93 features SEO - 5 things you can do today to boost your website’s SEO, improve brand awareness, visibility and sales.

Discover what happened when local Sheffield businesses joined 93's SEO specialist at The Mowbray for a SEO training and networking event.

How to understand the algorithm, get seen by your target audience and grow your business

As part of our comprehensive website package, 93 offers a full SEO analysis, optimisation and monitoring service for websites whether built by us or not. SEO - search engine optimisation, the process of making your website as popular with Google as it is with your target audience - is at the foundation of all great websites. That’s why we build it in from code to content whenever we create a new site. But over time, as the search engines update their algorithms or more content and media is added to your site, things can get messy. Unfortunately, SEO isn’t a set it and forget it kind of deal. 

But considering that even many website designers and developers don’t fully understand the intricacies of SEO, how can you as a business owner keep on top of it? Google made over 5000 updates to its algorithm in 2021 - just keeping up with those and what they mean for your site and your business is practically a full time job. 

At 93, like with most aspects of our business, we rely on the experts. We work with SEO experts whose job it is to analyse our site, optimise each new page or piece of content and do regular monitoring checks to ensure that everything is working well, and we’re continuing to move towards our goal of ranking at the top spot on Google’s page 1 for our chosen keywords. We offer these services to our clients as part of an overall content strategy to help you get seen by the right people.

Why does it matter? 5 key ways SEO helps your business

Most of us have a vague awareness of SEO and we probably all use Google or another search engine in the course of our daily lives. But what is it actually for? And why is it so important for your business?

Because we rely on Google to answer so many key questions nowadays, from finding your new hire to booking a holiday, searching for a recipe to learning new skills, being present on the SERP - search engine results page - is crucial for any business. Think about how you use Google, when was the last time you clicked further than page 2, or even page 1?

According to a 2022 study by Backlinko of over 4 million Google search results, the number 1 result in Google’s organic search results has an average click through rate of 27.6%, and is 10 times more likely to be clicked compared to the page ranked number 10. Conversely, only a tiny 0.63% of Google searchers clicked on any result from the second page. 

When it comes to being found, the numbers matter. Optimising your website helps with: 

• Discoverability - If you can’t be found by the search engines… you can’t be found
• Brand awareness - Seeing your business appear in the top spots results in more awareness and familiarity with your brand
• Increased sales - With over ¼ of clicks going to the number 1 spot, that’s many more eyes on what you have to offer
• Improved visibility - Ranking on Google’s page 1 increases your visibility and gets you seen by the right people
• Growing organic traffic - While word of mouth is effective, it can be unreliable, slow, and not something you have much control over. Organic traffic from search engines can grow exponentially, resulting in swift yet steady growth for your business

SEO and Google Analytics training in Sheffield

While we always recommend handing SEO over to the experts, we also get the drive to understand each aspect of your business, as well as the need to undertake certain tasks in-house. 93 offers SEO and Google Analytics training for business owners and marketers to help you navigate the fast changing landscape of performance management, understanding the key concepts to enable you to prioritise tasks, take action and understand where your investments are spent.

Our recent training event aimed to show local business owners how to navigate the change from Google’s Universal Analytics which has been decommissioned, to Google Analytics 4, as well as laying the foundations for a solid understanding of how to make SEO work for your business. 

Around 50 business owners joined 93 and our resident SEO expert at The Mowbray, Sheffield on Tuesday 6th July 2023 for our free SEO training event. 

The morning involved a warm welcome and networking, with tea, coffee and cake, a presentation on SEO and Google Analytics, finishing off with a Q&A, meeting the 93 team, and some more networking.

We had some incredible engagement during the event, receiving so many questions during the Q&A that we had to run over time - and still couldn’t answer everyone's questions on the day! We received great feedback from business owners and marketers who had implemented our 5 things to consider and already begun to see results, and we are now pleased to be working with several attendees who need a deeper dive into their website’s SEO. 

How to get your business found on Google

Our SEO expert, Robin Eyre, presented some key questions to ask yourself when it comes to getting your business found on Google. 

• What does your business do and are you actually telling people about it?
• What are your expectations for ranking in the search engines? Are they realistic and achievable?
• Is your website Google friendly? Can the right people find you?
• Do you know what people search for when looking for businesses in your industry?
• Are you using the right long and short tail keywords?
• Are you engaging your audience with content they want and expect to see?

Search engine optimisation involves a wide variety of tasks, including web design, on page SEO, technical SEO, link building, content, imagery and keyword research, but it all starts with a robust, evidence based strategy. Starting with the questions above will give you a good idea of where you are, where you need to be, and how to bridge the gap.

Robin also talked about Google Search Console and GA4 - monitoring platforms that we set up as standard with every site we build - and how getting to grips with these can mean the difference between crossing your fingers and hoping for the best… and actually making headway to achieving your SEO and ranking goals. 

93 offers website analysis and regular reviews, keyword and competitor analysis and bespoke strategy, SEO implementation, performance and monitoring, and SEO training for you/your team. 

5 things you can do today to boost your website’s SEO

While professional help is often needed to get a site to where it needs to be, there are plenty of things you can do in-house today to help your SEO. 

1. Identify your online goals and your target audience - What do you want to be found for? Who do you want to find you? These basic questions are often not fully considered but delve into these aspects, and your strategy has a strong foundation
2. Describe your business and what it offers - If you don’t tell people/Google, how will they know? Remember, nothing is obvious, and while a picture may tell a thousand words, if Google can’t read them you won’t rank
3. Review the content on your site - Is it worthy of ranking? Is it informative, trustworthy, engaging? Do people want to read it?
4. Have you installed GA4 and Google Search Console? - If you want to track your progress you need to know your baseline. How many people are visiting your site? What’s your bounce rate? Where do they go after the first page? Answering these questions means you can respond accordingly, building on what works and addressing what’s not going so well
5. Is your Google Business profile up to date? Do you know how to access it to make changes and keep information up to date

If you’d like to arrange bespoke SEO and Google Analytics training for your team, or for website analysis, optimisation or monitoring, or any other SEO questions:

Get in touch