It stands for search engine optimisation. Doing it well helps your website appear prominently in search engine results.
Here's an example of search results on Google for the phrase 'Visit Penzance'. Our client, Love Penzance, has great SEO and appears at position 1 when a user types in these words.
How you approach SEO will determine the success of your 'digital shop front'.
Get it right and you’ll be the internet equivalent of a bustling gallery in Fore Street, St Ives, teeming with visitors.
Get it wrong and you’ll be a grey, pebble-dashed unit on a mid-Cornwall industrial estate, with not a customer in sight.
SEO can be an amazing investment to bring you more visibility online, website traffic and sales. It can see you trade up from an obscure forgotten corner of the internet to a prominent spot in search – and bring in sales.
In some ways, it’s pretty simple. You need to create website content that Google thinks people will find interesting and useful.
The more interesting and useful you are, the higher you’ll perform in search.
SEO typically involves the following elements.
Technical audit
This is a fundamental. Google wants to see a site with a healthy architecture, so the user can quickly navigate and reach the content they need. An audit can reveal any problems such as broken links, pages with thin content (low word counts) and badly optimised meta data. Once you have this information, you can work towards eliminating issues that negatively affect SEO.
Content audit and strategy
To help your site perform better in search, you need to know what it is – and isn’t – doing well in terms of keyword rankings. First, you need to create goals. Then you must assess what you’re currently ranking for and terms you should be ranking for. You'll then need recommendations for improving existing pages and creating new ones. This element can also include a full content strategy for your business, including a content calendar for your blog.
SEO content creation
Content is at the heart of good SEO, because Google wants to direct people to informative and original sites. You'll want SEO-optimised, rich content that will stand out from your competitors.
Reporting
Each month, your provider should present a report in plain language revealing where your campaign is succeeding and where it can do better.
A note on linkbuilding
We provide all of the above services, but we don’t do linkbuilding (asking people to link to your site). It’s not our skill set and we prefer to direct our energy towards creating high-quality content that leads to naturally acquired links. Some suggest Google prefers this approach too.
We are copywriters, journalists and content strategists first and foremost. Remember, high-quality content is at the heart of success on Google. Many agencies offering SEO in Cornwall will be predominantly technical teams who may farm out content to a third-party or leave the sourcing of website content writers up to you. We will do everything for you – from the technical audits to strategy and content creation.
We are a boutique content marketing agency, offering SEO in Cornwall as a personal service to a small number of local clients. We’ll take the time to understand your business and offer a solution that does not feel boilerplate or ‘off’. We know how much you love your business and your brand, and we’ll respect that by providing the care and attention it takes to create something fresh and unique.
However, full disclosure – if you are an ecommerce site or your website has many hundreds of pages, you’re gonna need a bigger boat. We don’t have the hands on deck for jobs requiring large teams to turn things around.
If, on the other hand, you’re looking for SEO in Cornwall and you’re talking up to a few dozen pages, we’ll steer a course right towards you…
IT company Intersys wins lucrative new clients
This IT and cyber security business is based in the South East with a regional office in Hayle.
Love Penzance website doubles traffic
Managed by Penzance BID, Love Penzance is a tourism website designed to increase visits to Penzance for the benefit of local businesses.
Our work resulted in:
Roofing company expands team due to website success
Based in Hayle, Summit Roofing Solutions was our first SEO client back in 2012. Following our work, the website rose swiftly in rankings and the business owner scrambled to hire more employees to cope with demand. The website is currently undergoing an SEO review and redesign.
‘Coast Copywriting has achieved our goals with amazing results which can be seen by all when searching for a roofer or roofing in Cornwall.’
Adam Palmer, Owner, Summit Roofing Solutions
We don’t do guarantees. There are far too many factors out of our control to say with certainty we will achieve X or Y. For instance, Google may change aspects of the algorithm. It’s why we recommend you steer clear of the ‘we’ll get you to the top of Google’ SEO brigade, because nobody can absolutely guarantee results.
However, the results above are typical and every client looking for SEO in Cornwall who has come to us has seen an improvement in visibility – usually a significant one.
There’s also one important thing to know about SEO. It is rarely a one-job-and-you’re-done approach. One-offs can help, but, for sustained success, you need to be regularly adding and optimising content, and reviewing performance. That’s the case for the Love Penzance and Intersys sites above, which have enjoyed such ongoing success.
This is why you’ll almost certainly want a monthly commitment.
Drop us a note or give us a call and we can find out what you’re looking for and price accordingly. That might be an audit and optimising your website to get you up and running. Or monthly SEO services to keep your site architecture in good shape and regularly update your website with fresh and high-quality SEO content.
Coast Copywriting was founded by Hayle boy and Cornwall-based copywriter Martin Philp, following a career in London working as a journalist and copywriter at BBC Worldwide, IPC, Publicis and many more publishing and advertising agencies.
He was joined by his partner, Gargi Shastri, in 2017. As a former TV journalist, radio producer and digital marketing executive, she widened the skillset of the business considerably.
Working from an office in Penzance with a small team of writers, web developers and technical SEO experts, we help businesses in Cornwall and beyond grow their digital presence – and their revenues.
We’ve been offering SEO in Cornwall since 2012 for businesses in the IT and tourism sectors, as well as many SMEs in construction.
If you'd like to get a good idea of exactly how we work with clients and our step-by-step process, read our post about working with our Cornwall digital marketing agency.
Pick up the phone and call Martin on 07414 865222 to let him know about your project. Whether you’re an absolute newbie to SEO or have been in deep for years, he’ll be very happy to give you his thoughts on your project and a ballpark price to see if we are right for you.
If you’re anywhere west of Truro, he can meet you at your workplace, or at a café – preferably one offering fine cakes and even finer sea views.
If you're in Truro or the eastern end of the county, you’re going to have to bribe him with pasties…
Find out more about Coast Copywriting’s services. We provide website content writing, content marketing strategy, content marketing consultancy, blog writing services and full SEO services for Cornish businesses.
Or go to our marketing agency for Cornwall page to find out about all of our local services.