An Introduction to SEO for Tree Surgeons
This is a massive topic, and far too big to go into on a single blog post, but let’s try and delve briefly into some of the basics of SEO for tree surgery websites.
How to get to No.1 in Google?
Let’s get one thing straight. There’s no easy way to get your tree surgery website to the top of Google. For some, you could try your whole life to get that coveted no.1 position and still not come close, regardless of how much money you throw at it. Often it seems there’s no rhyme or reason as to who gets the top spot, and its true in my opinion that a certain amount of it comes down to luck.
The way Google crawls and ranks websites is such a closely guarded secret, the best anyone can do is experiment with new techniques and hope it improves their ranking. But even if those new techniques work, there’s no telling in the next Google algorithm change if you might be penalised and knocked back into the Google abyss. It’s often been said, the best place to hide a body is on page 2 of Google, so no one really wants to be there!
Can I pay an SEO Company to Improve my Ranking?
Yes you can, but tread very carefully. If you are anything like me you probably get at least 1 email a day from someone promising to get your site to the top of Google. You should steer clear of these companies and basically, no one can promise this, and if they could they wouldn’t be emailing you. People would be flocking to them in their thousands.
Let’s look at what happens when one of these companies takes over your SEO. Let’s say they are charging you £500 a month with the promise of getting top spot. They very well might succeed, and if they do it’s quite likely they are using what is known as Black Hat SEO. These are questionable techniques (cheating if you like), that Google will pick up on eventually. The end result may be that your site ends up ranking lower than when you started.
Take a look at the stats below. This tree surgery company enlisted the help of an SEO company. The company created a heap of low quality links to their site trying to fool Google into believing the site was popular. It worked, at least for a while. The picture below speaks volumes.
Thankfully the site above is now recovering, with a more pragmatic approach to SEO. What we are looking to achieve is a steady but stable increase over time.
On-Site and Off-Site SEO for Tree Surgery Websites
There are 2 different types of SEO which are referred to as on-site and off-site. Both are massive subjects which we will cover in more detail at a later date.
On-Site SEO
This is SEO that is carried out directly on your website. It encompasses many things including the text, site optimisation (speed/performance), images, and website formatting. SEO for tree surgery websites should always focus on good content first and foremost.
Off-Site SEO
The practise of creating links to your website from other sites. These sites should preferably be authoritative sites (or individual pages) relating to your niche field. The days of building a massive network of sites linking back to your site are long gone and will likely only end in a drop in ranking.
Arbtalk Media SEO Techniques
We believe SEO starts at home and therefore invest heavily in on-site SEO. Yes, links are valuable, but the most valuable links of all are created organically. That is to say, someone reads an article and decided it is so authoritative they choose to link to your site themselves. Thats not to say we don’t carry out any off-site SEO, we are just very careful how we go about it, and what sites we choose to gain links from.
SEO is an ever-changing subject with new practices being used on a daily basis. Some of it is largely experimental in nature so we always focus on the core guidelines first.
- How much text is on a page? Google needs something to read. You can’t expect to write a few lines and beat off your competitors to the top spot, regardless of how well it’s written.
- Is the text formatted correctly? Google wants to see a well-formatted page, with clear headings and structure enabling their search bots to determine what the page is about, which are the most important sections, and who it is aimed at. Are your sentences too long? Are the paragraphs between headings and sub-headings too long? These simple guidelines are often overlooked, particularly in self-built websites.
- What is the keyword density? Arguably one of the most important aspects. Once you have chosen your keywords (after doing keyword research), these need to be implemented correctly into the page. This means adding them to headings and text, and in the right ratio. Some experts also argue it matters where in the text you place these keywords. We agree, and adhere to these guidelines wherever possible. This is a tricky one to get right. Use too few keywords and your site likely won’t rank, use too many and you risk Google viewing your site as spam, and ranked accordingly…or worse, blacklisted.
- Are images formatted correctly? Images should always be sized and formatted appropriately. Not only that, but they should also carry the appropriate alt tags. Whilst Google is getting cleverer all the time, it still needs some text to explain what the image is. This is an ideal opportunity to squeeze more keywords into your page. Another area often overlooked.
- Are your meta descriptions and SEO titles following best practice guidelines? These are the page titles and descriptions that show up in a google search. What you put here is incredibly important. Not only can it influence your position in google, but it can also be the deciding factor as to whether or not someone clicks on your link. Do your research and think very carefully what you put here.
To Summarize
As already mentioned, SEO for tree surgery websites is a massive topic and can’t possibly be covered in one blog post, unless you have a few weeks to spare? We plan to get into more detail over time on specific areas to help you get the most out of your sites. In the mean time, if you want to hire an SEO for your tree surgery website with an honest and realistic approach to improving your website ranking, then don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at info@arbtalkmedia.co.uk.
Thanks for reading!
