Why is SEO important?

The aim of SEO is to get people onto your website organically - those people are already searching for what you offer. Neglecting SEO is a trick well and truly missed; the higher you are on a search results page, the more traffic your website will get. Position 1 on Google for keywords that match what you offer your users can get 10 times more clicks than position 10. You can’t argue with that!

Is local SEO still important?

It’s more important than ever! If you offer products or services within a certain area, conquering local SEO marketing and remaining in the top spots for relevant search terms in your location is something we know how to handle, utilising Google Business as well as optimising your website.

Do you offer SEO training?

We do - whether you’re a startup that wants to get to grips with the fundamentals of SEO without the expense of an ongoing retainer, or you’re a bigger organisation keen to train up a new member of marketing, we can help. Our SEO training could be more affordable than you think.

We’re also an agency - can you work with us?

We’re an SEO agency in Sussex that loves to work with other agencies; together, your clients can thrive. We’re happy to white label as your SEO team, adapting to the way you work as a seamless integration into your business.

Is link building good for SEO?

Link building is a fantastic way to increase your domain authority - but it has to be done properly. We only work with sites that we’ve thoroughly vetted, and carefully monitor the rate of link acquisition, anchor text, and relevancy. We’ll also create that winning content that earns that all-important backlink whilst remaining helpful.

What happens if my site is affected by a Google update?

We’re constantly keeping an eye on the rankings of the sites we look after, but particularly around Google updates. The benefit of our experience allows us to understand what the update actually means, and swiftly working on anything within it that’s caused your rankings to drop.

Can you do an SEO audit?

This is the first hands-on part of our process! Before getting started, we take a look at your current activity, and find out how your customers are landing on your site. This information then marries up to the competitor analysis we carry out to help us build a strategy with which we can work to improve your rankings.

SEO Sussex Search Engine Optimisation

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What is SEO?

We love this question – and yes it’s a big one, but it’s one we’re proud to answer without bamboozling you. Search Engine Optimisation is a set of activities that take place on and off your website aiming to improve your visibility when people search for you on Google (other search engines do exist but the number of user are very low). A website utilising SEO correctly will appear higher in search results relevant to what they offer, so that users find them more easily.

Or to put it another way “SEO is the practice of trying to create the most relevant page or website on the internet for any given search term or group of search terms”.

Good SEO is rooted in a positive user journey; it takes place on your web pages, and in the backend of your website as well as off site on your Google Business Profile and backlinks from other websites. The activities themselves consist of creating relevant and helpful on-page content, knowledgeable technical input, and keeping abreast of the latest best-practice.

A person drawing a website sitemap on a whiteboard

What are the benefits of SEO?

The benefits of SEO for businesses of all sizes can be transformative, and include:

Increased online visibility by helping your business appear in relevant searches
A better user experience, thanks to the user-focused principles of SEO activities
Increased web traffic, as your website brings in users actively looking for what you offer
Credibility and trust building for your business and amongst your target audience
Increased footfall for local businesses
Long term ROI, as well-maintained rankings can consistently bring in users, and therefore conversions

If, like us, your website is your online shop window, then consider good SEO a door to the prime position on the high street. This means more people spotting you, and coming in to take a look around, and ultimately an increase in those all-important conversions.

This could be in the form of online sales, leads and enquiries, or sign-ups to your marketing materials so that you can sell to interested parties in the future. Whatever the conversion is, it means good business for you.

A laptop showing a graph of website visitors growing over time

SEO for LLMs and AI Search

The rise of AI in many areas of business is hard to ignore, and search is no exception. Whether you call it GEO, LLM SEO, Answer Engine Optimisation, or just SEO for AI, 427 can help your business improve performance. We can help to optimise your website and provide advice on optimising for ChatGPT, AI overviews, Perplexity and more.

As a team, everyone at 427 is always hunting for new techniques and new ways to use search to drive more results and the AI space is no expectation. The data around techniques and tactics can often be very hazy but we are always running tests and reviewing data to bring actionable protocols to bare for our clients. If there isn’t proper data to support a tactic then we will not risk your business by using it. While many others are selling the panacea of AI optimisation we are pragmatists and work with real world results.

Optimising websites for AI is about balance. We must consider all search engines and make sure we are helping businesses appear and not damaging rankings on one to suit another.

If you would like to discuss the impact of AI or AI SEO then please get in touch with our team today.

How long does it take to see results of SEO?

In general, SEO is a long game, but an easily analysed one; whilst on-page and technical optimisation can both take a while to get noticed by Google, the data can be tracked to make sure that they’re causing rankings to go in the right direction.

You could start to see results of good SEO in as little as 3 months, but by 12 months your rankings could be soaring – the key is to keep on top of your SEO activities, and be patient.

Good things come to those who wait; SEO is an extremely powerful marketing tool, and there’s every chance of fantastic ROI with the right budget, and the right team.

How does SEO build relevance?

Google wants to show its users the results most relevant to their search term. SEO should mark your website out as a relevant contender for the words and phrases that best describe what you do – and that are actually used in searches.

A combination of helpful content and behind-the-scenes technical changes, like the ones we’ve mentioned above, unite to raise rankings in the areas where users are actually looking for you.

Or to put it another way “SEO is the practice of trying to create the most relevant page or website on the internet for any given search term or group of search terms”.

How does SEO build authority?

SEO works to establish your website as an authority in your field; basically, you know what you’re talking about! Being seen as an authoritative site gives you credibility in Google’s eyes, and therefore it’s something of a no-brainer to raise your profile on the search results page.

E-E-A-T, used as guidelines for your page content, stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness, showing that creating reliable content that is of value is essential in building authority.

Authority particularly matters for any content that could influence users in a big life decision. There’s a whole set of rules around what’s known as Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) content; we can help you navigate this.

Our approach to SEO

We’ve assembled a very cool bunch of SEO experts, skilled in different parts of optimising web pages for search engines so that we can bring you the full package. Here’s what we handle for our clients:

On-page optimisation

Users love structure, and so does Google. When things are easy to find in places that make sense on a website, the user journey is shorter and more successful. By taking the time to input or improving headings (also known as H tags), and internally linking throughout the site to other relevant pages on the same domain, our local SEO consultants can lead the user and Google through your online home. This is so that the former can get what they need, and the latter can make sense of your site to rank it.

User-orientated helpful content

What your site says to your user plays a big part in successful SEO, so your on-page content as well as your blog articles can make or break your rankings. Ultimately, Google rewards sites that answer their users’ questions and satisfies their needs, so your content should be as helpful as possible.

We let our talented content writers discover what content your users are looking for, collaborate with your team to gain original insight, and write well-researched content that captivates your audience.

Keyword research

If you want your website to be found online, keyword research is essential. If people are searching for anything that’s relevant to your business, we want you to be found for those keywords. Keyword research involves identifying the terms your audience searches for so we can drive relevant traffic to your site.

Many agencies only allow clients a set number of keywords; some as low as 10. However, at 427 we research them all and work our way through as many as you need to get results.

The benefits of keyword research include:

Allowing you to targeting your SEO efforts towards terms that people actually use
Generating meaningful traffic; not just rankings for the sake of it
You learn more about your business and how people look for what you offer

Technical SEO

We do like a cold hard stat; our technical SEO team especially. An initial website audit shows us what we’re working with to indicate where improvements are needed, and benchmark them as they happen. This is supported by:

Keyword research to find what users are searching for
Schema to tell Google what you’re all about
Redirects to ensure no user is lost
Image alt tags that give search engine crawlers a helping hand understanding visuals

Working with web developers is an integral part of successful SEO, and none are more happy to do so than our technical SEO team.

Off-page SEO

In the wings of your website are some impressive supporting actors, but they could easily be the stars of the show. For example, we take the local SEO goldmine that is Google Business very seriously. Equally, the power of generating backlinks is not to be underestimated; our outreach team works hard to harness it.

In addition to all this, we keep a beady eye on competitors, identifying areas in which they’re ranking ahead of you, and doing our best to put you there instead.

Get in touch

Who are 427?

We are an SEO agency based in Sussex; from our humble beginnings working with local businesses across Lewes, Brighton, Shoreham, Pulborough and Haywards Heath, we now work with businesses across the UK and globally. Our years of expertise and genuine enthusiasm for not only putting what we know into action with professional SEO services, but learning new best practices as things evolve tangibly benefits the businesses we work with.

That being said, our heart is in Sussex, and we still work with a great deal of companies in the county as well as agency partners. Our clients span a range of industries, and we’re proud to act as an arm of their team, working hard online to ensure their site is found through search engines. We thoroughly research your market, quickly identify where there are gains to be pursued, and keep you informed of the progress each and every month.

We do all of this without a baffling, over-your-head approach. Honesty, transparent reporting, and responsive, reactive SEO services are much more our style. Whether you are a startup or a large established business we can help generate more traffic from Google search for you, it’s that simple.