is fierce, even for smaller businesses that serve the local area there is plenty of other businesses all looking for the same buck.
As time has moved on, businesses rely less on traditional methods of marketing such as newspapers and have embraced the internet as the primary source of lead generation. Having a website isn’t enough however unless you spend some time and effort ensuring that it’s optimised.
What Can SEO Do For my Business In Liverpool?
If you’ve already taken the first step of getting your business online and having a website then you may be a little disappointed at the response that you’ve had. We find this quite often so don’t be too alarmed. The first thing to check is if your designer has optimised your website when it was designed. Take a look at this article that I published entitled why isn’t website isn’t showing on Google. By making sure your website is optimised, you’ll find that the search engines, will be able to navigate your website properly when they are indexing it and if they find your content to be original, informative and relevant to Liverpool then you’ll stand a good chance of appearing in the search results.
Choosing an SEO Company In Liverpool
This is the easy bit really. The first rule here is that you should choose them rather than let them choose you! I have clients that receive countless telephone calls and emails from companies claiming that they can get them on page one of Google. This is nonsense. There are so many variables outside the control of any SEO expert in addition to the number of other websites all trying to achieve the same result that it’s impossible to offer such a guarantee. The only surefire way to get onto page one of Google is by using Adwords, these are the small advertisements that can be seen above and to the right of the organic search results.
Don’t get me wrong, although I’ll stress to you that there is no guarantee of getting to page one, let alone to the top of page one, my experience shows that with the right approach and dedication, any website can make page one for any search term. Do your homework and look for a local SEO expert, one who knows Liverpool and who has a track record in the area. Ideally you want to find someone to work on your SEO that comes recommended.
How Long Does SEO Take?
SEO isn’t a one time hit, if anyone tries to tell you this then you should smell a rat. SEO is an ongoing process, it’s one of ensuring that your website conforms to the standards recommended by the major search engines, it’s about utilising all the tools at your disposal, Webmaster tools, submitting a site map, taking advantage of Google Local, it’s about ensuring that your content is engaging, original, informative and related to the search terms that you wish to rank for. It’s about social media, descriptive URLs, correct taxonomies and canonicalisation.
If any of the above has gone over your head then fear not. I meet web designers all the time that don’t understand half of this stuff. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.
The Best SEO In Liverpool?
If you’re paying attention, you’ll see what I’ve just done there, if not, then don’t worry. as we’ve already mentioned, choosing someone to do your SEO is best if it’s a word of mouth recommendation. Trust someone who doesn’t know what they are doing and you could end up having a negative effect on your website search standing. Don’t for instance trust someone who places a great emphasis on link building. I’ve ranked websites before now with just one back link. Links should be naturally occurring and relevant. You’re much better to have one link from a quality source in Liverpool than a thousand links from poor quality websites.
Ideally, you want someone who has a portfolio of websites that they’ve designed or optimised in the Liverpool or Merseyside region. Most importantly, you want someone who you feel comfortable working with.
How Much Does SEO Cost?
Without sounding evasive, this is impossible to say and for good reason. It’s ok to give a price for performing an SEO health check, this will ensure that your website is structured correctly, that you’re making good use of your meta titles and descriptions and that all your images have relevant alt tags amongst many other things. As we’ve previously mentioned however, SEO is an ongoing process.
Adding content on a regular basis not only enriches your visitors experience whilst they browse your website but it also makes your website more relevant to the search terms that you’re trying to rank for. If you look through this website you’ll see plenty of articles that are to do with SEO Liverpool. This gives relevance to the whole website.
You’ll see other articles that I’ve written about getting ideas for adding content to not only improve your relevance, your reader experience but also improve your SEO organically.
Work With Me To Improve Your SEO
So, to summarise, SEO isn’t a one off hit, it’s an ongoing process designed with improving the experience that your website provides for your visitors, it’s a focus on relativity, customer conversion, and being found in the search results. If you’re serious about improving your SEO not only in Liverpool but anywhere within the UK then I’m more than happy to work with you. More and more I find that I work with clients who want to learn how to do this themselves or they want me to train their staff to implement these techniques. I’m more than happy to spend time each week or month working with such clients showing them not only how to SEO but how to blog, how to tie in social media and how to reach out and interact with clients in the ever changing digital world in which we now live.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me to discuss further.
