Freelance SEO consultant in Bristol

SEO is an art, a science, a mystical entity that can make you rich or strike you down and ruin your business. 😉  Ok, that is of course, absolute non-sense, but it may sound familiar. Some people talk about SEO like it’s an art form and only they know how to paint the picture. In real terms, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of visitors to your website through organic search engine results.

SEO is not as complicated as some would have you believe. Yes, there are over two hundred Google algorithms that determine Google’s search results, however, only three significantly move the dial in the right direction and are very important.

Keywords are the words and phrases people use to find, products, services, and information on the search engines.

Selecting the right keywords for your website is essential and integral to your site’s success.

Keyword research helps you determine which queries people are entering into Google and Bing search engines that are related to your business. This valuable information can then be used to edit existing pages or publish new pages that will show up in the search results for those queries.

Imagine your a local plumber and you specialise in boiler installations. You could include the keywords “boiler installations” on your website and hope to rank well on Google and attract a decent amount of traffic/visitors. Alternatively, through keyword research you can discover more profitable keywords with a higher search volume and lower competition, such as “combi boiler installs”, that has the potential to drive more visitors to your website and rank higher on Google.

Without keyword research your website is unlikely to generate enough leads or sales to run a sustainable business online.

It is a common question, “should I use SEO or Social Media to promote my website and increase traffic?”

The short answer, do both. However, SEO marketing vastly out performs social media marketing. People use social media to engage with other users online, whilst people use search engines (Google) because they already know what their looking for and are ready to make a decision or purchase.

61% of people use search engines to find products and services online so if you only use social media to promote your business you are ignoring a huge part of your target audience. The largest audience in the world has already been created for you, it’s called Google, not Facebook.

Also, did you know, 63% of small business owners invest in social media marketing for SEO? That is completely crazy and shows that small business owners find SEO very confusing. There is little data to suggest that social media directly impacts search engine rankings. A huge amount of money is wasted every year when it could be spent more wisely and directly on SEO.

Social media is like a bolt-on extra for small businesses, a nice to have, but not essential. Having said that, social media is important and I recommend you create accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram to protect your brand, create awareness, and promote your products and services.

In order of preference, I always recommend SEO, Facebook ads, and then social media. Oh, and don’t forget YouTube, the second largest search engine on the planet. If you are happy and confident in front of a camera, YouTube is currently the fastest way to grow an audience.

A small business can expect to pay between £500 and £1000 per month for SEO. The £500 price tag covers basic search engine optimisation and the £1000 tag, a comprehensive service. I structure my prices in a different way based on my client’s requirements, which makes my fees very competitive and transparent.

My SEO services/pathways are affordable, reliable and proactive

• On-page SEO
• Content Marketing
• Link Building

Choose one or more of my three pathways to create the perfect mix of SEO services, based on your budget or requirements.

• Single pathway – £450 / month
• Two pathways – £650 / month
• Three pathways – £850 / month

All websites begin with a £200 onboarding fee for the first 14 days. This includes a full Site Audit.

All prices are per site, per month, and exclusive of VAT.

There is no long term contract to worry about. You simply pay monthly in advance and I work on a month-in, month-out basis, giving you total control of your budget.

The time it takes to see results depends on many factors. Existing websites tend to show results earlier than new websites but that’s not always the case. As a general rule, for new websites, you can see results after three months, but more realistically, it can take around eight months. The time scale largely depends on Google and the number of SEO services you employ.

Existing websites tend to show results more quickly because their pages are already index by the search engines. Generally speaking, any changes made to your website may take two to three weeks to show on the search engines.

Ultimately, Google and Bing (the two largest search engines) decide how often to visit your website and which pages to crawl and index. Having said that, if you hire me and subscribe to a pathway service you will normally see significant changes within six to eight weeks.

No, sorry, if only I could… I would have become a billionaire years ago. It’s impossible to guarantee results and anybody that tells you they can is lying. Besides, search engine results fluctuate so the promise of a No.1 ranking on Google is meaningless to some extent.

Yes, I can obtain a No.1 position on Google if that’s what you really want but let me tell you a little SEO secret first. Unscrupulous individuals and companies regularly promise a No.1 position on Google, of course they do, now your hooked! However, they achieve the position by simply selecting an uncompetitive and obscure keyword that has practically no competition and will drive, you guest it, practically no traffic to your website. That’s it, end of story – you continue to pay your monthly instalments of £500 each, for around 6-8 months, longer in many cases, before you realise what’s going on. Whilst your left scratching your head the unscrupulous people that sold you the SEO plan move on to the next unwary client.

I follow tried and tested methods to increase traffic/visitors to your website based on years of experience.

No, there is no contract to sign. I work on a month-in, month-out basis, and you can cancel at any time.

Fees are charged monthly in advance of work commencing at the start of each billing period and are non refundable. If you decide to cancel my services, you simply let me know in writing before the next billing period.

On-page SEO refers to the optimisation of individual elements, that are displayed on a webpage or hidden within the HTML source code, to help improve search engine rankings.

On-page SEO includes the optimisation of meta tags, heading tags, title, keywords, images, code, schema mark-up, internal links, and more.

The saying goes “Content is king” and this remains true today. Content marketing is about creating and publishing, well, content, but not just any content. Small business owners mistakenly believe that content marketing is writing 500 word blog posts consistently every week but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Just like link building, quality is better than quantity. Thousands of 500 word blog posts are published every day so standing out amongst the crowd is not as easy as it used to be. Most of these posts provide little or no value and do not rank well on Google, hence they attract practically no traffic.

My content marketing service is based on keyword research and focuses on your main competitors websites, and what they are doing to generate traffic/visitors. Each month, I will create around 2,500 words (+/- 10%) for your website. Depending on your site’s requirements, I/we will choose either one long blog post/page (roughly 2,500 words), or two medium posts (roughly 1,250 words each), or 4 shorter posts (around 650 words each), and publish to your website.

The main objective is to increase the number of visitors to your website by publishing higher quality pages/posts than your competitors and finding new opportunities that your competitors haven’t discovered yet.

Link building is the art of banging your head against a brick wall, repeatedly. Ok, so that is obviously not true, but it sure does feel like that sometimes. Link building is the process of obtaining links from other websites to your own site. Sounds simple doesn’t it? Well, it used to be, but not any more.

Exchanging links (hyperlinks) with other websites is now frowned upon and can have a negative impact or zero benefit. Also, paying other websites to link to your site is against Google’s guidelines. When Google discovers what you’re doing, and they will, your site will be heavily penalised, which is not good for business.

So how do you obtain links to your website? Attracting links is relatively easy but attracting good quality links is hard work. The number of links is relative but poor quality links or spammy links are more harmful than good. Essentially, quality is more important than quantity when it comes to link building. There are several techniques for building good quality links, however, it is a painful process whichever method you try. Good quality informative content can naturally attracts links, however, the most effective and reliable strategy is Outreach.

Outreach is the process of emailing other website owners and requesting a link. The link could be included within a short sentence or more usually a longer guest post. Outreach takes patients, a lot of patients, and the constitution of an Ox – you know, one of those big stubborn hairy creatures that never gets tired or gives up – a bit like me. 😉

Link building is one of the top three Google ranking factors so it is extremely important and should not be ignored. Good quality links are incredibly valuable.