Within a busy and capital city like Cardiff, most businesses face a lot of competition.

So, it simply doesn’t matter if you run a plumbing business, or you run a hairdressing saloon, simply put there are often masses of other businesses that also want to be top on Google.

And that’s exactly what our Cardiff SEO company can do, we can help to get your business to the top of Google.

This means for your business to reach the top, your business must be deemed to have the strongest SEO.

To have the strongest SEO you must beat the competition, plus work to maintain that position as well.

This is where our marketing agency can help.

What does “Google My Business” mean?

Let’s say you’re a bit peckish, so you look for local pizza take-away business here within Cardiff.

If your using let’s say an Android phone, and your location data is switched on, well Google will know where you are within Cardiff.

So, Google will then offer very precise results, in terms of local pizza shops in this instance, based on how close you are to those businesses.

And by partnering with an SEO company we can optimise your businesses Google My Business account so it is more likely to appear.

 Yet we can also implement organic SEO as well, so we can get your business higher within the organic business results as well.

In order to help improve your businesses SEO, we like most digital marketing agencies charge a monthly fee.

How long will it take to see results?

This does depend on how competitive your business sector is. It also depends on how strong your competitors are.

So, for example, let’s say your competitors that are on the first page of Google have been paying an SEO agency for the last 5 years to implement quality SEO. Yet your business may just be getting started with investing in SEO, so there may well be a lot of catching up to do.

If there’s a large amount of work needed then the monthly fee will need to be higher.

Therefore it does depend on how strong your competitors SEO is.

Do you only with businesses that are based within Cardiff, South Wales?

We work with businesses across the whole of the U.K. We also work with a wide range of different businesses.

Why do we need to pay each month?

Your competitors will never stop trying to reach the top of Google.

They know that If they do succeed in getting their business to the top of Google, then they are more likely to generate more sales.

 This means if you would like your business to be ranked on the first page you often need to partner with an SEO agency that can offer quality work.

Also because Google is constantly adjusting which businesses have the strongest SEO, this is why SEO is a continuous process.

So my website drop back down the ranks if we stop investing?

Yes, this is likely, as the other businesses could develop stronger SEO, and then Google’s algorithm may place those businesses higher than yours.

What is Google’s algorithm?

Google’s algorithm is now much more than just a mathematical formula, instead it now is thought to also have AI technology through RankBrain.

The algorithm has changed vastly since it was created. The algorithm also works to help to weed out businesses that have invested in low-quality SEO.

Therefore, by integrating Google’s Penguin update, and Google’s Panda updates for example, the search engine has managed to remove many businesses that have used low-quality SEO.

Google’s algorithm therefore rewards businesses that use quality SEO, which is often referred to as being “white hat”.

So, in a nutshell Google’s algorithm is widely considered to calculate the strength of over 200 SEO factors, then if your business has the strongest SEO across these SEO factors, then your business is likely to rank the highest.

However, its important that every bit of SEO work is quality

How much will this cost?

We charge per day, how many days are required will be determined by how strong your competitors are.

For example, if you operate in a fiercely competitive business sector, then one or two days per month will not be enough. Therefore we will need to calculate how strong your competitors are, and then recommend how many days you require from our SEO consultants.

How will you improve our businesses SEO?

There are over 200 SEO signals, this means that each month we will need to work on the areas that will be most effective.

Each month we therefore deliver quality SEO work, and overtime your businesses SEO will strengthen.

What were the Google Penguin updates?

The Google Penguin updated penalised websites that used low-quality backlinks, and also did not use anchor text in a white hat way.

What were the Google Panda updates?

So many digital marketing agencies were trying to cut corners, and still do.

So for example, a website that kept repeating the keywords it wished to rank for over and over again, may have been penalised by the Google Panda updates.

Also businesses that used duplicated content for example.

There are many more examples of how businesses and SEO agencies alike would implement low-quality onsite SEO and have subsequently been penalised by the Google Panda updates.

What types of businesses within Cardiff could potentially benefit from investing in organic and local SEO?

If your customers use Google or another search engine, like Bing in order to find businesses within your business sector, then your business could benefit from being ranked on the first page of Google.

Content Marketing

Your digital marketing agency should be adding quality content marketing to your website.

If the content marketing is very high-quality, then it is likely to attract readers to your website.

These readers may then own their own websites, or blogs, and they may then link to your website.

As long as the backlinks are high-quality, then this could help to improve your businesses SEO.

Link Building

Your marketing agency should only build high-quality and relevant backlinks.

So by high-quality we mean only from a high-quality website.

Plus the backlinks must be relevant, so for example, if you run a web design business there’s no point in obtaining backlinks from a local rugby club, as the links will not be relevant.

Google’s algorithm wants to notice high-quality backlinks, that send “link-juice” to your website.

All backlinks must be built in a white hat way, otherwise if the backlinks are low-quality, then the business could incur a Google Penguin penalty.

Google My Business

Your marketing agency should help to set your businesses Google My Business account.

The Google My Business account should contain your businesses NAP information and a backlink to your website.

If your business does change address for example, then the NAP information on the Google My Business account should be updated.

This is to avoid the business incurring conflicting business citations.

Mentions of your business

Many leading SEO consultants believe that Google’s algorithm is now so sophisticated that it doesn’t just note backlinks that lead to your business.

Now, mere mentions of your business are also noted.

So for example, if your business gets mentioned on let’s say the BBC website, some say that this could help to improve a businesses SEO.

NAP

NAP simply means the name of your business, the business address and the businesses phone number.

Your digital marketing agency should be building business citations, which state your businesses NAP information and these must all match.

NAP details that do not match, so for instance one address may state ST instead of Street, then this can cause conflicting business citations.

These can actually damage a businesses local SEO, as it can confuse some algorithms as to where is your business located.

Address within Cardiff

It’s all well and good wanting to implement SEO to a website so that you can gain more customers from Cardiff, South Wales. But if the businesses address is not within Cardiff, South Wales, then this makes implementing local SEO much harder.

The reason is Google’s algorithm wants to serve the best quality answers to questions.

So if someone was to search “find me an emergency plumber near me”- well Google will want to present businesses it knows are based in Cardiff, if indeed the person looking for a plumber is based within Cardiff.

However, if someone asks an SEO company to get a plumbing business more customers within Cardiff, yet the business is based within Newport, then it becomes much more difficult to do.

So if you want to implement SEO within Cardiff, then your businesses NAP information must also be within Cardiff.

Cardiff phone number

It’s considered far better if you use a local phone number within your businesses NAP information.

So for example, let’s say you run a scaffolding business, and you wish to get more scaffolding contracts within Cardiff, well you should use a 029 20 phone number, as that’s the local phone number for Cardiff and not a mobile phone number.

Regular work

There’s no point in implementing SEO work and getting a business to the top of Google and then stopping all SEO work altogether.

The reason is often a competitor will then overtake the business in sometimes what might be a short amount of time.

So this is why most digital marketing agencies recommend that quality work is implemented each month.

This way Google’s algorithm and Googlebot will spot new work, if the SEO work is quality you will be helping to maintain where your business ranks or improve on where your business ranks.

Business citations

Has your business within Cardiff, South Wales moved address?

Did you update your businesses citations?

Well, if you didn’t then your business may now have what SEO consultants call conflicting business citations.

This means that your business citations, or NAP details may say your business is located at one address, yet you may have moved to another. This could weaken your businesses local SEO.

So this is why marketing companies recommend that the NAP details, which are your businesses name, address and phone number must be consistent throughout your businesses citations.

Business reviews

Your business should aim for a lot of genuine reviews, and  these should be left on your businesses Google My Business account.

If the reviews are not genuine, and they are fake, then Google’s algorithm will know this, and this can mean that your business could be removed from the Google My Business results.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO is an important part of SEO, as you could invest a lot in paying a digital marketing company to improve your businesses SEO, by say writing content marketing and building backlinks.

But if the website itself is not built correctly, for example there are pages missing which explain which services your business can offer, then it would be difficult to implement SEO to help advertise those services.

So for example, lets say you run a business that makes cakes special occasions, yet you want to specialise in making wedding cakes.

Well, unless your website has a page dedicated to advertising your wedding cakes, well its going to be very hard to get your business to rank high of Google for wedding cakes within the city or town where your bakery is based.

This is the same for say a car dealer that wants to advertise as being a specialist in one make of car.

Unless the website has pages explaining that they ad a specialist in say retailing or repairing that brand of car, then they are unlikely to rank high on Google.

Page titles

Page titles are really important, so for example, the page that advertises your wedding cakes, should quite simply have “wedding cakes” within the page title.

If this is missing, then straightaway Google’s algorithm could start to get confused as to what that page is about.

Then your SEO consultant may add alt text, content marketing, internal links, anchor text and also an FAQ to the page to help improve the SEO of that page.

Meta titles and meta descriptions

Meta titles and meta descriptions are important, so let’s say for example that you sell furniture.

Yet, you specialise in manufacturing a certain type of furniture, and that is furniture that has an industrial look.

And you know that people are looking for say dining tables that have an industrial look.

So you could write “industrial style dining table” into the meta title and the meta description.

So when someone is looking for industrial style furniture your business may standout in the SERP’s and be more likely to be clicked on.

Therefore the SEO agency can help to improve your businesses CTR.

Internal backlinks

Okay, so let’s say you regularly add blog posts to your website, and your business sells luxury clothing.

So for example, your digital marketing agency may well be describing a new style of winter jackets that are popular this season.

And then from the blog post you may want to show people the coat you have described by offering a backlink so that they can click the link, and then see the coat you have described.

This can therefore help your customers find products that you sell easily.

So your online marketing agency may wish to add internal backlinks on your website so that your readers can easily find a page that may well help them.

For example, let’s say someone is looking to purchase a winter jacket, they read the blog post, like that style, so instead of them leaving your website, to potentially purchase that winter jacket from elsewhere, an internal link could take the reader to the jacket you sell, therefore keeping the person on your website, which could help to increase the businesses sales.

Anchor text

Let’s say that your business, here within Cardiff sells candles, and you write a blog post about beeswax candles.

You then want to offer to your readers that they click a link where they are taken to where your business sells “beeswax candles”.

So to help your readers to know that the link takes them to the page that sells beeswax candles, you can label the anchor text “beeswax candles”.

However, as any good online marketing agency will tell you within Cardiff, its crucial that the anchor text is written in a white hat way. If the anchor text is not written in a white hat way, and your business does not follow white hat seo methods, then the business could incur a penalty.

Google’s RankBrain

So let’s say your business sells candles, but there are also lets say 8 other businesses that sell the same candles as your business. Now let’s say for example purposes that all of the business’s SEO signals, such as backlinks, content marketing and onsite SEO are all fairly similar.

But what happens if say one website is able to retain a persons interest for much longer?

Let’s say on average that a customer spends over 10 minutes on that website, browsing all the candles that the business offers?

Yet, on the other 7 businesses, those businesses only manage to retain a persons interest for say on average 2 minutes?

Well, many Cardiff SEO companies, including ours believe that a website that is able to retain the interest of its customers, by keeping people on the businesses website for longer will result in improved SEO.

And many digital marketing agencies refer to the AI technology that detects how interested someone is with a businesses website as “RankBrain”.

So its RankBrain that detects for example the bounce rate of the company’s website or lets say the average length of time a customer is spending on the website.

Schema

Let’s say you run a web design business, well there’s likely to be a lot of information on the homepage of your website.

Let’s say for example the website may state that you can offer WordPress websites, content marketing and social media advertising as well.

So GoogleBot can sometimes have a hard job on its hands sifting through all that text to find your businesses NAP information, or let’s say the star rating on how well customers rate your business.

So some web designers may use Schema, which is a sort of structured language.

Googlebot can read the Schema, so it can instantly know what your businesses NAP information is.

Also Schema can be used to mark-up your businesses star rating in terms of customer reviews, the algorithm may then show your web design businesses star rating within the SERP’s which may help to improve your businesses CTR.

Off-Page SEO

Your digital marketing agency should work hard to improve your businesses off-page SEO, so this means building quality backlinks, and also quality business citations as well.

Quality White Hat work

All SEO work should be white hat.

Mobile Friendly

Your website should be mobile friendly so by this we mean it should work on smart phones and tablets.

Mobile friendly means that your website should have a mobile version, so it loads correctly on a smart phone. So for instance, some SEO agencies may have an AMP version of the website that loads on smartphones, and a desktop version of the website as well.

Google AMP

For those that do know what Google AMP stands for, it simply stands for Google’s accelerated pages.

And AMP therefore can allow a website to load quickly on a smartphone.

So for example, let’s say you run a digital marketing agency within Cardiff Bay, and your desktop version of your website takes quite a while to load on desktops.

This means that it could take a long time to load onto a smart phone, so the solution would be to have an AMP version of the website, which means that the website only loads the essential elements such as the text for the website, therefore making the website very fast.

Pages

Your business within Cardiff, South Wales may offer many different services.

Your SEO agency should make sure that each service has its own page.

WordPress

You may wish to build your website using WordPress, if you would like a WordPress website designed for your business, why not call us?

Duplication issues?

Your website should not have any duplication issues, as this could cause a Google Panda penalty.

You should work with your SEO company within Cardiff to remove any duplicated work