What search engine optimisation actually is, how Google ranks pages, and why "SEO" covers technical, on-page and off-page work — not just keywords.
SEO is the practice of making your website easier for Google to find, understand and trust — so it shows your pages to people searching for what you offer, without you paying for the click.
Google ranks pages on hundreds of signals: how fast your site loads, whether other trusted sites link to you, whether your content actually answers the question, and whether people who click stay or bounce straight back.
Technical SEO (can Google crawl and load your site properly), on-page SEO (does the content answer the search intent), and off-page SEO (does the wider internet treat your site as credible via links and mentions).
Realistically, months rather than weeks for competitive terms. Technical fixes can show fast wins; ranking for genuinely competitive commercial keywords is a compounding process.
Our SEO Services service covers exactly this, built around your own audit findings.
Ongoing, by nature — Google's algorithm changes, competitors keep publishing, and rankings you've won can be lost if the site behind them stops being maintained. Technical fixes are closer to one-time; content and links compound over time.
The basics, yes — see our DIY guide. Competitive keyword strategy and technical migrations have a steeper learning curve where a second opinion is worth having.
It works wherever people search for what you offer — which is nearly everyone. It's less useful for businesses with zero organic search demand for their product, which the keyword research would reveal honestly.
There isn't one — Google has said publicly it uses hundreds of signals. Content quality, technical health and backlink profile are the three broad categories that matter most in combination.
Yes, but quality over quantity — a handful of relevant, genuine links outweighs hundreds of low-quality directory submissions, which can actively hurt if they look manipulative.
Common causes: a Google algorithm update, a technical issue introduced by a site change, a competitor genuinely outranking you with better content, or lost backlinks. The audit checklist covers how to diagnose which.
Different jobs — SEO captures people already searching for what you offer (high intent); social media builds awareness among people who weren't looking yet. Most businesses need some of both.
The actual reason behind a search — informational, commercial, navigational or transactional. A page written for the wrong intent (a sales page for an informational search) rarely ranks, no matter how well optimised.
Not necessarily — service pages, location pages and FAQ content can carry SEO weight without a blog. A blog helps most when there's a genuine stream of questions your customers ask that a static page wouldn't naturally cover.