Search Engine Optimization

Every search engine optimisation campaign should begin with an in-depth SEO audit. This phase is where we will comprehensively analyse your targeted search terms, competitors and your website. The results of this audit will be the foundation on which your strategy is built.

When analysing your keywords (such as ‘SEO Manchester’), we will also look to identify additional and relevant ‘longtail keywords’ that could be more straightforward search terms to target (such as ‘Search Engine Optimisation Agency in Manchester’ / ‘SEO Agencies in Manchester’). The premise behind this is that while we are working towards ranking for the main keywords (‘SEO Manchester’), we are also bringing relevant search traffic into your sales funnel and generating a quicker return on your search marketing spend.

Looking at your competitors next, we will identify why the search engines are rewarding them and to what extent their content adequately answers the searchers’ question. We will also analyse their backlink profile and see why they have attracted the links that they have, outlining strategies to get similar links as well as how to attract additional higher quality ones.

Lastly, we will audit your website. This audit focuses specifically on areas such as your website speed, user experience, structured data, schema mark-up, site structure, internal linking and most importantly, your content.

After the audit is complete, the next stage is often to implement the identified on-page SEO fixes. This stage is where the quickest improvements in organic rankings can often be seen.

At the highest level, we may need to install an HTTPS certificate, update your server to LiteSpeed and optimise caching to improve server response time and speed. Next, we will optimise your content management system. This may include adding or developing plugins that eliminate render-blocking resources, remove unused CSS and reduce JavaScript execution time. During this phase, we will also look at your site structure to ensure relevant content is grouped together properly and solidifies your website as an expert on the topic and therefore a more relevant result in the eyes of search engines.

Next, we will implement any UX and structured data changes to the website to ensure that your visitors are finding the information that they need quickly and in an easy-to-digest format. This is a highly data-driven task, where we will analyse the flow of traffic through your website from Google Analytics, as well as use heat-mapping software to see if users are performing the actions on-site that we want them to.

As part of the SEO Manchester onboarding process, we will create a content calendar. This will outline new pages that may need creating as well as improvements in current content. The content that is curated and published will need to be engaging, informative and most importantly answer the searchers’ question comprehensively. Content can also be used to expand on certain topics around your root keywords, further solidifying your website as the primary authority on the subject and therefore more likely to be the most relevant search result in Google.

Additionally, we may also plan out flagship pieces of content built around attracting links to your website. This could include in-depth studies, surveys and polling to develop unique data sets and perspectives on your market that is likely to be picked up by both the press and relevant websites in your industry. We will always work closely with you to ensure that the content we curate fits well within your brand identity and is appropriate for your market.

A fundamental aspect of the Google core algorithm (and the subsequent order of the search results) revolves around how many ‘backlinks’ a website has. Backlinks are hyperlinks from other websites that reference content on another domain. The more high-quality backlinks that a website has, the more likely Google is to see the website as trustworthy and an authority on a topic.

There are numerous effective and sustainable strategies for building backlinks that we use at Gorilla Marketing. Common methods often involve creating content for other websites (guest posting), finding broken links on sites that we want links from (and asking for it to direct to you instead) and ‘skyscraping’ competitor content by vastly improving it and getting their backlinks changed to your website instead.

Lastly, we also receive daily updates from a network of over 10 000 reporters and media contacts who are looking for comments on stories from industry experts which will often include a backlink from high-authority news domains. We are also able to curate and pitch industry news stories on behalf of clients to further maximise coverage opportunities.

We truly believe that transparency and accountability to the client are integral mechanisms of any SEO campaign working. Unlike other agencies, you won’t deal with an ‘account manager’ who is often on commission to keep you on the books. Your relationship with Gorilla Marketing will always be through the Manchester SEO manager who is handling your account and doing the actual SEO of your website. This means that you can get instantaneous updates on your campaign with either a quick phone call or email.

Additionally, we put a lot of emphasis on our reporting and ensuring that you understand why we are taking the steps that we are. You will get an overview of everything that has been implemented and what we plan to implement next; as well as tracked improvements in your website rankings, traffic and subsequent sales.