SEO - Search Engine Optimisation

Off-page SEO remains a major ranking factor and a significant part of the SEO strategy we will deliver for you at Piranha. In summary, it is SEO activity away from your site that we conduct on third party websites that can influence both search engine and AI’s perception of your content and website.

• Inbound link building – This is one of our primary off-page SEO tools. It is the process of building links to your content (such as a page on SEO in Preston, or Commercial Photography in Lancashire) from a relevant and authoritative site such as a site discussing the best SEO and Digital marketing agencies in Preston, Lancashire, and the Northwest of the UK. The SEO community think of in-bound links as ‘votes’. The more links we build, the more credibility votes your site gets. This tells search engines and AI platforms that your site, its content, and the author is credible, trustworthy, and relevant. This is why link building to create a credible backlink profile is one of the main pillars of SEO that we undertake here at our Preston, Lancashire HQ for our nationwide clients.
• Link authority research and management – This is all part of our link building and off-site SEO strategy. We know that creating and earning inbound links from highly authoritative sites is more valuable than earning links on websites with a lower domain authority score. The search engines also prefer links to be earned from authoritative and relevant sites, usually from the same industry, covering the same subject matter or from review and news sites that provide credible industry information. Here at Piranha, we have a list of over 3,000 credible websites and website owners that we work with on providing newsworthy information more likely to create the respected inbound link. Search engines and AI platforms also manage to look at the relevance of the content surrounding your link; the more relevant the more weight the link will have.

• Anchor text strategy – A process also important in the SEO link building world. Following our key word research and site mapping, we create an anchor text strategy for our link building. You will see this in all the examples of link building we have done for our clients. For example, a client based in Preston or Lancashire just looking for local business will have Preston and Lancashire included in the relevant anchor text (the text that contains the links that people click on to visit the linking website). This is an important SEO signal because it helps search engines and AI better understand the context of each link and its relevance to the page content.
• Social signals – Also helps our SEO activity, and we provide a full social media marketing Sharing targeted content on social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and X (formally Twitter), and the general social buzz around your content is a signal to search engines that the content is useful and engaging. A mention of your brand or company name is another positive signal to search engines and AI, even without a link back to your website (either follow or no follow). For instance, Google’s algorithms understand that someone is talking about your business when they use your brand name. To find out more about our social media management solutions, visit our social media section of our website.
• Trust signal creation and management – Recent research carried out by the team here at Piranha identified trust as one of the most important factors when consumers engage with websites. It follows then that Google and Bing, as well as the majority of the other search engines, have also identified trust as a significant SEO ranking factor. Trust signals indicate to the search engines that you, your brand, your products, and your content is engaging, useful and trusted by your customers. Trust signals are things like reviews, positive mentions in relevant forums, comments on your blog posts that you have submitted and so on; in summary, any positive activity by your users around your products, brand, or content is seen as a positive trust signal and can include your sites ranking and SEO performance.

Website owners stand to gain the most from SEO. When a search engine such as Google shows your content to the search engine users in the organic part of a SERP (Search Engine Results Page), you do not pay for the ranking or the traffic that comes from it. Your traffic is ultimately free. Organic SEO traffic is also more sustainable traffic as it is not dependent on the availability of your Google Ads or Bing Ads budget.

It is also important to remember that it is not a straight line between where you rank on the search engines and the amount of traffic your site receives. According to recent data, the first page of Google captures most of the visibility and clicks. In fact, from a sample of over 4 million searches, as few as 0.63% of users ever click through to the second page! Additionally, the top result typically receives around 27–26% of all clicks, with the top three organic positions alone accounting for more than half of all clicks.

AI overviews (Google AI Mode/SGE) are starting to eat into the click-through rates of those traditional top positions. Early studies suggest that AI Overviews appear in ~84% of tested queries, and when an AI Overview appears, click-through rates for traditional organic results can drop by 18–64%, depending on how complete the AI answer is.

Therefore, Search Everywhere Optimisation is critical to site owners who need to improve visibility and attract high volumes of quality organic traffic from all sources to reach the required sales levels or online sales enquiries.

In the past, SEO keywords were often seen as individual words to be inserted into a page. Today, effective optimisation focuses on search phrases, i.e. the natural language queries people use when looking for answers, products, or services.

With the rise of voice search, conversational AI tools, and Google’s AI Overviews, it’s no longer enough to target isolated keywords like professional, fast, or local. Instead, we look at the full intent behind a query. For example, instead of simply targeting “SEO Preston”, we might also optimise for “best SEO agencies in Preston” or “how to improve my Google rankings in Lancashire”.

Modern keyword strategy also considers:

• Search intent – Understanding whether the user is looking for information, making a comparison, or is ready to buy.
• Entities and topics – Optimising around key concepts, brand names, and subject matter that search engines and AI tools can recognise and connect with other related information.
• Contextual signals – The surrounding content, links, and media that help search engines understand the relevance of your page.

At Piranha, we combine traditional keyword research with entity-based optimisation and content structuring. This means your business is more likely to be visible in both traditional rankings and AI-generated summaries, ensuring you reach customers no matter where or how they search.

Google’s and Bing’s algorithms use thousands of signals to decide which content to show, and in what order, for a given search. These range from technical elements like site speed and mobile usability to content quality, backlinks, and user engagement.

Modern ranking factors still fall into familiar categories; technical performance, relevance, authority, and trust, but there’s now a new layer: AI-driven search visibility. Tools like Google’s AI Overviews and Bing Copilot don’t just pull results from the top organic listings, they look for content that is clear, structured, and demonstrates expertise. This means:

• Content Quality & E-E-A-T – Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness remain central. AI and search engines prioritise sources that demonstrate genuine knowledge, originality, and credibility.
• Structured Data & Entities – Schema markup and clearly defined entities help AI understand your content and increase the chance of being included in AI summaries, knowledge panels, and featured snippets.

• Relevance & Search Intent – Matching not just keywords but the intent behind a query, whether informational, navigational, or transactional.
• User Experience – Core Web Vitals, accessibility, and mobile-first design continue to be ranking factors.
• Link Signals – High-quality inbound links, relevant outbound links, and brand mentions help search engines verify your authority.
• Freshness & Updates – Regularly updated content signals relevance, especially for time-sensitive topics.

Understanding which factors have the most influence for your specific goals is the foundation of our SEO strategy at Piranha. We focus on the signals that matter most for both traditional rankings and AI-generated visibility, ensuring you reach your audience whether they’re scrolling a SERP, reading an AI overview, or searching via voice or social media.

Traditional organic SEO builds long-term authority and sustainable traffic, while PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns deliver immediate visibility for high-value keywords and targeted audiences. Recently, that balance now also includes optimising for AI-driven search, voice assistants, and other discovery channels where potential customers are looking.

Paid advertising can put your business at the top of search results instantly, but once the budget stops, so does the traffic. SEO takes longer to deliver, but its effects last far beyond the initial work. Together, they create a strategy that can dominate both the immediate and the long-term opportunities. This includes appearing in AI Overviews and featured snippets, holding top spots in traditional rankings, and being visible in video and social search.

At Piranha, we offer flexible packages starting from half a day per month for targeted campaigns. However, the most effective results come from full-day or multi-day retainers, which allow us to combine in-depth technical SEO, content creation, off-page strategy, and AI snippet optimisation into a complete, integrated programme. This approach ensures your brand is present wherever your customers search, delivering the best return on investment over time.

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