Birmingham SEO

when you want it

how you want it

For almost all of Ready Steady Go SEO's story, Birmingham SEO has been at the centre of my search engine optimisation and search marketing activities. This was due to the company having a Birmingham base - equidistant between Kings Norton, Northfield and West Heath in south Birmingham, on the Worcestershire border. This has meant that the biggest number of clients I've worked with has been in and around Birmingham.

Allow me to introduce myself. My name's Guy Willett and  I've been working in digital marketing for over 15 years and I'm the founder of Ready Steady Go SEO. Since starting my SEO agency in 2016  I have made it my mission to provide cost-effective SEO to SMEs. So if you're looking at Birmingham SEO services on a pay as you go basis then allow me to elaborate why I think we should be talking.

There's plenty of SEO companies in Birmingham, so why choose Ready Steady Go SEO to be your SEO service provider? The key difference is that I undertake search engine optimisation very differently to most SEO agencies you'll encounter. Why? Well, the simple answer is I don't come from an SEO agency background.

In fact, for many years I was, like you, an end client, who just didn't get value for money from the SEO agencies I hired. All too often I was locked into contracts where very little seemed to be done and even less seemed to happen in terms of results. When I questioned this, I'd frequently be met with a wall of techno babble or just told that I'd just need to wait just a little longer to see results. 

Which made me think. 

• Why can't I get SEO in Birmingham when I want them or when I can afford it?
• Why can't I obtain SEO campaigns where I know what's being done and how it will benefit me?
• Why can't I buy individual SEO packages where I can judge their impact prior to further expense?

That's when I started undertaking SEO for my own companies and not only got some great results but also really enjoyed doing it. So much so that after a few years I decided to become a freelance SEO consultant who has in the last four years worked with over 75 organisations improving their online visibility. 

The reason for this success is simple:

Birmingham SEO that's highly rated!

I'd urge anyone to scrutinise and research your prospective SEO provider before taking the plunge. By all means ask for references and approach former or current clients to get their feedback.

Of course, also look at their online reputation as well  I'm very proud of the feedback that I've received setting up Ready Steady Go SEO and feel free to look across GoogleMyBusiness, Bark, Yell, Bark or Trustpilot to see how people feel about the work undertaken and advice given. See below for just a sample of the feedback I've received.

One particular review platform I'm proud to be featured on is Clutch. This isn't just because of the glowing reviews but also because clients are approached and are interviewed independently so their feedback is all the more impartial and welcome.

Moreover, from this independent research, Ready Steady Go SEO has been named as one of the top digital and marketing agencies in the UK three years in a row.

An experienced Birmingham SEO specialist

Birmingham has been the main area that I've had the pleasure of serving for the past 4 years. This has involved me working extensively across both in the centre of Birmingham in the West Midlands as well as for a number of clients who are situated in suburbs as well as in the centre of Birmingham. The range of work has been exciting and diverse including the following -

Benchmark your competitors with your free SEO report!

I believe in helping you to make informed strategic decisions. It's vital that reflecting my findings with you at each step helps ensure continued success and no more so than at the outset of our communication. 

This starts even before working with you with a free no-obligation report and 30-minute consultation that focuses on:

• Current keyword ranking
• Potential other keywords 
• Average monthly search volumes
• Your backlink profile (mentions of your site elsewhere on the Internet)
• Analysis of your local listing status
• Social media profiles

What makes this an even more valuable document however is I can share the same information for your competitors too which can give insights into new keywords, backlinks, and overall strategy that you might wish to adopt.

Additionally included in the report

SEO is more than just ranking for keywords - it's about strengthening your brand!

It comes a surprise to many prospects to discover that, on average, 80% of the traffic they receive organically comes from people who were looking for them anyway.

What do I mean by this? Well, the vast majority of non optimised sites receive almost all their traffic from people who were looking for them by their company or brand names.

Being aware of this makes it all the more important for so many of your non-website assets to be as claimed, optimised and populated as much as possible to maximise phone enquiries, website visits and even visits to your physical location.

Consider for instance your GoogleMyBusiness. This is much more prominent on Google searches, particularly on mobile devices where it is frequently shown above the organic results. Additionally, this asset is much more attention-grabbing than your own site in the organic results so it makes sense to invest time and effort into optimising this vital piece of real estate! Below are just a few things to consider.

• Does it have real pictures covering your team, exterior, interior and at work shots?
• Do you have glowing lengthy reviews that have been responded to?
• Do you showcase all your products and services?
• Do you post regular news, event and offer items here?
• Is your company name, opening hours, address etc all consistent with your data on your website?

All of these things help not only in your presence on the map pack but also make for a convincing portrayal that means your prospects will likely then go on to visit your website.

How sure are you that your SEO agency is doing your search engine optimisation?

Many Birmingham online marketing and web design companies offer SEO services but not all of them actually do this in-house? Perhaps you've committed to a Birmingham SEO company in the good faith that you're using a local supplier. You might be surprised by the number of these services that are subcontracted out to white label offshore SEO agencies. The profit margins for an agency you employ may be very lucrative, but the impact can be immense since what control does the agency you're dealing with have over these subcontractors?

When interviewing prospective suppliers, I'd always recommend you determine this from the outset since it's your online reputation and existence that's at stake. For my part, all the work is done by myself so there aren't account managers who are then passing on, possibly incorrect, information onto their own technical staff or whoever they are using to undertake the SEO services.

However, should you want something from me that is a specialism of mine, say copywriting or a full-blown website then I can always put you in touch with some great suppliers I work within these areas that I'm confident will be able to do both a cost-effective and highly competent job.

Is it important to work with a local Birmingham SEO consultant?

Have you chosen an accountant that you've never met? I'm guessing not. I'm assuming you decided you decided your financial well-being was a crucial aspect to your business. I'm also guessing that you wanted to seek regular advice and wanted to enter into a regualr dialogue about ever changing financial legislation and its impact on you. 

So if I told you your very existence online might be dependent on your selection of SEO then you might want to consider much the same level of intimacy. As opposeed to relying on a faceless organisation who you have barely spoken to let alone meet! This is why I'm hugely keen on working with local SMEs who I can build long lasting relationships that start with face to face meetings. Why a face to face meeting? You can learn so much more whether your offering is a good fit and vice versa. 

Moreover, SEO isn't just being told by a client what they want to rank for. It's a lot more involved process that gets to the core of actually what it is that you do, understanding how your audiences get to become your clients and also what your long term goals are. 

Finally, much like the world of finance, Google's algorithm is subject to change at an even more frightening intensity. This is why I like to regulalry meet with my clients to keep them abreast and brain storm how these changes can be accommodated and leveraged.

So though I've recently moved, I still serve a huge number of clients in Birmingham. So if you'd like to meet up for a coffee, perhaps at Birmingham's Grand Central John Lewis cafe, and for me to provide you with a free consultation and SEO report (including competitor analysis) then I look forward to meeting up

Creating insights that ensure better SEO (and a better business)

Working with Birmingham companies to understand their business is one of the most rewarding elements of the process. It might seem an easy process to understand what the core products and services are but determining the terms people are actually searching for them can be complex. For instance, an Edgbaston based cosmetic surgeon might term themselves like this but their audience might be keying in ‘Birmingham plastic surgery’ or ‘aesthetics near me’.

Understanding the client’s customers can be even more challenging – since frequently little or no analysis has previously been made. For example, a construction firm in Kings Norton might not have determined that most of its work comes from Longbridge with Contracts Managers being the key role that places orders. Or that a hairdresser on the Bristol Road hasn’t determined that the age range of almost all of its clientele is between 30-56 and lives no more than 1.5 miles from their location.

However, don’t worry if you haven’t conducted this work yourself. It’s all part of the process of what I can do for you.

Organisations I don't work with!

It may seem picky, but I don't choose to work with all prospects who approach me. There are four types of prospect or approach that I tend to not work with. 

• Silver bullet. I get a strong sign of this when a prospect states, 'I just need my site SEO'ed'. This can often be a strong indication that the prospect is expecting zero involvement. This doesn't work with my consultative approach where I need to reflect findings and considerations throughout the process. Omitting this can be a foundation for failure. It can also mean that the client is expecting sales to magically improve without also looking at their overall sales funnel including monitoring of source of sales. 
• Unrealistic expectations. If you've just launched a website or are a new company it's important to know what's achievable. For instance, if you have a very local service then to expect to rank for purely generic search terms without some form of a regional qualifier, eg SEO Birmingham'', 'SEO companies Birmingham', or 'SEO agency Birmingham', then it may be difficult to rank. After all, people viewing your site who you can't ultimately serve will likely 'bounce' off your site and a high bounce rate will work against you as a poor user experience ranking signal to the search engines. So it's vital to consider your long term SEO strategy and goals as well as quick wins.
• Poor reputation. Improving the exposure of your company that suffers from a bad reputation will ultimately mean more people will be exposed to your tarnished brand. Even if this means that I help improve the rankings and generate more traffic most visitors will undertake some form of due diligence before committing to purchase. So, ultimately, your overall sales will likely not improve until your poor reputation is addressed.
• Your competitors. I make it a point to only work with one company in a sector serving a particular region. The reason for this is a clear issue of a conflict of interest. If I'm getting their site ranking then it is almost bound to be at the expense of yours if you're looking to ranking for the same things in the same geographic area. Not all Birmingham SEO companies may be so exacting, so it's well worth checking any other SEO provider you're considering whether they have the same set of standards.

These four issues aren't always apparent until I've provided you with my free SEO audit. This is why I undertake the audit as much for my benefit as yours to check the tenability of working together.