Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Ess-eee-owh
verb

creating the perfect balance of on and off-page optimisation to allow your website to rank highly in the SERPs for the right searches, made by people likely to buy what you’re selling.

synonym

search marketing, organic search, getting rankings, appearing on Google

SEO is not complicated – it’s putting the right content, in the right amount, in the right format, on a web page and getting some links to give it some authority. 

That does make what we do sound very simple, so let’s explain a little more, because it’s not quite that easy!

What is the best process for SEO?

The SEO Process will vary depending on what type of site you have, but in every case we will start by understanding the customer and your business needs, deciding how to reach the customer at the right (re)search stage In their purchase journey, and making sure your website is one of the best at achieving that.

For a typical e-commerce site we would start by looking at your strategy and product range – who are you selling to, what are you selling, and what assets and/or time and resources do you have to deliver the best possible SEO for your site?

This allows us to understand what content you need to provide which not only targets the right people, but also targets them at the right stage in the purchase funnel, and create a plan which delivers against your goals whilst still being viable within your resource budget (this is Intent Led Briefing)

Understanding what questions your visitors need answering, and information they need to see, allows us to map keywords against your existing site and reveal either internal cannibalisation or keyword gaps (and often both). Aligned with competitor analysis we can help you to resolve these issues and deliver the right content, in the right format, and to do it better than your competitors.

From here your on page optimisation – which includes everything from optimising page titles and meta descriptions, through to internal linking, schema markup, a historic page cull (only if required!), or even a full rearrangement of the navigation if necessary, can be actioned.

It’s also important that a technical audit is undertaken to understand if there are issues with either the website code or server which may be impacting on your SEO. A backlink review will also reveal if there are likely to be any problems with your link profile which should be addressed.

Why is Samphire great at SEO?

We make what we do sound very simple, but that’s because we have years of experience and we can demonstrate results, so our clients trust us – we don’t need to complicate it. Our approach is to dig into the details, agree a plan which is both effective and achievable, and deliver it on time and to budget.

Denise – Samphire Founder and SEO since Alta Vista

Our team have been promoting sites with SEO since before Google existed! Yes back in the days of Alta Vista when a certain little search engine running from a garage was just getting started. We have experience of preventing penalties, getting sites out of penalties, launching sites, transferring domains, and delivering good quality SEO – always with a view to the future and delivering advice and hands-on actions which will not only serve a site well now, but also into the future.

It’s a little more complex to do great SEO now than it was back in the nineties; we need to consider EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trust) and MUM (MultiTask Unified Model), CWV (Core Web Vitals), and even SGE (aka Ai Overview, CoPilot (Bing) or that strange thing at the top of search), as well as peering into our crystal ball to see what Google is likely to consider next – which is why it really is a full-time job for experts to tackle, not something that can be learnt on a week-long course or by attending a couple of conferences.

Is it best to outsource SEO or do it in house?

The classic SEO answer “it depends” is the only way to answer this question. An in house team means you’re not paying agency rates for minor changes, speccing schema markup or running a basic report, but unless you can employ a team it’s unlikely you’ll be able to cover every SEO skillset or have the time and resources to experiment and have access to lots of comparison data in house.

Sometimes you may just want a stand-alone SEO service or consultancy to support your in-house team (from an audit with actionable and detailed tickets as output, through to customer research for your new range of products) . Alternatively you may find its more cost effective to outsource your SEO, or to utilise a full digital marketing package with SEO as part of the available resources. Get in touch to see what options could work for you and how we can help