SEO (search engine optimisation) is the work that makes your site more visible in search engines such as Google for relevant searches. Unlike advertising, you do not pay per click; the effort builds up over time and keeps working when you pause your ads. In this guide we cover the core layers, where to start and how to measure progress.
Search engines first crawl your pages, then index them, and finally rank the most relevant results for a search. A problem at any of these steps can stop even well-written content from showing up, which is why the technical groundwork is the sensible place to start.
Technical SEO: build a solid foundation
Technical SEO makes sure search engines can crawl your site smoothly and understand it correctly. Visitors do not see most of this work, but they notice straight away when a site is fast, secure and well organised. Start by checking these points:
- HTTPS: The whole site should open over a secure connection with an SSL certificate.
- Mobile-friendliness: Google mainly uses the mobile version of a site for indexing and ranking. A site that is hard to read on a phone starts from behind.
- Speed: Compress images and remove unused plugins and scripts. The Core Web Vitals metrics (LCP, INP and CLS) are a good framework for monitoring page experience.
- Sitemap and robots.txt: sitemap.xml lists your important pages, while robots.txt marks the sections you do not want crawled.
- Broken pages and redirects: Moved pages should get a 301 redirect to the new address, and links returning a 404 error should be fixed.
- Duplicate content: If the same content is reachable from more than one address, use a canonical tag to point to the main one.
- Structured data: Schema.org markup describes business details, products or FAQs more clearly to search engines.
On a new site, planning these points from the start is far easier than fixing them later. We explain what to consider in our company website guide.
Keyword research and content
Good content starts with the question your customer types into the search box. You may call your product an "industrial-grade compressor" while your customer searches for an "air compressor for a workshop". Keyword research closes that gap.
- List the questions your sales and customer service teams hear most often.
- Look at Google's autocomplete suggestions and the related questions on the results page.
- If you have a Google Ads account, use Keyword Planner to gauge search volumes.
- Check in Search Console which searches your site already appears for.
Then give each important topic a single page. Several pages answering the same question compete with each other, and none becomes truly strong. A "laser hair removal" page for a beauty centre, a group menu and booking page for a restaurant or a "how to choose kitten food" article for a pet brand can all be planned this way.
Content should genuinely help the person searching. Rather than sprinkling keywords through the text, answer the question fully, give examples and add your own experience. Google's guidelines also prioritise reliable, helpful content written for people, not for search engines.
On-page optimisation: titles, descriptions and links
On-page SEO means each page clearly tells readers and search engines what it is about. These are small but effective settings, mostly handled from your content management panel.
- Title tag: Include the page's topic and main keyword, short enough not to be cut off in the results.
- Meta description: It does not directly decide rankings, but it encourages clicks. Say in one sentence what the page offers.
- Heading hierarchy: One main heading per page, with subsections separated by subheadings.
- URL: Short, readable addresses that describe the topic.
- Images: Meaningful file names, alt text and smaller file sizes.
- Internal links: Link related pages. Visitors find what they need more easily, and search engines understand your structure better.
Google sometimes builds its own snippet from the page text instead of your meta description. That is normal; still, a carefully written description for each important page lets you shape, largely, how you appear in the results.
Links and local SEO
Links from other sites to your pages signal that your content is considered trustworthy. Quality matters here, not quantity. Industry associations, supplier and distributor sites, local news sites and the exhibitor lists of trade fairs you attend are natural sources of links.
Buying links or using bulk link packages goes against Google's spam policies and can harm your visibility. Producing content worth sharing is the healthiest long-term link strategy.
If you have a physical address, local SEO matters a great deal. For searches such as "bistro near me" or "beauty salon" plus a neighbourhood name, map results come first. To show up there, complete your Google Business Profile in full, write your name, address and phone number the same way everywhere, and reply to reviews regularly. Details are in our Google Business Profile guide.
Measurement: Search Console and GA4
If you do not measure, you cannot know whether the work pays off. Two free tools give SEO a solid starting point.
Google Search Console
Search Console shows how your site performs in Google search: the queries you appear for, impressions, clicks and average position. Here you can submit your sitemap, review pages that have not been indexed and check the Core Web Vitals report.
Google Analytics 4
GA4 shows what visitors from search engines do on your site: which pages organic traffic lands on, how much they engage and whether goals such as form submissions or phone clicks are completed. For this, define those key actions as events in advance.
A short monthly check helps: are impressions and clicks rising, are new pages indexed, are organic visits turning into enquiries? Watch the overall trend rather than the position of a single keyword.
Why does SEO take time?
Search engines need time to crawl and assess new or updated pages and to come to trust them, and longer still for highly competitive searches. That is why SEO is best seen not as a campaign of a few weeks but as an investment that needs steady effort.
For the same reason, be cautious about offers promising "the top spot in no time". Rankings are decided by Google's algorithms, which no company controls. Google's own guide states clearly that no one can guarantee a number one ranking.
When assessing an SEO proposal, ask:
- What work will be done? Are the technical audit, content and link-building details shared in writing?
- Which data will be used to report progress, and how often?
- Where will links come from, and how?
- In whose name will the Search Console and GA4 accounts be opened, and will you keep access?
Common mistakes
- Launching a redesigned site without redirecting the old addresses.
- Using the same title and description on every page.
- Repeating the keyword until the text no longer reads naturally.
- Publishing content and never updating it.
Move forward in small steps, and measure as you go
SEO is never finished in one go, but working in the right order makes each step easier. Fix technical issues first, then build strong pages for your most searched topics, then measure and improve. Regular maintenance also protects this effort; see our website maintenance article.
If you would like to look at where your site stands today, take a look at our SEO work or write to us. We are happy to talk through which step should come first, from a technical audit to a content plan.