Search Engine Optimisation

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process of enhancing your website and its content to achieve higher rankings in search engine results. By improving your SEO, you can attract a larger audience and turn more visitors into customers.

SEO is typically divided into two key areas: on-page SEO and off-page SEO.

• On-page SEO focuses on optimising your website’s structure, technical performance, and content. This includes refining site code, enhancing user experience, improving page load speed, restructuring content, and publishing keyword-optimised copy and media to drive engagement.

• Off-page SEO involves building your website’s authority by acquiring quality backlinks from reputable sources. While there are various approaches to link building, we strictly follow ethical, ‘white hat’ methods to ensure sustainable and Google-approved growth.

Our expert SEO team begins with a comprehensive audit of your website to identify opportunities for both on-page and off-page improvements. Some optimisations, such as refining code and site structure, can be implemented quickly, while others—like content creation and strategic link-building—require ongoing effort. We continuously monitor key metrics, including search rankings, organic traffic, and conversion rates, to track progress and ensure long-term success.

SEO offers several key advantages compared to traditional marketing methods:

• SEO connects you with ready-to-buy customers. Imagine you sell bananas. If your website ranks well for relevant search terms, potential customers looking to buy bananas can find you instantly. Additionally, by optimising for related keywords, you can capture interest early—before users even begin searching for sellers—giving you an edge over competitors.

• SEO drives higher conversion rates. Research from HubSpot shows that 14.6% of SEO-generated leads convert into paying customers—more than eight times the conversion rate of traditional outbound sales and marketing efforts.

• Organic traffic grows sustainably with minimal cost. While paid ads provide immediate visibility, they require ongoing spending per click or impression. SEO, on the other hand, allows you to build long-term, scalable traffic with a consistent monthly investment, making it a cost-effective strategy over time.

When done correctly and in line with Google’s guidelines, SEO has no real drawbacks. Google’s goal is to deliver the most relevant and engaging results to its users. In essence, SEO is about understanding what users want and providing it—there’s no downside to that.

However, some agencies and freelancers use ‘black hat’ SEO tactics to manipulate rankings artificially. While these shortcuts may offer temporary gains, Google’s ever-evolving algorithm quickly detects and penalises such practices. The consequences? A significant drop in rankings—or, in extreme cases, complete removal from Google’s search index.

At Gorilla Marketing, we take a 100% ethical, ‘white hat’ approach to SEO. Our methods deliver sustainable, long-term results that drive high-quality organic traffic—without risking penalties.

One of the most common questions we receive is, “How long before we see results?” While we can provide estimates based on an analysis of your website and target keywords, there’s no universal timeframe. Organic search rankings evolve over time and are influenced by hundreds of factors—some within your control and others not.

Your starting point also plays a crucial role. If you’re entering a highly competitive industry with a brand-new website, achieving first-page rankings for key search terms will require significant time and effort. Be wary of SEO agencies that promise instant results in such scenarios—they’re often using risky tactics that could do more harm than good.

That’s why we focus on long-tail keywords at the start of a campaign. These are less competitive but still valuable, allowing you to see a return on investment while we build momentum for ranking on more competitive search terms.

Some aspects of SEO only need to be done once, while others require continuous effort.

For example, improving your website’s code and structure—such as optimizing loading speed and ensuring pages meet SEO best practices—is typically a one-time task. Keyword research and on-page optimizations can also be implemented without frequent updates.

However, SEO is not a “set it and forget it” strategy. Key elements like content creation and link building must be maintained over time to keep your site competitive. Additionally, Google regularly updates its search algorithm, sometimes making significant changes that can impact rankings across all industries.

Major core algorithm updates used to occur once or twice a year but now happen more frequently, alongside smaller tweaks almost daily. This means SEO requires ongoing monitoring and adaptation.

As a leading SEO agency in Stockport, we stay ahead of Google’s latest updates to ensure our clients’ websites remain optimised and competitive in search results.

Absolutely. Whether your business serves other companies (B2B) or individual consumers (B2C), SEO ensures that when potential customers search for products or services like yours, your website appears at the top of the results.

The first step in any SEO strategy is keyword research—identifying the search terms your audience uses. For B2B businesses, we focus on industry-specific terminology and professional language, while B2C keywords tend to be broader and more consumer-friendly.

Every client we work with receives a detailed keyword research report, highlighting the most valuable search terms for their industry and location. Whether B2B or B2C, our goal is the same: to position your website where it matters most—in front of your target audience.

On-page SEO involves optimising your website to ensure search engines can understand and rank it effectively. The specific improvements we make depend on the current state of your site but may include:

• Enhancing Site Speed – A fast-loading website improves user experience and increases the chances of search engines ranking it higher.

• Improving Content Quality – We optimise pages to ensure they are highly relevant to users’ searches, strategically incorporating keywords into headings, titles, and body text.

• Optimising Page Titles – Titles not only help search engines understand the page’s topic but also influence click-through rates from search results.

• Structuring Page Headings – A logical and well-structured heading format improves readability for both users and search engines.

• Optimising Visual Content – Search engines rely on alt text and captions to interpret images and videos, so we ensure these elements are fully optimised.

• Internal & External Linking – Linking to relevant internal pages and authoritative external sources strengthens a website’s credibility and enhances search engine rankings.

• Ensuring Proper Crawling & Indexing – Websites should be easily accessible to search engine crawlers while minimising errors. Certain pages may also be restricted from indexing for strategic SEO purposes.

By implementing these optimisations, we ensure that your site is not only search engine-friendly but also engaging and valuable for visitors.

When search engines assess a website, they consider both on-page factors (relevance and expertise) and off-page factors (authority and trust). The primary off-page SEO factor that search engines use to determine authority and trust is the number of backlinks from other relevant and authoritative websites. These links act as endorsements, signalling credibility. If your site has a strong portfolio of high-quality backlinks, search engines like Google are more likely to trust its content—almost like an online voting system.

Some SEO practitioners attempt to manipulate this process by creating their own websites solely for the purpose of linking back to their clients. While this may have been effective in the past, modern search engine algorithms are sophisticated enough to detect and penalise such tactics.

For long-term success, link building should follow an ethical, organic, and content-driven strategy. By producing valuable content that naturally attracts backlinks, your website can earn citations from reputable sources—the exact approach Google encourages.

As mentioned earlier, creating high-quality content that naturally attracts links is the most effective and sustainable approach to SEO link building.

As a leading SEO agency, our role is to identify opportunities where you can produce valuable content that will capture the attention of relevant websites within your industry—ultimately leading to an increase in high-quality backlinks.

This type of content marketing could take various forms, such as newly published research or data, a free e-book, an interactive online tool, or an eye-catching infographic, to name just a few. The key is to develop content that is engaging, informative, thought-provoking, or highly useful to your target audience.

Digital PR also plays a crucial role in modern SEO, helping to amplify your content’s reach. By proactively engaging with online media, journalists, and bloggers, we can secure coverage and backlinks in advance, ensuring your content gains maximum visibility and authority.

The type of SEO you need depends on the nature of your business and the audience you want to reach.

For example, if you run a café in the Northern Quarter, your focus should be on local SEO. You need to attract customers who live or work nearby, which means optimising your Google My Business profile and improving your visibility in Google’s ‘Map Pack’ results. Additionally, using your website content to target long-tail keywords—highly specific search phrases—can help you connect with potential customers (for instance, you may have found us by searching for ‘SEO agency Manchester’).

On the other hand, national SEO is for businesses with a broader audience. This approach targets competitive search terms like ‘car insurance’ or ‘SEO agency’, where rankings are harder to achieve due to increased competition.

You can adopt a purely local strategy, a fully national approach, or a combination of both. During our initial consultation, we’ll assess your needs and tailor an SEO campaign that aligns with your business goals.

E-commerce SEO is a specialist service designed specifically for online retail businesses. While many core SEO principles apply to e-commerce sites—just as they do to local, national, and enterprise websites—there are also unique optimisations that can significantly improve search visibility and user experience.

One key element is the use of schema markup, a type of structured data that allows search engines to display additional product details—such as prices, ratings, and stock availability—directly in search results. This makes product listings more appealing to users, ultimately increasing click-through rates and driving more traffic to your store.

Another crucial aspect of e-commerce SEO is a well-structured website architecture. A clear, intuitive navigation system ensures that customers can effortlessly browse products through logically categorised menus, making it easier for both users and search engines to understand and navigate your site.

By implementing these specialised strategies, we help e-commerce businesses enhance visibility, improve user experience, and drive more sales.

Enterprise SEO is a strategic, technical, and large-scale approach to search engine optimisation, tailored for businesses with complex online presences. Websites requiring enterprise SEO typically:

• Represent large organisations with high levels of brand authority.

• Contain thousands of pages, such as extensive product or service listings.

• Serve an international audience, often across multiple countries.

• Operate in multiple languages, requiring multilingual SEO strategies.

For companies targeting multiple regions, SEO efforts must extend beyond Google and Bing to include local search engines like Baidu (China) and Yandex (Russia) to maximise visibility in key markets.

Because enterprise websites often compete for highly competitive keywords, the strategy involves automation, scalable SEO practices, and template-driven solutions to maintain efficiency. Additionally, reputation management is a crucial component—ensuring that positive and brand-approved content ranks prominently while minimising the visibility of unfavourable or misleading information.

To achieve optimal results, enterprise SEO requires collaboration across multiple departments, sometimes across different time zones. The SEO agency must coordinate seamlessly with content teams, marketing departments, and technical stakeholders to ensure smooth implementation and alignment with business goals.

The best SEO strategy depends entirely on the type of campaign being delivered. Every business has unique goals, target audiences, and competitive landscapes, meaning a one-size-fits-all approach simply does not work. Instead, SEO strategies should be carefully tailored to maximise results.

For businesses targeting a specific geographic area, local SEO is the best approach. Rather than competing nationally, the focus is on establishing a strong local presence through verified map listings, an optimised Google My Business profile, and consistent business directory citations. A well-optimised website with locally relevant content further strengthens visibility in local search results. This strategy ensures that businesses appear prominently when nearby customers are searching for relevant services.

For brands looking to compete on a larger scale, national SEO requires a more comprehensive strategy. Instead of focusing on location-based searches, the emphasis shifts to building authority through digital PR, backlink acquisition, and content marketing. A national campaign typically involves the development of substantial on-site content, ensuring that web pages are highly relevant to competitive search terms. In some cases, technical SEO improvements may be necessary, such as optimising site speed, refining page structures, or addressing indexing issues, all of which contribute to better search engine performance.

For enterprise-level and e-commerce SEO, where websites contain thousands of pages and serve a national or international audience, an even more strategic approach is required. Large-scale SEO campaigns often involve automation and structured templates to ensure consistency across numerous pages. E-commerce businesses, in particular, benefit from schema markup, which enhances search result listings by displaying product information, prices, and customer ratings directly in search engines. Optimising site architecture is also crucial, ensuring that users can navigate product categories efficiently while improving overall user experience. For businesses operating internationally, multilingual SEO may be necessary to optimise for search engines beyond Google, such as Baidu in China or Yandex in Russia.

Regardless of whether a business requires local, national, or enterprise SEO, the key to success lies in delivering strategies that are not only effective but also ethical and sustainable. Every approach we implement follows best-practice SEO methodology, ensuring that businesses achieve measurable, long-term results.

While social media does not directly influence a website’s search engine rankings, its presence and activity can significantly contribute to a business’s overall legitimacy and credibility. Search engines assess a range of factors when evaluating a website’s authority, and active social media profiles can support this by demonstrating an engaged and visible brand.

Beyond SEO, social media platforms are powerful marketing tools in their own right. They provide businesses with opportunities to showcase products or services, build an initial audience, and generate engagement around their brand. A well-managed social media presence can lead to customer interactions, reviews, and even website visits—each of which contributes to a brand’s overall digital footprint.

By leveraging hashtags, trending topics, and strategic collaborations with other profiles, businesses can increase their exposure and attract their first customers. Over time, the engagement, reviews, and user-generated content gained through social media can be repurposed to enhance a website’s authority and improve its SEO performance. Although social media alone will not determine search rankings, it remains a valuable asset in an effective digital marketing strategy.