Search Engine Optimization

Why SEO is important

‘93% of Internet users start on a search engine’ 

‘60% of people only click on the top 3 results’

‘Most people do not go past the first results page’

Given that virtually all Internet users start on a search engine, you would be foolish not to give some focus on SEO. Furthermore, Internet users do not click outside the first page of search engine results. Also, businesses in the top 3 search engine results get more than 60% of clicks for every search. Put simply,  higher position on organic search results equals more clicks.

‘website visitors from organic clicks are 8 times more likely to convert’

Appearing high on organic search results clearly benefits the bottom line because Internet users trust companies based on organic searches than businesses in the paid ads positions (top side and bottom of results pages) – online consumers more likely to click on the businesses in the organic results and when they do so, they  are 8 times more likely (than paid advert or social media visitors) to convert into paying customers. Put another way, more organic clicks equals more sales and more profits for your business. These reasons make SEO a must-do for all businesses.

Do you know how to get on the first page of search engine results?

Are you keeping ahead of theever-evolving search engine algorithm changes?

Yes, it is possible to get to the Number 1 result position on a search engine results page with hard work, time and resources. Search EngineLand’s Periodic Table of SEO below shows the many behind the scenes elements that have to be right to have a positive impact on where a page ranks in organic search.

Anyone that promises to get your businesses to the Number 1 position overnight is being dishonest because that is simply not achievable. You will see that the top positions on almost all popular and frequently used keywords/search terms are dominated by big businesses that invest heavily in their marketing, and have probably been doing so for many years.  It is more realistic to take the approach that you can certainly rank highly on lesser used search terms / keywords that your website is relevant to if you follow the right steps to optimise your website and content. In most cases, small businesses should realistically be satisfied with moving up the search rankings over time and seeking to rank very highly on the search terms that are particularly pertinent to your business.

It is easy to get overloaded and confused with all of the steps involved in getting SEO right. With the hard work, the right resources and time, we will get your business moving up organic search results pages by devising an SEO Strategy that outlines a step-by-step approach to implement your website’s on-page and off-page SEO techniques.

Off-page SEO

There are many things you can do outside of your website to improve your rankings on search engine results pages. Most are related to giving potential visitors a good first impression of your business and becoming recognised as the place to go for useful information/products/services. Here are some off-page SEO activities we can help you with:

Keyword selection

You want you target customers to see you business when they are searching for your products and services. As was explained earlier, using the most popular keywords could easily mean that your business does not show high on the results. Keyword research to identify the other search terms your customers are searching for can help your business to show up high on search results. Identifying relevant long-tailed keywords can also help your business to be shown to your potential customers.

Website listing

Ensuring your website is correctly listed on search engines can really help your visibility. It may sound simple however, many business fail to complete basic information like page title, title tags and rich snippets properly. Doing these correctly can help search engines to understand and index your website correctly, giving you a better chance ranking higher for the right searchers.  We are experienced at completing website listings on the major search engines.

Meta-descriptions with bite

How many times have you read a description on search engine results pages that leaves you confused or just turned off?

Those few lines that say what a piece of content is about (called a meta-description) is usually the difference between a potential customer clicking your link or choosing a competitor’s instead. An even bigger mistake in meta-descriptions is when the description and the content don’t match up. Visitors just click out of the website and go to find what they are looking for somewhere else. Search engines typically punish your business when this happens so you appear lower on the search engine results in the future, if at all.

All too often, meta-descriptions are bland, boring and all look the same.

We know how to create eye-catching accurate meta-descriptions that grab visitor’s attention and work best for your business. These always get the most clicks from visitors that are more likely to convert to paying customers.

Linking social networks

Linking your website to social networks and like Google+, Youtube and Linkedin can have a dramatic positive impact on your search engine ranking, especially on Google because they are related companies. Engagement on social networks now plays a key role as a key traffic referrer. Therefore your social media should be used to drive your content to different audiences and demographics. People liking, commenting and sharing your content improves your ranking because it shows search engines that people like your website and what you offer.

Building links

Having other reputable websites linking to your website is also viewed by search engines as an indication that your website is well-designed, liked and has useful resources. Inbound links can be the difference between getting thousands of eyes looking at website and your great content doing nothing to attract visitors.

Beware that link spamming (links from random websites, fake links, bought links or other dubious methods to get links in order to try to fool the search engines into giving your website higher rankings) will not work and is not worth doing. You could quickly find your website downgraded, penalized or even removed from the search engine database all-together, which can be very costly and devastating for your business.

We can help to identify and start building relationships with a diverse range of quality authority websites to get links to your website.

 

PR

Press Releases about your business, products/services and resources are a great way to get people to know about your business. Today, press releases don’t just go in newspapers. Authority and network sites can provide similar boosts to brand awareness and consequently, more visitors to your website.

When done correctly, this public relations task benefits both your business (in the form of exposure, awareness and visitors) and the publisher (it gives them fresh content to publish) We can know how to put press releases together and distribute them to digital publishers that are more likely to get publish.

 

Profile Building

Having citations on relevant websites is a key way to build your brand’s online reputation that gets positive rewards from search engines. We have helped many businesses to build their online reputation by being present on relevant websites in a way that positively impacts their search engine rankings.

Actively building you reputation online by having a presence on a variety of websites that are relevant to your industry is one often-neglected strategy to raise a a website’s ranking Doing simple things like engaging with other people’s  content on other websites and leaving interesting and insightful comments using your business’ identity helps other people know that you have knowledge and expertise in a subject.

The benefits are greater chance of them visiting your website to find out more about you, and if they like what you have on your website they may come back and perform the action you want (buy, sign-up, etc).

Which websites bring returns on the time you invest to make comments?

Busy people with so many priorities, like most small business owners/managers,  find in difficult to know the authority websites to visit and show your knowledge/expertise.

We can help you to identify authority sites for your sector that you may want to build your reputation on.

 

On-page SEO

Our on-page SEO covers the things you can do on your website to increase your chances of getting high organic search rankings including these:

Technical & User Experience factors

We can help to analyse and ensure that your website meets accepted website design principles (responsive, accessible and mobile-friendly, for example), as well as have good site architecture, internal linking structure, page load speeds and gives a good user experience.

Best practices

Other on-page factors we are experienced at include checking and selecting the right keywords for web-pages, ensuring you follow best practices in page URLs, page titles, title tags, image tags/attributes and anchor text on links. The correct use of relevant keywords in terms of placement and frequency can also help to increase search rankings.

We can help you to ensure your website meets best practice standards so that you can benefit from higher search rankings.

Product/Service descriptions

Providing unique, relevant and useful content about your product and services is an aspect of on-page SEO that is often over-looked. There is so much more that can and be done beyond just putting a product’s name, size and price on a web-page.

We can help you to develop other useful information that visitors want to see on a website and that the search engines will reward you for.

Producing unique content

Producing information and resources for visitors such as articles, reports and guides regularly and frequently is the next big task in on-page optimization that we do well. Click here to find out more about our Content Marketing Service.