Improvements and changes we have made to the SEO packages
Google changes its algorithms several times a day to deliver the best possible experience for its users. Search Engine Optimisation is a constantly changing and evolving world, so this is why we’re adapting and improving the SEO packages to maximise the results customers will see from our SEO campaigns.
Longer-form articles
We’re increasing the length of each blog article but changing the frequency. This is because updates to Google’s guidelines mean that churning out a 300-word generic blog post each month won’t impact SEO. Millions of blog posts are published online every day, so ensuring a blog is useful, relevant, and worth reading is key to success. Research needs to go into planning and writing worthy blog posts.
Our aim is to ensure our articles can target search query needs and provide the depth required to be a quality piece of content. As a result, we will spend more time researching, writing and publishing a valuable article aligned to the business niche.
A number of studies have shown correlations between average content length and organic ranking positions. The research shows that longer-form content ranks higher. However, it’s not actually the length of a blog post that matters, it’s the depth it goes into and whether it answers a user’s question or solves a problem for them. It is more likely that the correlation in these studies suggests that longer posts are more comprehensive. As they go into extra detail and depth, they are therefore more useful for users. This, in turn, helps SEO.
These longer articles will be more evergreen, meaning they will be continually relevant and easily repurposed or updated over time. The business package gets 600 words bi-monthly, the enterprise package moves to 800 bi-monthly and the enterprise + and premium packages get 800 words monthly.
Valuable backlink activity in 2021
Google’s focus has moved away from backlinks and more towards user experience. As such, to ensure our budget packages retain their value, we have removed backlink acquisition activity and increased our focus on what matters; optimising core landing page and website experience.
For the Enterprise, Enterprise+ and the new Premium package, we have included the backlink activity that will provide the most benefit to the SEO campaign and the customers we serve.
Broken Backlink Management
Links break over time. When this happens, you lose all that link value. Enterprise, Enterprise+ and Premium packages will receive regular link reclamation from our SEO experts.
We will find, fix and replace broken pages to reclaim valuably lost and broken backlinks.
Relevant and Industry Niche Citations
Alongside, business citations, Enterprise+ and Premium packages will also get relevant and industry niche citations. This is where our citation strategy gets more specific and targeted.
The SEO team will find and build niche citations on platforms that are highly specific to your industry. For example, if you are a building or construction company, we will get you listed on tradesmen websites.
Niche citations help search engines associate your business to specific industries. This enhances your relevancy and overall online presence to potential customers. The availability of niche citation platforms will depend upon the client’s industry as to whether they are widespread or scarce. SEO planners should help us to understand the customers’ industry so we can effectively place these citations.
Unlinked Brand Mention Outreach
The SEO team will manually outreach to websites that have already mentioned a company to request a link. This service is available for premium packages.
Brand mentions indirectly support SEO. The more people that talk about a business positively online, the better. However, website owners that have already mentioned a brand will sometimes also provide a link if politely requested.
We will actively search for and find unlinked brand mentions. We will then get in contact with the site owner to request a link to the clients’ website.
Press Release Writing and Distribution
Clients on our premium package have the option to collaborate with us on getting a timely and newsworthy story out to the media. We will write and distribute press releases about or related to the business, including a website link. Press releases help with brand awareness, authority building and achieving brand mentions and backlinks.
How have backlinks and SEO changed?
Backlinks were once a strong Google ranking factor. They still can be in some situations, but not in the same way as before. Google realised that people were using shady and manipulative tactics to build tons of links to increase their rankings. Links as a pure “ranking factor” have lost a lot of credibility and do not work in the same way they once did. Today, what’s more important today than backlinks is the contextual and natural relevance of a link, brand mentions online, reputation and reviews.
In addition to this, the rise of influencer marketing and online advertising has diminished the effectiveness of manual white-hat outreach. This is due to increased requests for a monetary exchange for a backlink. Not only is this against Google’s guidelines, but it will also be a very costly and unsustainable strategy.
Furthermore, even if a paid-for backlink is relevant, the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) CAP code rules state that there must be a disclosure that the link is paid for and that there is an affiliation or advert. This disclosure is something that search engines and users could recognise, which further decreases any value of that paid for link.
Google also states that if a link is paid, it must be qualified as a sponsored link in the link attribute code. Failure to do this could result in algorithmic or manual penalties.
With our budget SEO packages, we don’t have a manual link building approach, as it wouldn’t be an effective or valuable use of our time. Nor would it improve local search engine rankings. Alongside user experience, technical and onsite SEO, we believe creating great quality and fresh content that our clients share on their socials is the core requirement to achieve ranking success. This, however, should be complemented by the client doing ongoing wider marketing activity. Examples of this could be reputation and review management, relationship building, and general promotion of the business. All of this combined will be far better for SEO success.
SEO is always changing and evolving. Search engines are continuing to move towards focusing on user experience signals, alongside understanding the relationship between entities (snippets of information) online to determine the authority and quality of a website. This does not require consistent backlink building, but instead an overall great website, quality content, and consistent marketing of a business.
Where do I find out more about the packages?
We’ve put together a comprehensive breakdown of the packages here on our SEO page for you to compare and see what package is best for you and your business.
