Conquering algorithm anxiety – should you be nervous about Search Engine Optimisation?

In the vast and continually evolving digital landscape, there is one digital marketing strategy that is known to cause confusion. Some love it, some fear it, and some don’t understand it at all. But with over 53% of all website traffic coming from organic search, search engine optimisation is something that all businesses should look into for their own website.[1]

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the process of optimising a website to improve its rankings on a search engine, such as Google. SEO is typically viewed as a complex and difficult to understand technique, meaning that many businesses choose to avoid it all together. Of course, the lack of uptake of SEO means that, when done well, it can give businesses a brilliant edge over competitors.

To address the underlying issue, is SEO something to be feared? No! It is very normal to fear the unknown. In the following blog post, let’s delve into the nitty-gritty of Search Engine Optimisation, and address some of the key concerns for veterinary and pet health businesses looking into developing an SEO strategy.

The SEO glossary

It’s true, there are a number of acronyms in the world of SEO (besides just the name!) If you are reading up on SEO online or consulting with a professional, it may help to have a basic understanding of some of the jargon that you come across.

Once you take away the confusion around new and technical terminology, the process of SEO becomes a lot less daunting, and understanding it becomes simpler.

Understanding the SEO process

Search Engine Optimisation has a number of components. Depending on the level of depth you are planning to explore with your SEO, the process can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be.

The SEO process will usually start with an audit of existing website SEO and some keyword research. Consider these aspects like the foundation of your process, these steps provide an understanding of what you will need to do to improve your SEO.

From here, SEO can be broken down further.

On page SEO is one of the simpler ways to quickly optimise a website. This involves looking at the tip of the iceberg. Optimising metadata, dispersing keywords throughout content and other optimisations directly on the page can help to show a search engine that your website is relevant. This is also where a process known as ‘SEO copywriting’ comes in, which involves writing content with specific keywords in mind, with the view that the content will help a webpage to rank highly on SERPs. Not only will this result in highly optimised copy, but the overall information of your website will be higher quality, which will improve user experience and your overall ability to answer your target customers’ queries.

For some businesses, on page SEO may be enough, however, to take it a step further, businesses can explore the use of off page and technical SEO strategies, such as backlink building (encouraging other pages to link to yours, boosting authority), more in depth page optimisations, and other techniques that cannot be immediately seen by someone who visits a website. These optimisations are made specifically with a search engine in mind, which is why it can be trickier to do this type of SEO, and often requires a specialist SEO consultant, who has specific expertise in the search engine algorithms and what they look for.

Adopting SEO as a long-term strategy

In such a dynamic digital landscape, the concept of a quick fix can be alluring. However, SEO can only be truly effective when it is treated as a marathon, not a sprint. The algorithm is notoriously slow to re-crawl and index websites, meaning that your search engine optimisation efforts will often take time to flourish into significant results. Generally, it is recommended to wait at least three months to begin to see a positive impact from your SEO.

The good news is that, unlike paid advertising, once SEO begins to work the process often has long lasting results. This can make search engine optimisation a highly cost-effective method of digital marketing in the long run, as long as you are prepared to play the waiting game. All the time that you are optimising content, improving SEO and building quality backlinks, you are laying the groundwork for strong, sustained optimisation.

When to enlist professional help

To summarise, conducting effective search engine optimisation can be a challenging task. Particularly within the veterinary industry, time is scarce and the knowledge required to effectively write for, and optimise, a pet-health related website is critical. If you are feeling pushed for time, or need a little bit of extra expertise when it comes to SEO, why not enlist a specialist SEO agency to help you soar in the SERPs?

At Companion Consultancy, we offer a number of SEO packages, designed to suit the needs and budgets of small and larger veterinary businesses alike. Get in touch with our team today to find out what we can do for you!

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[1] https://videos.brightedge.com/research-report/BrightEdge_ChannelReport2019_FINAL.pdf (accessed: 21/8/23)