Last Updated: 10/08/2026

If your SEO to do list keeps growing and results still feel slow, three shifts tend to matter more than anything else on it.

Build fewer, better backlinks instead of chasing a number. Target long tail keywords that match real search intent instead of chasing volume. Treat conversion rate as part of your SEO work rather than something you fix later, once traffic arrives. We first wrote about these three ideas years ago, back when link directories and article spinning were still common practice, and the underlying logic has barely moved since. What has changed is how much easier it now is to act on them, thanks to better tools, clearer guidance from Google, and far more UK specific data to work with. Below, we walk through each idea with examples, a quick comparison table, and the questions we get asked most often.

Idea 1: Stop obsessing over the number of backlinks

This one still won’t go away. In the early days of SEO, and for some businesses well into the 2010s, you could get decent rankings through sheer volume of links. Article submissions, directory listings, blog comments dropped across dozens of unrelated sites. None of that holds up any more. Every SEO professional now knows that the quality of an inbound link matters far more than the count, and by quality we do not just mean the authority of the site linking to you but also how relevant that site is to your topic and how many other outbound links sit on that same page. If you are new to this, our guide on why backlinks matter for SEO covers the basics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Google has been fairly direct about this for years. Its own spam policies state that manipulative link building, whether that is link exchanges, automated link generation, or paid links that pass ranking credit, can get a site demoted or dropped from results entirely Google Search Central, spam policies. We treat this as a working rule with every client. When we run an SEO services audit, link quality is one of the first things we look at, long before we count anything.

Here is an example from our own client work. A local trades business came to us convinced they needed hundreds of new backlinks a month to compete. We instead focused on a dozen links a year from trade bodies, local press and genuinely relevant partner sites. Rankings for their core service terms improved within three months, and the traffic that came through those links converted noticeably better than the old directory links ever had. Our post on link building strategies that still work breaks down how we approach that kind of outreach in practice.

If you want a shortcut, ask this question about every link opportunity: would a real person click this link because it is genuinely useful, not because it exists to move a ranking. If the answer is no, skip it.

Idea 2: Search volume is a guide, not a goal

Getting your campaign terms right is critical to SEO results, and search volume is a useful signal during keyword discovery. The trouble starts when a business chases volume purely to look busy on a report, at the expense of terms that actual customers use. For small and local businesses, especially trades and services, long tail terms such as “boiler repair near Reading” or “wedding photographer Leeds under budget” often carry far lower search volume than a broad term like “boiler repair”, sometimes under 500 searches a month locally, yet they tend to bring in visitors who are further along in deciding to buy. Our guide to long tail keyword targeting goes into more detail on how to find these terms yourself.

A simple exercise worth trying: open your analytics and compare the bounce rate, time on site and pages per session for a long tail local term you rank for against a broad, short tail term. In most cases we have reviewed, the long tail visitor sticks around longer and converts at a higher rate, even though the raw traffic number looks smaller on paper. That gap is exactly why keyword research strategies built around intent, not just volume, tend to outperform.

	Short tail keywords	Long tail keywords
Example	“SEO agency”	“SEO agency for small law firms London”
Typical monthly search volume	High, often thousands	Low, sometimes under 500
Competition	Very high	Lower, easier to rank
Buyer intent	Mixed, often research stage	Usually clearer and closer to purchase
Time to see rankings	Longer, months to years	Often faster

AI tools have made this side of SEO genuinely easier than it was in 2013. Rather than manually trawling keyword lists, AI powered keyword research tools can surface intent based phrases and group them by topic in minutes. That does not remove the need for judgement though. A tool will tell you a term has volume. It will not tell you whether that term actually fits what your business does, so you still need to read the results with a critical eye before building content around them.

Voice and conversational search have also pushed long tail terms further up the priority list, since spoken queries tend to be longer and more natural than typed ones. If that is relevant to your audience, our notes on voice search SEO strategies are worth a read. If your business runs paid search alongside organic, the same intent based thinking applies to a Google Ads agency in London style approach, where wasted spend on broad, low intent terms is often the biggest single drag on return.

Idea 3: Do not neglect conversions

The conversion rate of your website has a direct, measurable impact on the return you get from SEO, and this is still the part businesses underinvest in most. The usual pattern goes like this. SEO starts to bring in traffic, the business reinvests in more content or more links, but the website itself, the thing actually asking visitors to buy or enquire, stays untouched for years. Even a modest lift in conversion rate can pay for a website update within a couple of months for a small business, simply because every visitor you already have becomes more valuable.

For context, the average UK ecommerce conversion rate sits at roughly 3.4%, based on data from Shopify and VWO, though this varies a lot by sector and traffic source. Internet sales now account for around a quarter of all UK retail spending according to the Office for National Statistics, so even a small percentage improvement in how well your site turns visitors into customers adds up quickly at that scale. If your number sits below the average for your sector, that is usually a website problem rather than an SEO problem.

The real challenge is getting visitors to come back, not just to convert on the first visit. It was already hard to keep someone on your site for more than a few seconds. Getting them to return after an unremarkable first visit is harder still. This is why we always recommend starting SEO work on a website that already converts reasonably well, since a strong foundation there improves not just your SEO return but how people perceive your brand more broadly. Tools such as website optimisation and A/B testing can help you find where visitors are dropping off before you spend another penny on traffic. If your growth strategy leans on paid channels too, a PPC marketing agency worth its fee will be having this exact conversation with you before increasing budget.

What has changed since we first wrote this

A lot has moved on since 2013, even though the core ideas have not. Search results now blend AI generated summaries, local packs, video and shopping results on a single page, so ranking well means thinking beyond a blue link. If you sell products online, our piece on SEO tips for e-commerce websites is a good next read, since product page SEO now carries more weight than it did a decade ago.

Social platforms have also become part of the discovery journey, not just a distribution channel. If you are weighing up paid social alongside organic search, a Facebook ads agency London team can usually tell you within a week whether that budget is better spent there or on search, based on where your actual customers are searching and scrolling. For B2B businesses, the same question often points towards a LinkedIn advertising agency, since decision makers behave differently on that platform than they do on Google.

Putting this into practice

None of this needs to be complicated. Start by auditing your current backlink profile and removing or disavowing anything obviously spammy. Then map your keyword list against actual customer language rather than the highest volume terms you can find. Finally, look at your analytics with fresh eyes and ask where visitors are dropping off before they convert. Our guide on how to get on page 1 of Google walks through the fundamentals if you want a structured starting point, and our list of SEO techniques to avoid is worth a skim so you do not undo good work with an outdated tactic. If you are completely new to any of this, SEO basics for beginners is the right place to start.

Frequently asked questions

How many backlinks do I need to rank on Google? 

There is no fixed number. A handful of relevant, high quality links from sites in your niche will usually outperform hundreds of low quality directory listings. Focus on relevance and trust over raw count.

What is a long tail keyword? 

A long tail keyword is a longer, more specific search phrase, usually three or more words, that has lower search volume but often reflects clearer buying intent than a short, broad term.

What is a good conversion rate for a UK website? 

Averages vary by sector, but UK ecommerce sites typically convert around 3.4% of visitors. Service based businesses often see higher rates on well optimised landing pages. Your own historical rate is a better benchmark than any industry average.

Is SEO still worth it in 2026?

Yes, for most businesses. Organic search remains one of the few channels where visibility compounds over time rather than stopping the moment you stop paying for it. See our answer to why SEO is important for your business for the fuller case, and our SEO FAQs page for more common questions.

Final thought

The three ideas here are not new, and that is rather the point. Link quality, keyword intent and conversion rate have outlasted a decade of algorithm updates because they are about serving real visitors well, not about outsmarting a search engine for a few months. Get those three right and most of the rest of SEO becomes easier by default.

If you would like a second opinion on where your own SEO strategy stands, get in touch with the Flow20 team. We are happy to look through your current setup and tell you honestly where the quick wins are.