The world of SEO is constantly changing. Google’s algorithms are always evolving which can cause stress for businesses that rely on plugins to conduct their SEO and increase their visibility.
In order to stay ahead of the game, you need to be aware of the latest strategies, tactics and tools being used by your competitors and reach your potential customers.
Instead of staying complacent or passively continuing with what worked in the past; businesses are now looking to switch tactics and incorporate new strategies.
Choosing the right SEO service will help businesses like yours stand out from your competition, create the perfect SEO campaign, and maximise your chances of ranking on the first page of Google.
In this blog, we will explain the key differences between bespoke SEO and plugin-based SEO. What they entail and how to choose the best one for your business and digital marketing strategy.
What is Bespoke SEO?
Bespoke SEO is when we tailor our Search Engine Optimisation practices to adjust to our specific needs and website. It has different facets like technical SEO (SEO audit, structured data, robots.txt, canonicals… and On-page SEO (optimising meta, anchor texts, adding semantically related keywords…).
As we all know, SEO is not a one-size-fits-all practice. Every website has a different goal. Understanding it will help you adopt the right approach with your keyword research or content production, help you increase your website traffic and benefit from Google’s search results page.
How do most reputable Search Engines decide Rankings?
There are a variety of factors that come into play among search engines. It is integral that you do your due diligence when planning your strategy.
For example, backlinks are a ranking factor for Google, but the most popular Search Engine in Russia, Yandex, does not value links the same way Google or Bing do.
Knowing the ranking factors of your search engines of choice will help you determine and prioritise the steps necessary to achieve your goals.
There is so much controversy surrounding the value of links vs great content, and from personal experience, I can tell you that ranking without links is possible. However, you want to make sure you capitalise and enhance your chances of ranking in every way possible.
A few of the ways you can do this is by analysing the structure of the Top 5 to Top 10 results for your keyword of choice. You will then try to find common trends. These could be specific subheadings and semantics, long vs short-form content, whether the top results are either informational, transactional or navigational, the average number of backlinks, if the domains linking to them have high authority, and the related keywords they all rank for, to name a few.
Once we find the fore-mentioned common trends, we start our content strategy.
Consider adding structured data, a table of contents (where relevant), prioritising readability and conciseness, and answering every question a user might have surrounding the topic. Applying these technical tricks when you create content, will have a positive impact on your efforts.
Strategy for Bespoke SEO
Pretty much every business that has a website benefits from SEO. However, practices vary based on the type of website or business you run.
Let’s take a website from a business that operates internationally.
This business would fit within the International SEO category. We would have to look into whether we want to translate each page for the countries of choice. To make sure we use the appropriate “Hreflang tags“, which are the tags we can place on either our Sitemap, HTTP header or On-Page Markup to let search engines know that the variations of the URLs are not duplicates but for different audiences, and to ensure we provide users with an experience tailored to their country or region.
Then, we would have Local SEO. There are many fundamental differences in the approach we will be taking when ranking for local. Targeting regional keywords would be the first thing to have in mind; focusing your efforts on location-specific keywords results in the best conversion rates as these keywords tend to drive local people to your business. Understanding how people in the UK use the lift, and in the USA, elevator, helps you tailor and structure your content in a way your audience undoubtedly understands it.
These are two examples of how having a bespoke approach to your SEO is essential for your success.
Our approach
At MSTS Solutions, no two campaigns are ever the same. Some of our clients have done SEO in the past and managed to build a workspace and infrastructure that would mainly need technical changes, implementation, fixes, On-Page optimisation, and content creation. On the other hand, other clients have never done SEO and need to start from scratch.
These are some of the steps we take on our campaigns:
SEO Strategy: As mentioned before, plugins streamline the process and make it more user-friendly for those with no technical background, but their role is not to do your SEO. We start with a conversation with our clients to understand their struggles and what they aim to accomplish from our partnership (leads, conversions, or signups). Once we get that information, we work on what I will go over in the following points.
Set-Up: We will need access to Google Analytics and Google Search Console to see whether our modifications are doing their job. Whether you want to give us access to the CMS or not is entirely up to you. Some of our clients have a developer who applies our changes. However, we would need Google Search Console and Google Analytics access.
Technical fixes: A pivotal part of the whole operation. We find issues that are affecting you and fix them. That includes duplicates, thin pages that should not be, broken links, unminified CSS and Javascript for Page Speed Optimisation, 404 pages, keyword cannibalisation…
On-Page Optimisation: We look at your site thoroughly and make sure the keywords currently being targeted are in line with your keyword profile. Targeting keywords that are far too competitive is counterproductive. In those instances, we find better suited related keywords we can compete for, and optimise the non-text and text-based elements of the page to ensure it matches its intent.
Keyword Research: Although this should be on top of On-Page Optimisation, they go hand in hand. Keyword research is what allows us to find keywords worth targeting. With tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, and Keyword Planner combined with a deep understanding of search intent and competitive analysis, we mitigate the risk of shooting too high and manage to rank for the keywords of choice.
Competitive Research: : We stay on top of your direct competitors and their strategy. Not only do they tend to have the same goal as you, but they will be a great source of relevant keywords. Over the years, we have managed to outrank our competitors on many of the keywords we found through them. We call them “low hanging fruits”. These are keywords with good search volume, low competition and poor optimisation. With the appropriate content structure, backlinks and semantically related keywords, we increase our likelihood of ranking for them.
Reporting: We report our progress to clients every month to stay updated on every step of our journey. Keeping our clients informed is one of our main priorities.
Final Thoughts
Your approach to SEO will determine your journey and trajectory. Using plugins alone will allow you to do affordable SEO but bespoke services have proven to be the best solutions for every organisation.
Choosing the right digital marketing agency to take care of your organic presence is not an easy thing to do. At MSTS Solutions we take pride in our approach and proven methods for effective SEO for any and every business website.
Get in touch today to learn how our team of experts at MSTS Solutions will help you with any SEO enquiry you have and make this year the year of change!
