The Ongoing Importance of Google and SEO

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Renowned England forward and Match of the Day pundit Alan Shearer has seen plenty of success. If you witnessed the heady days when he helped Blackburn Rovers to lift the Premier League trophy, then you’ll probably have had at least one Covid vaccination by now, but Shearer’s glory days didn’t end in the early 1990’s. Playing or presenting, Shearer has consistently managed to stay at the peak of his game for decades – and it’s taught him something. In an interview last year, he acknowledged that the easy part was getting to the top, while the hardest part was staying there. And that’s not only true for footballers. In the business world too, if you don’t stay on it, things can go downhill quickly. Just ask Deliveroo!

Where many have failed though, Google has triumphed and remains the leading search engine brand with a massive 92% global market share across all platforms. So how have Google managed to stay at the top for so long and what does this mean for your own website? In short, it means content is king.

SEO - one little acronym, one big deal. Standing for search engine optimisation, SEO is the art of setting up your website to rank as high as possible on a search engine results page (SERP). The higher your ranking, the more users will find you when they use keywords linked to your product or service. The more people that find you, the more organic traffic will head to your website ready to do business with you. Given a recent study suggested over half of all website hits were the result of organic traffic, SEO is as big today as it’s ever been. And given Google is the stand-out search engine, it is THE one to optimise for.

What, then, does Google value? Gone are the days when putting keywords randomly into every sentence and other spammy practices worked. Google has evolved to become a lean, mean and smart AI machine. The latest update to its algorithm will even include an emphasis on page experience where a range of new core web vitals will come into play.

Most importantly though, the Google algorithm can now understand content better than ever and prizes it. Yes, content is king. Natural language, complex phrases and the context of words in a sentence are all within the search engine’s grasp. Meaning outstanding content that utilises keywords, title tags, meta descriptions, images, links and more will show Google you are a trusted authority in your area. Combine this with a great user experience and your site will move up that all important SERP.

So is your website as SEO-friendly as it once was? Algorithm evolution can feel like a minefield but ignoring it will leave you missing out on vital traffic. We can help. Whether you’re after a completely new website or want to rebuild an existing one with current SEO in mind, we can give you what your business deserves - a creative, stylish and functional website that’s SEO-friendly. We can even help you keep it that way.

Like Shearer and Google, we work hard to stay at the top of our game, so say hello and let us make your content king. Golden boot sadly not included.

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