You launched a website expecting great results. And after all your hard work, nothing has happened.
No calls, no enquiries, no traffic. It just sits there while your competitors show up on Google and you don’t.
That’s the problem SEO solves.
SEO stands for search engine optimisation, and it’s the process of making your website more visible in Google’s search results by helping search engines understand your content and its relevance.
Unlike paid ads, SEO focuses on the free, organic listings that appear naturally in search results (and that most people trust and click first).
More visibility means more clicks. More clicks should lead to more enquiries.
If that sounds straightforward, it is, at least in principle. But the practice takes more work.
Here at Soapbox, we are here to help you understand the basics. And once you do, you’ll have a much better idea of whether your website is helping your business or just taking up space on the internet.
Learn SEO by understanding how search engines actually work from an expert digital marketing company
Before you can understand SEO, it helps to know how search engines like Google work and what happens behind the scenes when someone types in a search.
Crawling
Search engines use crawlers that follow links from page to page across the internet.
When a crawler lands on your website, it reads the content, follows any links it finds, and moves on to the next site. Think of it like a librarian walking through an infinite library, scanning every book it can find.
Indexing
Once a crawler reads your page, it stores the information in Google’s index, which is a massive database of every webpage Google knows about.
If your page isn’t in the index, it can’t show up in search queries and results. It’s that simple.
Having a website doesn’t automatically mean Google knows it exists, and there are technical reasons a page might not get indexed, from blocking rules in your robots.txt file to pages that load too slowly for crawlers to bother with.
Ranking
When someone searches for “plumber near me” or “best coffee shop in Glasgow”, Google pulls relevant pages from its index and ranks them in order.
The complicated algorithm considers hundreds of factors to decide which pages best answer the searcher’s question, and SEO is the practice of making sure your pages score well on those factors.
If your business isn’t showing up for the terms your customers are typing in, those searches are going to your competitors instead.
Why is SEO important in marketing strategies?
There are two ways to appear on Google. You can pay for ads (called PPC), or you can earn your spot through organic search.
Although paying for ads can get you fast results. Once you stop paying, your visibility goes away.
SEO isn’t completely free as it takes time and effort, but the traffic it generates keeps coming without a per-click cost. A well-optimised page can bring in visitors for months or years after you publish it.
There’s also the trust factor.
Most people scroll past the ads at the top of search engine results and click on the organic results. They trust that Google has ranked those pages because they’re genuinely the best answers, not because someone paid to be there. Appearing in those organic spots gives your business credibility that paid ads don’t quite match.
This makes SEO strategies as important part of any digital marketing campaign.
The three types of SEO
SEO gets broken into three categories, and they all matter. Ignoring any one of them is like building a three-legged stool with only two legs.
Technical SEO
This is the behind-the-scenes work that makes sure Google can actually find, read, and understand your website.
It covers things like:
- Site speed: how fast your pages load
- Mobile-friendliness: whether your site works properly on phones and tablets
- Crawlability: whether Google’s crawlers can access all your pages
- Sitemaps: an XML file that tells Google which pages exist on your site
- Security: HTTPS encryption (the padlock in the browser bar)
Most business owners don’t need to handle technical SEO themselves, but they do need to make sure whoever builds their website gets it right.
Even for the most beautiful site in the world, if it takes eight seconds to load and breaks on mobile phones, Google will bury on the search engine results page.
On-page SEO
This is about the content on your actual pages and how it’s structured. It includes:
- Title tags: the headline Google shows in search results. Each page needs a unique, descriptive title that includes your target keyword.
- Meta descriptions: the short summary below the title in search results. It doesn’t directly affect rankings, but a well-written one increases the chance someone clicks.
- Headings: the H1, H2, and H3 tags that structure your content. They help both readers and Google understand what each section is about.
- Content quality: is the page actually useful and answer search queries?
- Keyword usage: including the words and phrases people search for naturally. Not stuffed randomly into sentences.
- Alt text: descriptions on images that help Google understand what a picture shows (and help screen readers for accessibility).
On-page SEO is where most business owners can make the biggest difference themselves. Writing high-quality content and useful articles that uses great keywords for your industry will go a long way.
Off-page SEO
This is everything that happens away from your website that influences how search engines see you.
The main component is backlinks, which are links from other websites pointing to yours. You can try to see these as votes of confidence for how useful your website is.
Off-page SEO also includes brand mentions across the web, reviews on platforms like Google and Trustpilot, and your presence on social media.
E-E-A-T: what Google looks for in your content
Now we understand SEO a little more, let’s see what Google looks for in your site to increase visibility in search results.
This whittles down to a framework called E-E-A-T, standing for: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
In practice, it means Google favours content written by people who know what they’re talking about, published on sites that have a track record of being reliable.
For a small business, that’s actually good news. You are the expert in your field.
A plumber writing about common boiler faults has more genuine expertise than a generic content. And the more experience you have in your industry, the better!
How long does SEO take?
Unfortunately, this isn’t an easy question to answer.
It really depends on your business, how established your website is, your niche, and the keywords you are targeting.
A brand new website in a crowded market might take six months to a year to see proper improvements. An established website making improvements to existing content could see changes within weeks.
There is no fixed answer.
All we can tell you is that SEO is a long game. But the patience pays off, and you can save potentially thousands every year from not relying on PPC search marketing.
Be skeptical of any search engine marketing company who promises fast results results. Google’s algorithms tend to reward quality and consistency, not quick tricks that can put your site at risk (including potential penalties).
How to start your SEO work
If you’re a business owner who’s been looking to appear in search engines, here’s how you can start without needing a whole degree in marketing or how to use SEO tools.
Set up Google Search Console
It’s completely free and can take as little as ten minutes to complete.
Google Search Console lets you see exactly how Google sees your website. You’ll see which search terms people use to find you, which pages appear in results, and any technical issues Google has flagged.
It’s possibly the single most useful tool for understanding your SEO starting point.
Claim your Google Business Profile
If you serve local customers and are looking to do local SEO, this is a must.
A complete, accurate Google Business Profile puts you in the map results when people search for businesses like yours nearby.
Add your opening hours, photos, services, and encourage customers to leave reviews.
For many local businesses, this alone generates a meaningful number of enquiries.
Check your website speed
Go to Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool and enter your website address. It’ll score your site and tell you what’s slowing it down.
Scores below 50 are concerning. They frustrate visitors and will perform worse in search engine rankings.
Pass your report to your web developer to fix these issues.
Write content that answers real questions
Think about what your customers ask you most often and the search intent behind them.
Using this, create content to help answer these questions. You don’t need to be a professional writer, but you do need to produce useful content that will help visitors. The will help your site get more clicks, lead to more enquiries, and build quality backlinks.
Website blogs can be one of the most helpful ways to help increase search visibility.
Make sure every page has a title tag and meta description
If your pages have generic titles like “Home” or “Services”, you’re missing out.
Each page should have a unique title that includes the main keyword for that page, and a meta description that gives searchers a reason to click.
When in doubt, you can always look at our website for guidance.
We have split up and named “Web Design”, “Digital Marketing”, and “Design and Print” to make it intuitive for visitors. It also helps search engine crawlers understand what each page is about.
Common SEO mistakes to avoid
SEO can be difficult to get right, and it is surprisingly easy to get it wrong
Over the years, we’ve audited hundreds of business websites, and we’ve seen the same issues come up again and again. There’s a lot to cover, which is why we’ve put together a handy guide on the most common SEO mistakes.
In the meantime, here are a few of the biggest ones to watch out for:
- Keyword stuffing
- Ignoring mobile
- Not paying attention to page speed
- Not being consistent with SEO
- No internal linking
Make sure to check out our guide if you are interested in learning more!
Get started with SEO with Soapbox Digital Media
SEO is important for any business that has an online presence.
There is a huge amount that goes into it, and we’ve only just covered some of the SEO basics to help you improve your search rankings.
If you are looking to get great improvements to your site, why don’t you leave the hardwork to the professionals here at Soapbox!
We have years of experience helping get websites ranking, and we would be more than happy to take a look to see how we can improve search results for your business.
To learn more about our digital marketing services, give our friendly team a call today on 0141 429 1356.
