Author: Digital Tailors
Date: 15/04/2026

How much does SEO cost in the city of Bristol?

Like most busy and large cities, you are quite literally spoilt for choice when it comes to selecting a new SEO company.

However, there are so many businesses which say they are “SEO experts” but sometimes, they’re anything but that!

Therefore, you can broadly split agencies into one of two main categories, those that follow white hat best practices and those that don’t.
If you don’t know what white hat means, it’s a very old expression that’s used in search engine optimisation, to state that someone follows Google’s rules.

The companies that don’t, use black hat methods. However, they often don’t go shouting about the fact that they are using spammy methods.

This is why when selecting a new agency in Bristol, you have to take your time, put the kettle on, and make sure that you select a really good agency like Digital Tailors.

 

What are the different types of companies that we choose?

SEO agencies

Perhaps the most logical option for most businesses will be to select an SEO agency. The reason being, is if the agency has worked hard to recruit the most talented individuals in that area, they should have team members that specialise in link building, in on-page SEO, in off-page SEO and also perhaps a local SEO expert.

Therefore, the point we are trying to make is simple, rather than a SEO consultant wearing too many hats, and doing too much work you could instead hire an agency.

Then if the agency is good, you should meet team members that specialise in specific area of digital marketing.

Thinking of hiring an in-house team?
Some larger companies within Bristol may want to hire an in-house team, due to the costs involved in this, normally is only meant for larger businesses.

For example, an SEO consultant, plus a link builder, plus perhaps a copy writer, this can all be rather expensive. The cost therefore is something that a lot of SME businesses simply cannot afford.

However, if the business is a larger business, then often an in-house team offers a huge range of benefits. The main one being, that team are dedicated to just working on your website and for your business.

Whereby hiring an agency, well, those staff can sometimes have a huge workload, and therefore sometimes your account may not be given the dedication that it deserves.

 

What should an SEO company actually be working on?

Its true and very fair to say that SEO is a slow process.

Sometimes described as a slow burn.

Let’s us explain simply why that is slow, your competitors may well be stronger in regards to many aspects of their search engine optimisation. They could have stronger links, they have been very busy, publishing of the very best advice in your business sector.

Therefore, the backlink profile is stronger, their Google EEAT score is stronger. Therefore, quite simply, there could be a huge amount of catching up to do. This is why, quite simply, SEO is a slow process, because you can only leap frog the competitions rankings, when your businesses “ranking factors” are stronger than there’s.

Okay, but on a day-to-day basis, what work does an agency typically do?

 

SEO audits

First things first, you often need to use a tool such as Moz Pro, perhaps Ahrefs, or indeed SEM rush.

This is to conduct an SEO audit, to see the strengths as well as the weaknesses in regards the businesses current SEO.

 

Link-building

Often this work doesn’t start straight away, but link building is something that the agency should on improving.

 

Creating high-quality content

You also need to write evergreen content marketing, blog posts, rewrite some pages. This is to ensure that the website has a high Google EEAT score.

 

Technical SEO

We have seen websites that can’t appear in Google’s results, because of technical SEO issues.

For example, there could be pages which can’t be indexed.

 

What are the different types of pricing structures in the U.K?

Hourly rates

To be honest, and to be fair, we would say often paying for SEO by the odd hour, is a drop in the ocean.

To move any business forwards, whether that’s in regards to their local, national or e-commerce SEO, often you need large blocks of time in order to create winning results.

Therefore, paying for the odd hour here and there just simply will not work.

It will not be effective.
Often a lot of time is needed, all of our valued clients pay for large blocks of time with us every single month.

 

Monthly retainer

Perhaps the most common type of payment method made to UK agencies is on the basis of a fixed price monthly retainer.

Often the company will set our clearly, what work is needed from the outset, or on a rolling say 6-month contract.

Then the agency will implement that work, based on a fixed price per month.

We actually work on this basis, with the vast majority of our customers in the Bristol area. It allows us to get on with the work, to plan when it will take place, and therefore the client can often just let us do the work, then reap the results.

 

Why do prices vary so much depending on whether its local, national or e-commerce SEO?

How much SEO work is needed, very much depends on your competitors.

If the competitors are investing a lot, working with top agencies, plus they have a long-standing relationship with those marketing companies, well often this means that a lot of work is implemented.

Therefore, to beat them, to rank higher, well you need to simply implement event better quality work.

As you would expect, national SEO is much harder than local.

And also in some business sectors, you need the top agencies, in order to get an e-commerce website on the first page.

 

It all comes down to how strong your competitors are?

Have they heavily invested in improving their own search engine optimisation?

Are they an established business, that’s been chipping away at improving they’re for some time?

How much should we be paying for SEO in Bristol and the whole of the South West?

 

Small businesses

Let’s say that you’re a wedding cake maker, only wanting a serve a small geographic area such as Clifton.

We would say that around £400 per month sounds about right, if the work is quality.

However, as you have probably gathered from this comprehensive article, the results are only as good as the marketing company you hire.

However, for this fee, you should expect some quality content marketing, business citations, and also optimisation of your Google Business account. You should also over the 6 months receive some quality

 

Medium sized businesses

For medium sized businesses, let’s say a double-glazed window company that spans the whole of Bristol. They often will require quality local SEO; we would estimate that this would cost in excess of 1k per month.

More content marketing will be needed; there will often be more pages to optimise. For example, the company is likely to offer separate services, such as composite doors, windows and conservatories.

This would involve more work, as there’s more keywords that need to be optimised.

There often would be stronger competition, perhaps more national competition as well here in Bristol.

Then there would need to be more emphasis on backlink building.

More pages would require on=page SEO.

Therefore, we would say that you need a minimum of £1 per month.

 

Larger businesses

Let’s say now there’s a larger business, operating in a very competitive business niche in Bristol.

Let’s say for example purposes, there’s a small chain of dentists or perhaps lawyers.

This is perhaps the most competitive business sector when it comes to local SEO.

For us, we have worked with both types of businesses, so we are fully aware of the large amount of work that’s often needed.

You then need stronger backlinks.

You need a lot of quality content marketing.

A huge amount of work is often needed, we would say at a minimum pricing level, you’re looking at £2k per month.

 

Why are SEO costs higher in Bristol when compared to some other cities?

Bristol is a city that’s dense with businesses.

Therefore, there’s often a lot of competition.

Therefore, more work is often needed

Why are Digital Tailors so popular in this city?

Well, the reason is simple, we have some of the very best SEO minds in the area working for us.

Take for example some of our senior SEO consultants, when they have over 10 experiences, this means that they know what they are talking about.

Do you offer free quotations?

Yes, we most certainly do.

Why not give us a call?
 

Author: Digital Tailors:

Table of contents:

• What exactly is a header tag?
• Why the H1 tag is considered the most important on-page SEO element
• Use header tags to also split up the text to offer a better user experience
• Why you shouldn’t keyword-stuff the header tags
• How to best use your header tags to improve your on-page SEO

Header tags are one of those elements of search engine optimisation that sometimes get overlooked.

However, the importance of header tags shouldn’t be ignored. As a matter of fact, header tags can be used to better structure your business’s content marketing.

Therefore, if you’re writing about a subject, let’s say to do with offering legal advice, you can use header tags to add structure to the page. This then should make it crystal clear to Googlebot, plus the reader, what the page is actually about.

Therefore, the titles, as you progress from H1 down to H6, should all indicate what that section of text is about. This then allows a very good idea of what information the page is offering.

Tell me more. What exactly is a header tag?

A header tag is simply HTML code that is used to mark up the main headings on a page. It really is as simple as that, and the best part is, if you have a WordPress site, or another good CMS, with a few clicks of the in-built editor options, you can mark-up those different header tags on the page.

Therefore, no HTML or coding experience is often needed.

Yet, the benefits are clear.

A good set of header tags, ranging from H1-H6, simply allows Googlebot to gain an understanding of what the page is about. Then, from there, Google can use its semantic web knowledge, gained from Google Knowledge Graph, to gain a good understanding of what the page is about.

For example.

If header tag 1 was H1 (Pin-striped suits)
H2 was (light grey suits)
H3 was (Hugo Boss suits)
Its pretty clear to both the reader and Googlebot that the page is discussing suits and formal workwear.

But what’s the purpose of the H2 tag?

It’s important to acknowledge that the H1-H6 tags are ranked according to how important the page titles are. Think of the H1 header tag as the main purpose of why you are writing that work, then as you move down to H6, the other header tags are the related questions.

Just as you would answer a shopper’s questions, addressing perhaps the most important question first. Then there’s normally a set of follow-up or additional queries, these are your H2-H6 tags.

Therefore, the H1 tags offer the most important text.

Helping Googlebot to understand the page

What header tags can do is to help Google to understand the page and the information it is about. This can therefore help improve the business’s search engine optimisation.

Why you should only use one H1 tag per page

It’s important to bear in mind that the header tags are ordered in terms of importance. Therefore, choose how you write the H1 tag carefully. Don’t keyword stuff, but also don’t write multiple H1 tags; there should only be one.

Logical structure

A lot of us today are impatient.

You have to keep this in mind when writing content marketing for your business. That is, you may write a 4,000-word article, and it may rank very high on Google.

But the average reader often they are not going to read the whole post.

Therefore, use the header tags as a way of splitting up the text, as well as helping the reader to skip to the section they want to read.

You may think that helping a shopper to skip to the relevant section, and perhaps ignore the rest of the article, could actually decrease the dwell time.

However, what it might actually do is greatly decrease the bounce rate.

Therefore, instead of potentially thousands of shoppers getting to the page, being greeted with a huge amount of text, and thinking to themselves, “I am not reading all of that”,- well, instead, they can skip to the section that they are interested in reading.

This, therefore, helps to decrease the bounce rate.

Add relevant keywords, but don’t keyword stuff the text

A common mistake in SEO is for a business to read that the header tag is the most important part of on-page SEO, and this is true.
But then the business can make the mistake of “keyword stuffing”, for example, if they are selling, let’s say, a certain brand of shoe, they may keyword stuff that title with the brand of shoe.

This causes keyword stuffing issues, which can trigger a Google penalty.

Therefore, our best advice, at this agency, is rather simple: just write your header tags as if you were talking to a customer. Write them naturally, write the keywords as if you are talking to a customer, write in front of you.

 

Google EEAT

A really crucial part of getting that page or blog post to rank on page 1 of Google is all about improving the Google EEAT score for that page.

This means in the text, demonstrating that the work shows real experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness.

Therefore, you can use the page titles (H1-H6) to show that you have answered the question in a comprehensive way.

That is when Googlebot “crawls and indexes the work”, it will be clear as crystal that you have offered a comprehensive answer to the question.

The best SEO consultants in the entire world will tell you, that the pages which rank say number position, they offer a lot of information.

These pages therefore normally have a very high word count.

 

Google Helpful Content Update

Its also important to remember a very important Google update.

That’s the Google Helpful Content Update.
Therefore, you could make the page more helpful, by for example using the H1-H6 titles as questions that your customers ask around that topic.

For example, have a main question, such as “which is the most energy efficient washing machine of 2026”. Yet then the other subheading could be follow up questions, such as which is the best energy efficient washing machine below £700.00.

How our agency can help

We are one of the best SEO agencies in the whole Bristol.

How can we make such a bold statement?

Well, quite simply because we have SEO consultants who are you are simply the bee’s knees, they have over 10 years of experience.

Therefore, whether your website needs help with the technical, on-page or off-page SEO, we are the experts to call.

Monthly packages start from £1000.00 for local SEO; we also work with businesses based throughout the whole of the United Kingdom as well.

 

Do blog posts (content marketing) help to improve SEO?

 

Introduction

When you’re setting up a new company in the rather beautiful city of Bristol, well, you might be spending a huge amount of time writing blog posts to enhance your SEO.

You might be thinking, ” Is it worth the effort?”

As you sit there wired off coffee, writing up thousands of words on your MacBook, you might be thinking- is this the most effective way of driving new customers to my website?

What we would say is: this depends. So have a good read of the section below, and we will enlighten you on the many benefits of writing blog posts for your business.

What are the main benefits of adding good-quality blog posts?

• Google rewards websites which have new and updated information added, such as blog posts added on a regular basis.
• Allows you to target keywords
• You can make your website more relevant for different product categories or services that you offer.
• You do have the potential to attract new backlinks as well
• Boost the DA domain authority

Do blog posts actually help improve SEO?

The short answer is yes.

Although in 2026, conversations have turned to AI and how robots will take over the world, a well-written blog post still has its benefits for improving a business’s visibility.

In fact, it’s an essential component of digital marketing, and no business’s SEO, GEO, or AI optimisation will be effective without good-quality content marketing being written.

It’s the cement which holds the bricks together!

Meaning, without your humble blog post, you can’t often get links. If you can’t get links, then you won’t have much authority as a business; if you don’t have authority, then often you won’t rank high on Google, or the LLMs such as Perplexity.

So, when your hands are hurting from writing so many words, and you’re thinking, ” Shall I just give up?

Well, don’t, because what you are reading here is a blog post, so that shows that it works as a marketing method to promote your business!

However, you do have to be like a dripping tap; you do have to keep at it, you have to keep the quality high.

Fresh and indexable content marketing

Googlebot has the extremely large task of crawling and indexing the web.

Just imagine how that process works for a second, how many millions of pieces of content marketing are written and published every single day.

Some work will be, well, rubbish, and won’t be indexed. This will appear in your Google Search Console account as “crawled but not indexed”. This could be a whole multitude of different reasons; this can be because the work is content-thin, because it’s spam, or because it’s low quality.

However, if you really publish top-quality work, that is, you stay up until midnight working, perfecting that blog post on your MacBook Pro, while sipping copious amounts of coffee, well, that effort might pay off.

 

If the work satisfies the following criteria:

– Google EEAT score is through the roof
– The work is helpful to the consumer
– Well written
– Long form just means high word count
– Worthy of attracting backlinks
– Top quality and well-written

SEO Keywords and being focused on what customers you want to attract to your business

Let us dispense our best and most valuable advice, because this is where so many businesses go completely wrong when writing blog posts.

You might be a business in Bristol, let’s say that you run a solicitors practice, and you’re the best lawyer since pin-stripe suits were invented.

However, the content marketing must cut the mustard. In a nutshell, you need to improve an aspect of Google’s algorithm called Google EEAT.

This means that the work needs to help address questions that your clients and customers frequently ask the business.

 

Be the best, show off your expertise

You will have noticed that we mentioned Google EEAT

And before you start writing endless blog posts, keep that in mind, that you should have a good read of various SEO agency websites’ advice on how to integrate Google EEAT into your own written work.

The reason for that is simple, because Google’s algorithms have been constructed to reward businesses which simply offer clear and straightforward advice.

Google also instantly knows if you are an expert in terms of the topic you’re discussing. Whether you’re a builder or an employment lawyer, it’s clear to Google if the copywriter or the author at the business has researched the topic in-depth or if its just “content thin” which means lacking detail.

 

User engagement metrics such as dwell times and bounce rates

It’s super important to consider this. You may think that sometimes, when you’re writing content marketing, you’re just trying to rank higher on Google. That you’re writing the text just for a robot to read, and then to decide where you should rank on Google’s SERPS.

However, this is not the case because Google, including Google RankBrain, basically monitors how engaged a reader is. Is the average reader of that blog post staying there for a long period of time?

Or are you boring them into a rather sleepy slumber, so much so that they don’t like the advice, and they are leaving in less than 30 seconds?

If a competitor is therefore offering better advice, retaining the reader’s interest for longer, through offering helpful information but doing is a really engaging way, then that work will rank higher, here’s why:

– Google RankBrain will notice higher dwell times
– Lower bounce rates
– Perhaps a read time far in excess of your direct competitors, showing that you are retaining the shopper’s interest for longer
Attracting inbound backlinks

Okay, so you offer really quality advice, it could be how to hang wallpaper or change an oil filter on a car.

Well, you’ve helped someone, or another business can recognise that you’ve offered top-quality advice from your Bristol-based business.

Therefore, get this right; this is where the links can flood in like a big wave.

Therefore, you need to write content marketing that’s super helpful and gives top-quality advice.

Imagine for a second you’re writing content marketing, a long-form blog post, which includes step-by-step instructions and an embedded YouTube video.

The page gives instructions on how to change the oil filter on your BMW M3.

Now you might get links from performance oil filter manufacturers, you might get links from motorsport forums, for example.

How do you get the most SEO benefit out of the blog posts?

 

Answer your customers’ frequently asked questions

Let’s say that you run a rather lovely shop in the Cotswolds.

Now, you are likely to have customers wander in who ask the same questions to you.

Whether you run a solicitor’s practice or sell rather expensive wellies, you’re likely to be asked the same questions.

Therefore is what your business’s content marketing should capitalise on.

The reason being if you answer that frequently asked question through a rather well-written blog post, then this can help to attract visitors to your website.

For example, they come to your website via a blog post that has been written about “what are the most energy efficient windows that we can buy?

Now, if you answer that question better than any other business in the South West of England, well, people are likely to go onto your main pages. There likely to book a time and date where they can gain a quote.

So, basically, the whole point of content marketing is to switch someone coming to your website to have a question answered, then you have the rather fantastic opportunity of selling them a product.

Therefore, as mentioned throughout your article, you can advise which products you recommend.

 

Topical authority and jumping on new trends

Let’s say that you manufacture posh paint, high-end paint used in luxury properties.

Now, there will be current trends, posh houses all want their wooden doors splashed with a nice colour, say yellow.

Therefore, if you write a blog post, and you are first to market, in terms of answering the query “what are the best colours for wooden doors on a period property in 2026”.

Well then, the content marketing team can showcase colours that are more popular at the moment.

Therefore, writing blog posts is a way of showing that your business understands current questions that are being asked about your products or your services.

A lot of SEO agencies call this “content marketing freshness”- in a nutshell, Google has, for a long time, rewarded businesses that have kept their content marketing up to date and added new blog posts regularly.

However, don’t get out of control with your blog posts, and don’t post too much, as this can look spammy and potentially cause over-optimisation issues.

 

Be original, don’t be a sheep.

The problem today is that a lot of marketing agencies all copy each other.

If someone writes a piece of content marketing that is good, ranking high in Google, well, this is likely to be copied or rewritten so that basically it is worded the same.

This means a lot of content marketing doesn’t show any original thinking.

Google has made it crystal clear with its Google EEAT advice that it wants you to show expertise and experience in terms of the business’s written work.

Therefore, if you can show that you understand that product or service better than anyone else, well, that work will rank higher on Google.
Google doesn’t want 10 organic links all offering the same information. The same as the LLMs, they don’t want to cite information on say

Perplexity or ChatGPT that is generic information, that is cited on millions of websites.

Nope.

They want to cite the thought leaders, the people or businesses which stand out as being the experts in that industry.

 

That are passionate about what they are discussing.

Why would you rank a page that offers 1,000 words of marketing waffle over a page which is perhaps written by a well-known lawyer, who knows their stuff, and is known in the Google Knowledge Graph as being an expert at what they do?

Share on social media, but this is not for links.

Okay, so let’s say that you’re sitting in a rather lovely apartment in Clifton, Bristol.

You are about to open a new cosmetic dentistry.

Before you go and hire one of the best agencies in the area, which of course, Digital Tailors, you’re having a bash at improving the search engine optimisation yourself.

And why not? Everyone loves to save a few quid.

But here’s the thing, beginners when they are trying to improve their company’s search engine optimisation, they mistake social media links with backlinks.

Normally, the backlinks that come from social media are no-follow.

Meaning they don’t pass any link equity.

Therefore, the social media posts, what they can be used for is “content marketing amplification”, which sounds complicated, but it’s really not.

It’s about getting a loyal following on social media; perhaps that is for diamond-encrusted dog water trays.

Now, people all over the world may follow you because they are dog lovers.

Now, what you can do is promote your products, but at the same time, highlight when you have written a rather good article offering good advice.

 

That link is no-follow, so it’s not going boast your SEO.

However, what it can do is generate a conversation, and people with their own blogs may mention your website.

Therefore, you could build links.

For example, a celebrity may love your diamond-encrusted dog bowls; they may snap a picture and put it on Instagram of their dog having a refreshing drink.

Then bloggers, celebrity bloggers, fashion bloggers, they may cite your work, or mention you in a blog post such as “10 most expensive gifts you can buy your pet dog”.

 

The technical SEO will also need to be improved

Page Speed

Noticed how impatient people are out on the roads today?

It’s annoying.

Well, people are equally as impatient when it comes to buying goods off e-commerce websites, or say a business in Bristol that offers a service.

They want a fast website, super sonic.

Therefore, if you have an e-commerce business in particular, and it’s slow, well, this disadvantages all of the SEO completely.

It’s like going into a boxing match with one hand behind your back.

It’s not good, so invest in fast website hosting. Use tools such as Google Speed Insight to work out how you can make your website faster.

The top marketing agencies, they calculate factors such as core web vitals, which means basically ways of speeding up the page.

Remove or sort out duplicate content, don’t use AI

 

Earlier, we were discussing Google EEAT.

Basically, in a nutshell, why its good idea in all of the written work across your website, to show that you are an expert in terms of the products and services you sell.

Now, if you have duplication, let’s say that you have been busy copying and pasting product descriptions directly from your manufacturer.

Now, if you haven’t a clue about SEO, you might think that’s a good time-saving move.

However its not, it’s causing duplication issues.

Whether the duplication issues are internal duplication or external duplication, both of these will affect your SEO.

The pages need to be original, and they need to be packed full of helpful information.

Now, if you have copied and pasted the manufacturer’s product descriptions, Google will know that. The page will therefore always rank

lower than the manufacturer, but not just that, it shows that the business is not writing original content.

Because the content is not original, it will have a low Google EEAT score.

 

Setting up structured data and schema

Schema markup or structured data is simply information that Googlebot and the LLM’s can better understand.

For instance, let’s say you have a rather lovely business on Habourside, Bristol, now if you mark-up the NAP, which is the name, address and phone number of your business, using structured language, well this just makes that information clearer.

Because clearer, and Google understand its better, this can help to improve your local SEO.

Therefore, it’s always a good idea to use structured language and to use a schema where you can.

Now talk to your SEO consultant about how schema could help your business.

 

User experience and U.X

Considering that the user experience is so important.

You could be writing the best quality content marketing,

You could actually be dispensing the best advice on planet earth!

However, if the writing style is boring to read, the page doesn’t keep the reader’s interest, well then all of that effort will have been for nothing.

So, you do have to consider how your business can improve the user experience.

 

Let us give you a few pointers on how to improve the U.X for your website:

– Use titles (H1-H6) to split up the text
– Use internal links
– Embed a YouTube video
– Write using an FAQ style of writing
– Write longer form content marketing, because if you keep the readers’ interest, the dwell time will be higher
– Make the page fast
– Use visual diagrams and graphs to break up the text

Why not get in touch with one of the best SEO agencies in the whole of Bristol

We are SEO experts.

But more than that, we do something that many agencies simply do not do: we get to know your business, its services and products.

We get to understand you, your company and this is what allows us to write and implement some of the very best SEO work in the whole of Bristol.

So, if you would like to work with us, why not drop us a line or have a quick chat with us?

 

 

Author: Digital Tailors
Date: 25/03/2026

LLM optimisation is the buzzword of 2026 in marketing circles.

You only have to glance at your LinkedIn feed if you work in marketing, and businesses are proclaiming they are the GEO, AI, and LLM optimisation experts.

LLM optimisation is therefore being advertised as the thing since sliced bread was invented!

Well, we will let you in on a secret: LLM optimisation does not mean reinventing the wheel.

It just means getting the normal SEO foundations right and bearing in mind a few more details as you go about creating content marketing for your business.

 

What is an LLM?

LLMs are simply large language models, and they basically read a businesses’ content marketing. This information, among with other signals, are used to then offer direct answers to questions.

If the LLM’s basically think a piece of content marketing is good, then they use it. This advice then gets sliced and diced with other information sometimes to offer a “synthesised” answer.

Therefore what is often produced is a synthesised answer, in which a business can have its information summarised and cited by a citation.

The citation sometimes offers a direct link to where the information has been read from.

Citations are the new battleground.

Okay, so SEO is not dead, far from it, so don’t think that SEO is no longer useful; it’s just LLM optimisation its also important. For those petrolheads out there, think of LLM optimisation like strapping a big turbo to your engine; get it right, and you can boost sales, just as a turbo boosts power.

 

Interpreting and understanding your brand

Since important updates such as Google Hummingbird, the Google Helpful Content Update’s, and Google EEAT- Google now better understands your content marketing.

A lot of top SEOs refer to this as the semantic web, basically understanding where your brand and products sit in terms of how important the business products /services are.

The semantic web, therefore, understands the wider picture, such as who the directors and who the key staff are, the awards the business might have won, how the product is different, and who the author of the content marketing is for example.

 

How can we better optimise our content marketing for the LLM’s?

Clear H1 and H6 hierarchy

It’s been the case, well for donkey years, that good page structure is important. This was important for organic SEO; it’s also important now for LLM optimisation.

Basically, whether it’s Googlebot or another bot that’s analysing the written work for LLMs, it just makes sense to better structure the content using H1-H6 tags.

Bullet lists

Try to make a point of using bullet points to convey what you mean quickly.

So, for example, if you’re talking about Google updates, that impacted this area of SEO in recent years, perhaps bullet-point them.

It’s thought that by doing this, Googlebot and the LLMs can quickly grasp what you’re talking about, if keywords are grouped in, say, bullet points. But obviously use white-hat optimisation methods should still apply.

 

Concise and to the point

Some copywriters, including us, do have a habit of waffling and going off topic sometimes.

This probably harks back to an era when SEOs globally were going down the road of writing longer and longer articles. Evergreen content marketing articles that were say in excess of 3,000 words, they are still useful, if the information is high quality.

However, with the LLMs, they do tend to like a very direct and precise answer to a question, this doesn’t mean articles must have a low word count, far from it. What it does mean however is that the page needs to be well structured, and set out. Think H1-H6, plus also use plenty of sub headings and titles, so the LLM’s can extract an answer.

Now, if the work needs it, it’s always a good idea to write a long article, just make sure the page structure is well thought out.

Therefore many of best digital marketing brains think that LLMs like to extract nice, to-the-point sentences.

This makes sense when you think about, say, ChatGPT or Google AI Overviews: normally, a short sentence or paragraph is paraphrased.

Therefore, if you make it hard work for the LLMs to extract a nice, to-the-point answer, well, they may go elsewhere to obtain that answer.
So, think about using short sentences, and to the point.

 

FAQ sections

This builds on our previous point about making it a piece of cake for LLMs to extract an answer.

If you answer FAQ questions in your written work, well, it just stands to reason that it makes it much simpler for the LLMs to extract a direct answer to a question.

Schema markup

Time after time, Schema is mentioned as being important to the LLM optimisation process.

So it stands to reason that this must be true.

Even if Schema doesn’t work in the context of LLM optimisation, it’s been useful for everything from local SEO through to e-commerce SEO, so it’s well worth using anyway.

Facts and figures

This again has its roots in traditional organic SEO, if you publish high-quality research, then you’re more likely to be cited by LLMs.

Many top marketing boffins have noted, for example, that Perplexity cites research from leading brands in its answers.

Therefore, why not quote leading research or conduct your own market research?

If you gain enough notoriety for a piece of in-depth research, then, from that, your work can be cited.

 

Google EEAT and authority in particular

Let us dispense a top piece of advice for you.

It’s simple, you know, sometimes the answer is right under your nose, well, this is true for LLM optimisation.

That’s the “Google EEAT guidance”.

In a nutshell, Google has told businesses to focus on providing experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.

All super important.

However, if you were to ask us for our penny’s worth, we would say that businesses with the best and strongest backlink profile will do well not just in organic search, but also, you guessed it, in LLMs.

How you should not implement LLM optimisation

Using AI for AI

What do we mean by such a statement?

Well, some bright sparks might think that they are going to use AI to write the text.

Then, because AI has written it, surely AI will want to cite that?

We don’t think that will work; in fact, it’s a flawed marketing strategy from day one.

Google and LLMs such as ChatGPT, aim to cite the opinions, views, and advice from the best companies and voices out there.

Therefore, whether it’s a motorbike review or advice from a top solicitor, you have to become a voice worth listening to.

Now, that’s not going to happen if you’re using AI to write the content; it won’t be original.

 

Good technical SEO matters:

• Fast-loading pages
• You’re going to need a fast website, think super-fast.
• Don’t purchase low-cost website hosting that’s slow, plus make the web design super-fast.
• Good website design and architecture
• This is rather fancy marketing language for designing a really good, user-friendly website that basically offers all the advice the shopper want when buying a product or service.
• Don’t therefore have a ton of content on thin pages.
• Mobile-first performance

Most people today are time-poor, so this ties back to why you need a fast website.

If the websites are slow, then the bounce rate increases. However, mobile design is more important than ever. If you’re not managing your crawl budget, reducing how long the website takes to load, and offering a good UX, then all of these need to be worked on in terms of improving.

 

Schema and on-page SEO

Use all the normal on-page optimisation methods, such as H1-H6, good internal linking, and alt text. LLM optimisation might sound futuristic and super complicated, but it still has strong cross-overs with organic SEO, and this shouldn’t be forgotten.

 

What is LLM Optimisation, and how’s it different from SEO?

Our SEO agency explains how to improve your business’s LLM optimisation. We offer SEO, GEO and LLM optimisation advice.

Search engine optimisation is being treated like old news by some businesses!

Yet we look at whether SEO still has its place in a business’s marketing arsenal, or is it being actively replaced by new forms of marketing, such as GEO and AI platforms?

Author: Digital Tailors
Date: 16/03/2026

We get it, there’s a cost-of-living crisis, people are worried about how much fuel their cars are consuming, and businesses have to be really cost-conscious today in regards to where they place their marketing budget.

Because of this, we ask: Is SEO still worth it in 2026?

Well, let’s let the cat out of the bag straight away, it is!

It’s definitely worth investing.

However, we have to say, well, we are a bit biased, we are one of the leading agencies in Bristol, therefore we are going to say that we aren’t, we?

As you progress through this lovely article, we hope we set out as clearly as crystal why SEO is still worth your hard-earned bucks in 2026!

Appearing when it matters (Google’s Organic SERP’s)

Whether you want a brand-new reclining leather chair or perhaps a used car, where do you go to have a look?

Well, often it’s Google.

Unless, therefore, you know the website address or brand name, if you’re looking to buy something, and you don’t know the web address, then we automatically we turn to Google to find an item we want.

Google is ingrained in our minds, and we don’t think this will change anytime soon.

Therefore, sure, there’s a ton of AI platforms all competing with each other as we speak, but it’s a bit like when we go to do our weekly shop, we automatically take the car to the same store each week.

Well, SEO and Google are a bit like this: they are the default “go-to” places when someone wants to buy anything online.

Are you sold on the idea of SEO?

Therefore, in 2026, we don’t think SEO is going anywhere; it’s as important as the tyres on our cars, integral therefore to how businesses sell goods.

However, far less cemented in the minds of business owners across the land is the idea of SEO as something worth investing in.

Often, businesses fall into one of three categories in our experience:

Had their hands burnt in the past

They have found an SEO consultant on social media, and well, nothing happened, except a ton of empty promises.

They had a go, but not much happened.

SEO, even if the best consultant in the world were working on the site, takes a lot of time to generate results; it is a slow process. Therefore, businesses sometimes lack patience and give up too early on in the process.

 

Not realistic

The third category businesses sometimes fall into is failing to be realistic about their marketing budget.

Let’s provide an example, let’s say you’re a small broker of insurance products, such as classic car insurance. You may have three shops in a rather affluent part of the U.K., and then you want to rank nationally for related keywords for classic car insurance. It’s then, well, you can start to feel like a small fish in a big pond, because that’s exactly what can happen.

Thousands of competitors, some with such deep pockets, are hiring the best of the best of SEO agencies. Therefore, throwing 2k a month at a local SEO consultant here is going to be a drop in the ocean.

That’s another reason why businesses don’t invest.

However, there is huge potential when the marketing goals match the budget:

 

Easier to discover

Search engine optimisation is extremely valuable to a business when it’s implemented correctly.

That’s because you’re not in a way hard-selling anything.

Instead, it’s a form of inbound sales; therefore, customers are flocking to you.

If you sell, let’s say, “purple surfboards”,- well, when someone Google’s that, you could appear high on Google.

If you’re at the top, it’s just logical that a shopper will click on you. If the products are at the right price and all the information is there to help the customer make a buying decision, they are more likely to hit that “buy it now” button.

Therefore, instead of bombarding a shopper with ads on social media after they may already have made a purchase, you’re there right when the customer has their Mastercard in their hands, ready to buy that purple surfboard.

 

Visible

Being more visible for a bunch of product keywords is a good thing; that’s exactly what organic search engine optimisation can offer.

For example, imagine someone is shopping around for purple surfboards. Let’s say they enter 3 different brands they’re considering buying.

Time and time again, your business appears for all the different brands of surfboards.

This builds trust; it cements in the shopper’s mind that you are a major retailer, you are a brand that is the main retailer of those products of say surf boards!

Therefore, once again, if the branding is good, well, you are building and increasing better brand visibility at the same time.

Even if that shopper doesn’t part with their dosh today, well after say the weekend, instead of searching for “purple surfboards” on Google, now they know your brand name and going direct to your store.

 

Trusted

Another thing to consider is trust: many top marketing companies around the world will tell you that SEO can also build trust in a brand. The reason is that if your brand is constantly surfacing at the top of Google for keywords, shoppers are instantly more prone to trust your company because Google has ranked you highly in the organic results.

 

Match search intent (Long tail keywords)

When you’re reading countless blog posts, a bit like this, dispensing SEO advice, they often refer to “matching search intent”.

Now, what this means is in marketing jargon, just answering the blooming question!

However, there’s a bit more to it than that, that is, you need to cast the net as wide as possible, by which we mean doing the following:

Answer as many questions as possible that customers frequently ask

Conduct some keyword research to widen the number of keywords you can get your website to rank for

Centre your content marketing efforts around being as super helpful as you possibly can; this will allow your work to rank higher.

 

Visible for longer

Have you ever been to the gym, seen someone jump on a treadmill, then they give it the full beans, only to turn into a panting mess that’s out of breath in just a few seconds!

 

Well, some businesses act a bit like this also!

They then throw everything at the Google AdWords account, only to realise they can’t sustain that level of spending for long.

Therefore, this is another reason why SEO is popular; however, for it to drive organic traffic over the longer term, rather than a temporary spike in visitor numbers, it has to be implemented really, really well.

This means thinking about writing evergreen content marketing and getting the website set up so it offers advice that will last for years to come.

This, when done right, can help bring in traffic over the longer term, rather than being a flash in the pan.

 

Positive user experience and getting across what you’re about

SEO can deliver a multitude of positive results for your business when done right.

That is, obviously, it can attract more business; however, you can also offer a more positive UX.

For those not in the know, U.X stands for user experience, more marketing jargon we know!

However, you know when you go to a restaurant, or just a local café for that matter, and the people are just nice, well, you want to keep going back, because it feels a bit like home.

Well, with your website, you can convey what your business is like and what you care about as a company.

For example, if the website is a mess, cluttered, difficult to use, well, this could be what it’s like to deal with that business, a bit of chaos!

However, if the websites are just super helpful, go the extra mile, and are jam-packed with free, helpful advice, well, that offers a great user experience. That bodes well for your business and how shoppers perceive it.

 

Be the expert in the room (Google EEAT)

If you’ve got a real bunch of experts at your business who truly know their stuff, yet the website doesn’t reflect that product or service knowledge on your website, then you’re missing out on a massive opportunity.

 

The reason is because of “Google EEAT”.

Google EEAT stands for expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness- and it’s important to get this right.

One aspect of Google EEAT is “expertise”- therefore, get those product experts within your company, give them a blooming good pay rise, and get them to work with your digital marketing agency directly.

The reason why this is important is simple: if you can show through your website that you’re an expert on that product or particular service, your business will rank higher on Google; it’s as simple as that.

Therefore, you often need experts with real-life experience of the services or products you sell to share pearls of wisdom that you can integrate into your website to show you really know your stuff.

 

Local SEO

Okay, so the whole purpose of this article was to discuss whether SEO still has a place in 2026 as part of a business’s marketing arsenal.

The answer is a resounding yes!

It’s important for local, national and international brands.

However, it’s arguably crucial for SMEs in cities like Bristol in particular, and we shall explain why.

The reason is simple: as a national business or an international brand, well, perhaps, you already have really strong brand awareness.

That’s because national and international brands often have extremely strong brand awareness through investing millions into, well all forms of marketing. From bus stop billboards, to e-mail marketing.

However, small businesses, well, sometimes they won’t have such a strong presence. They may well be a service you need, yet are hard to find if it wasn’t for SEO, such as finding a local divorce solicitor in sunny Bristol.

Therefore, arguably SEO is even more critical for SME’s, as otherwise, well in your own city, such as having offices in Harbourside Bristol, your going to want people in your city to find your business easily.

Therefore, Google and search engine optimisation allow you to improve visibility for your brands or services in your home city or town.

 

GEO and SEO are peas in the same pod

So, we are going to go full circle here, but it’s an important point.

In marketing teams up and down the country, there are conversations about “how can we improve our GEO visibility?”

Which is marketing jargon for, how can we get our business mentioned more often on ChatGPT and the like.

Well, here’s the thing: optimising for Google’s organic rankings and ChatGPT are not mutually exclusive.

Meaning, if you get the optimisation right, you can kill two birds with one stone: if the content marketing is top quality, you can appear higher on Google and in ChatGPT as well.

 

Come to us

We are an SEO agency that’s an established name.

We serve Bristol and many other cities.

Offering quality SEO services at sensible prices is our business.

For a no obligation quote, why not call us?