SEO - Cardiff

You may be wondering why search engine optimisation is so important. Well here’s why. Over 50% of the World’s population have access to the internet, with nearly 91% percent of us using search engines to find the websites we’re looking for. It is believed that over 50% of all online transactions result from traffic driven to websites from search engines. [IAB UK]

Cardiff based Sequence specialise in search engine optimisation and online marketing and we deliver digital marketing solutions to clients in Wales and across the UK. Our services are geared at getting your proposition in front of your target market, ethically (only white hat techniques used here!), professionally and measurably.

Sequence has over 12 years of web design and development expertise – experience that provides an excellent understanding of the internet, and has formed a sound basis upon which we can confidently offer our search engine optimisation services.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Explained
There are two main types of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), organic SEO and paid SEO. Our focus is to achieve high organic search engine placement – we acknowledge that paid optimisation (such as Google sponsored links or pay per click) has a place (and indeed we often build them in to our campaign plans), but the best ‘bang for buck’ lies by achieving high natural placement.

Natural or Organic Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is considered to be the Holy Grail, as the higher your ranking, the higher the amount of traffic you’re likely to receive. It is also considered ‘non-threatening’ to the user, as it’s not paid for and therefore cannot be considered as advertising – your website has naturally risen to the top of the pile.

This is important because if 80% of web traffic is signposted by Google [IAB UK] and if you’re not getting your share, an un-optimised website is about as effective as a retail shop, located deep inside a dense forest – it could be the best shop in the World with great stock and attractive prices, but no one knows it even exists.

As your website might be your organisation’s shop window, it is important to make sure people are able to find you within the top few rankings in a search engine. Search engine optimisation helps you to achieve this.

You’ll notice that personal finance companies battle frantically on Google to secure and maintain high natural rankings on Google as those in strong positions get more traffic, and for many businesses more traffic means more business.

The Sequence Search Engine Optimisation Process
Sequence adopt a bespoke approach to each SEO project, however we do base our project plan on a clear set of core search engine optimisation processes. The following outline the main steps we build in to each SEO plan:

Consultancy and business analysis
The first stage of our SEO process is to work with you to benchmark how your site is currently being found and used. We’ll look to build a picture of current website user behavior, demographic and traffic profile. We then look to develop an understanding of your business, the product/ service you offer and the market/ sector you operate in.

We will then undertake a technical assessment on your site, so we can establish a picture on the level of control (and resource) available to administer SEO driven changes. Finally we look to establish a clear set of objectives for the project and agree a set of KPIs (key performance indicators) to which we then look to deliver.

Competitor analysis
The second phase of our SEO process is to look and see what others are doing in your target sector or market. It often comes as a surprise that your online competitors do not directly mirror your offline competitors.

From a Search Engine Optimisation perspective your main online competitors can be quickly established by you emulating the searches you think your customers are likely to perform. By spotting those who rank above you we then establish what they’ve done to get these spots and look to better it.

Keyword analysis
Sequence will then look at the way the visitors you want on your site tend to behave online, for example what searches they are likely to perform, what keywords they use and which sites form the trusted ‘backbone’ of this market sector. We then develop this (along side the market and competitor intelligence gathered above) to look closely at the best keywords to use, and when/ how to use them.

On page optimisation or primary optimisation
The next step is to develop your site content to better appeal to the intended user, and in doing so you’ll also appeal to the search engines themselves. Google for example returns results based on three main factors: quality (fresh, changing, relevant content), trustworthiness (links to your site from others), and usability (i.e. ease to locate content, clear titles, meta content, standards adhered to, page tagging etc).

The process of optimisation tends to be centered on the content, and Sequence will establish an SEO vocabulary and checklist that can be used to gear your site towards the visits you’d like, as well as spotting internal linking opportunities between content elements.

Deep site optimisation
This part of the process refers to the more technically challenging element of site optimisation, it involves in depth analysis of your website, and the optimisation of some of the ‘under the hood’ elements of your website. We look at removing barriers between your site content and the search engine, by making it easy it is for search engines to asses (crawl) your site, and by making sure that they can easily get their hands on the keywords, content and links that best represent your desired search engine ‘foot print’.

Link building
Ethical link building is a key step in building the trustworthiness of your site with search engines. With respect to Google, the higher the number of trusted, high quality and reliable links to your website from other highly ranked sites, the higher your resulting PageRank.

Sequence will look to undertake a link building campaign – finding relevant quality and high ranking referral sites that can help form a solid base for driving traffic to your website.

Reporting and analysis
Everything Sequence do as part of a search engine optimisation process will be measured and reported upon. Sequence believes that our clients deserve a clear, unambiguous reporting on exactly what impact their investment in SEO has had.

Our reports provide clear metrics on visitor numbers and visibility and whilst we may make the ongoing investment in the skills, resources and time required to achieve your SEO results, we are committed to explaining to you in clear terms how we’ve achieved the results. Consider us your digital marketing partner.

If you want to find out more about search engine optimisation and what we can do for you, please get in contact with one of our team.