SEO’s popularity lies in the fact that it is inexpensive and even start-ups and small businesses can utilise this strategy to climb the ladder of success. However, unlike paid marketing campaigns, SEO campaigns take a while to bring results. You must be patient.

If you have started your company or are thinking of starting one, NHANCE Digital brings to you the important things you need to know about investing in SEO. We are one of the few SEO companies in Edinburgh offering tailored services to suit your business needs and objectives.

Things search engines look for when ranking websites

Start-ups looking to enhance their SEO game must stay away from tactics, like stuffing keywords. Such strategies will not help you get a higher ranking position, but the search engines might penalise you.

Whilst keyword research and the incorporation of relevant keywords is crucial, there are other aspects that influence rankings. Some of the factors that search engines focus on while ranking websites are given below:

• An accessible and secure website

The URL of your website is crucial. Ensure the URLs are user-friendly and optimised so visitors understand what the webpage is about and search engine bots can crawl the page easily.

Also, opt for HTTPS instead of HTTP. Internet users have become a lot more aware these days, and therefore, prefer a secure website represented by HTTPS. If your website is not secured, search engines like Google will inform visitors about the same and you might be noticing a high bounce rate.

• Page speed

One of the leading ranking factors is page speed, including mobile page speed. Search engines rank websites offering a great user experience, which means fast-loading pages. It is important for you to identify performance issues on your website and make sure the page speed is improved.

If you need help finding out the loading speed of your website, you can rely on our team of SEO specialists.

• Quality content

Content marketing and SEO are interconnected. You can drive visitors to your website and enhance rankings by producing and uploading great content. Make sure to create relevant and useful content that offers value to the readers.

You can even create content for Google’s featured snippets. These appear above the organic search results and generally referred to as rank 0. You can create listicles or FAQs to occupy this position and spread brand awareness.

• Mobile friendliness

It has been quite some time that Google has started pushing mobile-first websites when it comes to ranking them. Mobile-friendliness is one of the most crucial ranking factors because people use their mobile devices to access the Internet more than the desktop. So, you need to ensure your website is mobile-friendly and the best way for that is to create responsive websites. If you need help, NHANCE Digital’s team is a phone call away.

• Incredible user experience

User experience or UX is one of the vital SEO ranking factors because Google has started to recognize human behaviour. The search giant tries to rank websites according to the experience they provide to the visitors.

To enhance the UX of your website, you need to improve the navigation of your website, upload great content and ensure visitors engage with your website.

• The use of the right keywords

As mentioned above, keywords continue to play an important role in SEO. You must avoid keyword stuffing, but don’t forget keywords altogether. It is crucial to spend a lot of time and resources into keyword research so the relevant keywords can drive traffic to your website.

Are you ready to kickstart SEO, but worried about your financial resources?

Search engine optimisation is one of the most affordable online marketing strategies that can level the playing field between start-ups and established companies. If you need any help getting started, NHANCE Digital is one of the SEO companies in Edinburgh that can help you. So, give us a call and let’s start a conversation. Avail our customised services and propel your business ahead in the digital world.

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1. Keyword stuffing 

As one of the experienced SEO companies in Edinburgh, we are against keyword stuffing. The tactic may have worked in the past, but not anymore. A decade ago, webmasters believed in something called keyword density. It was the ratio based on the number of times a keyword was used in content compared to the number of words. So, people used many keywords, thinking it would help them rank, resulting in keyword stuffing. 

Since Google’s algorithm was simpler back then, it was easier to manipulate. Today, thanks to natural language processing and RankBrain, you cannot stuff a bunch of keywords and expect the search giant not to notice. Google is getting smarter, and therefore, you need to think about related keywords, keyword topics and long-tail keywords. 

2. Spam comments 

Spam comments is another SEO tactic that you must stop using right away. It is an annoying strategy and one that can kill conversations. Yes, leaving commends is a wonderful way to build relationships, but not when spamming the blog post. 

To combat this, a lot of commenting platforms automatically nofollow those links. Nofollowed links intimate the search engines that those commends should not get any credit or any authority. 

3. Poor user experience 

Google and other search engines look beyond keywords and links to rank a website. They take into consideration all kinds of data, such as usage data. It refers to how people interact with your website. For instance, if your website has a high bounce rate, it is a red flag. It means people are leaving your website as soon as they visit. A high bounce rate tells search engines that a website is not helpful, and visitors are not finding what they seek. 

Moreover, your SEO presence will take a serious hit if your website’s design is outdated and unappealing. It might make your website appear untrustworthy. 

Google has even released a mobile-first update as people nowadays browse the Internet on their mobile devices more than their desktops. If your website is not responsive, visitors will experience a poor mobile browsing experience, which will also hurt your SEO efforts. You can come to us to check if your website is responsive or needs a responsive design. Also, it is important to check the website load speed to ensure that your target audience does not have to wait for more than 3 seconds for a webpage to load. 

4. Duplicate content 

Duplicate content refers to content that has been copied from somewhere else on the Internet or your website. If you copy and paste content on different websites, it will be harmful to your SEO efforts. You must ensure to only craft original content and post them across authoritative websites to gain backlinks. 

Since Google is getting updated and smarter, it is easier to detect duplicate content, and you would not want to be penalised for it. If you need any help crafting content, you can connect with us and leverage our content writing expertise. 

Duplicate content is particularly prevalent in eCommerce websites that simply copy and paste the product descriptions. There are also times when people end up including duplicate content throughout their website. This tactic is also detrimental as it confuses Google, and the search engine does not know which page to pass the authority to. The credit gets split into several pages. In such cases, you can use canonical tags that tell the search engine which post is original. 

So, if you are still using any one of the tactics mentioned above, you need to stop immediately. You are hurting your chances of gaining online visibility and driving traffic by implementing bad SEO strategies. For any help, connect with one of the best SEO companies in Edinburgh, NHANCE Digital. Let us help you achieve your business objectives. 

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Google has never shied away from showing its interest in mobile-first indexing. The search giant has been quite vocal of this imminent shift. In March 2018, the search giant had announced that they were starting with mobile-first indexing and now, they’re ready to roll it out for the entire web. This means that from now on, Google is going to base what it places in the index on your website’s mobile version first rather than the desktop version.

This switch is made because the number of mobile searches has been rising at an exponential rate. So, Google decided that it was time to prioritise mobile results. Here, it is crucial to note that the mobile-first index is not entirely separate, the search giant only has one index from which it serves the results.

There’s no need to panic because NHANCE Digital, one of the leading SEO companies in Sheffield, have outlined below the most crucial things that you should know about mobile-first indexing. We hope that you will be prepared before March 2021.

First, do not panic as your rankings might not be affected

The mobile version of every website is going to be indexed from March 2021. But, that does not mean that your rankings will be affected. If the mobile version of your website is indexed by Google, you will receive a notice in your Google Search Console. This means that the search giant is going to determine as per the content available on the mobile website how you will be ranked. This sounds like a pretty big thing if you do not have enough content.

However, WordPress websites will not be affected much because they already have a responsive design. This means that both your desktop and mobile website will display the same content.

But, if you have separate websites for mobile and desktop, you do have something to worry about. You might want to consider making the switch to a responsive website or getting both your websites ready for mobile-first indexing. As an experienced SEO company in Leed, we will be able to help you with that.

Second, undertake a mobile-friendliness test

To be in the mobile-first index, it is not necessary for you to have a mobile website. Google is going to index desktop websites as well. But, it will be very hard for your website to rank if it is not mobile-friendly. So, what you can do is hire us to conduct a mobile-friendliness test. This will help us determine if your website is mobile-friendly. If your website passes the test, you can breathe a sigh of relief.

Third, think about the user experience on mobile

To appeal to the audience, the design of a mobile website has to be different than a desktop website. Even though mobile devices are available in varied screen sizes, you have to start with the smallest screen size. The easiest way out would be discarding a lot of content due to limitations of space, but that is not a good practice. Instead, you can make your website responsive so that it can quickly adapt itself to different screen sizes. This way you do not have to get rid of anything on your website.

Fourth, craft mobile-friendly content

Since the screen is small, people find it quite difficult to read content on their mobile devices. But, this can be fixed easily. Make sure that your paragraphs are compact and sentences are short. Also, the font must be large and there should be enough whitespace so that your audience does not get confused.

We all knew that this day would come since the very first time that Google rolled out mobile-first indexing. However, now that the search giant is serious about rolling it out for the entire web, you do not have a choice, but to get on board. If you need help from a professional SEO agency in Edinburgh, contact NHANCE Digital.

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