Top Tips to Help Your Business Master SEO

Did you know that 75% of internet searchers don’t look past page 1 of search engine results? Controversial opinion incoming – if your business isn’t appearing on page 1 of Google, your business doesn’t exist online. There, we said it!

Google has 200 specific criteria when it is looking for a reputable online business, which may seem like a lot to contend with. If you aren’t hitting Google’s criteria then it is highly likely that you won’t be ranking even within the top 5 pages on Google. Not ideal when you have a fantastic, exciting business you want the world to know about! Your business can have a thriving, bustling physical presence with fantastic offices, an enthusiastic team and top-notch culture; however, if you aren’t playing by Google’s rules then you will be fighting a losing battle against the algorithm.

Thankfully, here at Sumo Marketing Group we have a well-established team of SEO experts who are well equipped to be ticking all of Google’s boxes when it comes to getting businesses ranking highly on the search engines.

Before we get into our 3 top tips for mastering SEO, we wanted to answer a common question. Why bother with SEO when PPC has brought us results in the past? Well, we like to use a couple of nifty analogies when explaining the difference between the two tools to clients (you can find more information about this on our website):

“SEO is like building your dream house from scratch – it will take time, patience, planning and it will cost you money. But ultimately, it will be worth it and if maintained properly, it will stand the test of time… Pay Per Plick (PPC), otherwise known as Google Ads, is like renting a city centre flat. You can move in quickly, enjoy a great view and be in the midst of hustle and bustle, but unless you keep up with your rent, you can quite quickly be evicted.”

Ultimately, Google Ads can be really effective in the short-term for advertising your business. But what we remind clients not to forget is that PPC can be expensive, whilst SEO is the most tried and tested, cost-effective channel that can be the trick to winning the popularity contest that is Google rankings. One of the things we are most passionate about at Sumo Marketing Group, is demystifying the art of SEO – here are our top 3 tips for making your online business more Google-friendly:

1. Get Technical

Returning to our analogy of SEO being like building your perfect house from scratch, we like to think of the technical side of SEO as the strong, unyielding foundations of your structure. Our team work hard to build you stable, technical foundations and optimise the ‘backend’ of your website. We work alongside you and explain the importance of tools such as H1 tags, meta tags, meta titles, descriptions and complex HTML coding, without bombarding you with too much of the nitty gritty!

Latest figures from W3Techs show that in 2022, 43.2% of the internet is powered by WordPress. Our SEO experts have a wealth of expertise working with WordPress sites, allowing you to leave the complexities to us so that you can watch your website climb the Google ranks without getting too bogged down. Not only do we work with WordPress, but we are also masters of Squarespace, Magento, Shopify and many more platforms – optimising page structure and utilising Google-friendly tools will have you in the search engine’s good books in no time.

2. Keep Your Content Fresh

If meta tags and page structure are the foundations of your house, then content is definitely the all important decor! Keeping your website up-to-date with relevant, interesting content will draw more and more people to your page, giving you a greater chance of attracting potential customers.

Producing regular, informative blogs on subjects that will pique your target audience’s interest and investing in PR work that will help solidify your name as an expert in your field are both highly effective ways of capturing the eyes and ears of consumers! At Sumo Marketing Group, we have passionate content creators on board who thrive off creativity and showing off your business through words.

3. Link, link, link

You have your strong foundations and an interesting, creative decor – what next? Well it would be a shame to work so hard on creating a fantastic website and not have anybody see it! To avoid this happening, we highly recommend making use of outreach. We can guide you through the process of building links with other reputable industry experts and businesses who have an effective online strategy. The more big industry names we can get talking about you and your business, the better!

We like to offer up the idea of the internet being a chatterbox community; it’s about getting your name out there and creating a solid reputation for your business within that online chatterbox.

Google aligns itself with a principle called E-A-T. This acronym stands for 3 values that Google rewards: expertise, authority and trustworthiness. Our comprehensive SEO strategy encompasses strong technical foundations, exceptional content creation and effective outreach to tick each of these boxes. With ever-changing Google updates, our experts take time to understand not only what you and your business need, but what Google needs to rank your website highly!

Get in touch today and find out how we could help you and your business master SEO.