Is SEO Still Relevant for My Business?
SEO Must Serve Your Business, Your Customers and Your Industry
Search Engine Optimisation is a crucial component of your online success, however, it is commonly either ignored, given lip service or contracted out to third party suppliers who have little knowledge, time or interest in your business, your customers or your industry. It is absolutely true that the best SEO work would be performed by an in-house SEO expert, however, not many businesses can afford such an employee therefore you must have an SEO partner that can fully integrate with your business goals, products / services, customers and your industry.
SEO is all About Getting on Page 1 of Google Right?
Well yes and no, because it’s a bit more complicated than that!
Yes it’s great to be on page 1 of a Google Search for a keyword phrase with good search volume, good buying intent and which is relevant to your products and services.
It’s completely irrelevant (except for your ego perhaps) if the keyword phrase you are ranking for has little or no search volume. In that case, who cares (apart from you because you may have paid money to a consultant to achieve that exalted position).
Keyword Research and Analysis
Great (and even good) Search Engine Optimisation starts with analysis;-
What is a Keyword Phrase?
In simple terms a keyword phrase is a word or a few words that a person may enter into a search engine to find information on something e.g. “blue widget”
Essential Website Structure & Layout for SEO
Not only is the content of your website essential for it to rank highly in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), it is essential to research, strategise and deliver an intelligent and logical website structure to construct a solid foundation for future success in Search Engine Optimisation.
When planning a new website or a rebuild of your existing website it is essential to create a logical site structure that assists site visitors to easily find what they need and which is optimised for your most relevant and valuable keyword phrases.
A Hierarchical Site Structure is Good for Site Visitors & Google
After performing your research it is often helpful to plan a hierarchical site structure in a spreadsheet.
Try and keep your most important pages directly under the root domain (yourwebsite.com).
Sub (or child pages) can be placed under each of the most important pages by relevance and so forth as we go on down the chain.
This may sound difficult at first, however, it is very simple as it mirrors your existing business’ product / services structure.
When you have optimised your content and site structure based upon the research then your existing and potential customers can find what they are looking for easily and quickly and so can Google when it indexes your website.
Paid ads are a short term strategy whereas SEO is a long term strategy. Get it right and keep it up and you will reap the rewards for many years to come…
On-Page & Off-Page Optimisation
What is On-Page Optimisation?
On-page optimisation defines the URL structure of your website and the content you place on each page.
What is a URL Structure & Why is it Important?
A URL (Universal Resource Locator) is the address of your domain and all sub-pages. The URL can be entered in a web browser by someone looking to find your website or it can be found by clicking a link (a link commonly contains text plus a URL but they can be the same).
So yourdomain.com is a URL and so is yourdomain.com/green-widgets.
It is very helpful for your site visitors and Google if your URL structure reflects your brand, products and services.
This page is balanced-business-growth.com/digital-marketing/search-engine-optimisation/
By looking at the URL you immediately know which website you are on, which main product section you are in and that this page is about Search Engine Optimisation.
We named the pages and set up the URLs (or slugs as they are known in WordPress) specifically based upon how our business is organised and on our Keyword Research.
Why is the Content on the Page Important?
At first glance this seems like a very obvious question. Of course the content is important as it shows the site visitor we know what we are talking about and therefore might be worth investigating as a potential supplier.
What you might not know about this content as well, though, is that it is optimised for Google based upon our initial keyword research.
Google indexes all digital marketing websites on the Internet and this information is run through patented algorithms and stored on servers within Google. Thus Google “knows” what a good SEO page should contain. If it sees what it expects of a good SEO webpage here then it will likely rank this page higher than if the content was not researched nor very relevant.
If we continue to add new content and link it to this page then we should expect to see our site visitors spend a longer time on this page, perhaps convert into hot leads at a higher rate and we should see the page rise in the SERPs over time.
That said, ranking for SEO is quite difficult as any decent SEO provider should be able to create a half decent page about SEO for their website.
What is Off-Page Optimisation?
Off-Page or Off-Site Optimisation refers to techniques and strategies that may be deployed to entice customers to visit your website and / or to increase the ranking of pages on your website in the SERPs.
Backlinks – A Key Off Page SEO Tactic?
A backlink is a link from another website to a page on your website. Consider it like a vote for the quality of the content on your web page.
Backlinks can be begged, bought, given or acquired through diligence, hard work and the quality of your content.
Backlinks are not all created equal. A backlink from a low quality, lowly ranking website may never send you any traffic and may never get you any benefits from Google. In fact, too many might get your website demoted in the SERPs or even de-listed.
Google does not take kindly to those who try and game the system and we wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment.
Alternatively, a backlink from a highly ranked and well respected website (perhaps a .edu website) could certainly drive traffic to your website and enhance your reputation with Google’s algorithmic processes.
What is a Backlink Profile?
Your backlink profile is the entirety of the backlinks to your website.
If your backlinks are honestly earned then Google would expect a small number of higher quality backlinks, a few more in the mid range and a decent amount at the lower ends of the scale.
If your backlinks are skewed too far in any direction then Google may suspect foul play and that is never a good result.
How to Get Good Quality Backlinks
There are many tactics to obtain good quality backlinks. First and foremost you should create high quality content on your website (text, images, videos etc). Other sites will naturally link to good quality content.
You can do guest posts on other websites in return for a backlink to your website. There are many sites screaming out for high quality content, however, do try and find sites that are relevant to your industry.
You can reach out to other sites that currently link to a competitor’s page or have a broken link to content that you also have on your website. There are many strategies you can follow…
Google My Business is your new front door. Make it inviting and keep it fresh and interesting and they will enter. Neglect it and they will shop somewhere else…
Google MyBusiness is Your New Front Door
What is Google MyBusiness?
Have you noticed when you search in Google for a particular business that the real estate to the right of the search results is populated with a vertical section that describes the business and provides key information about the business? This is called a Google MyBusiness property.
Often Google has created the property themselves. The business owner has not claimed the property nor do they know it exists.
What is in a Google MyBusiness Property?
Your Google MyBusiness property may contain any of the following;-
Why Should I Care about GMB?
A decent number of people who search for your business will look at your Google MyBusiness profile before ever clicking through to your website.
If they do not like what they see then they may never click through to your business.
If your information is incorrect (phone number, address, product information, business description etc) then they may decide you do not have what they require and go somewhere else.
If you have only a couple of reviews they may go somewhere else. And if your reviews are generally poor then they will definitely go somewhere else.
People have a limited time and, yes, people can be lazy. If they have lots of options and yours is poor then they may never click through to your awesome website.
What Can I do About Google MyBusiness?
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Stephen Gaebler is a strong, clear, big-picture thinker. He is helping to create the future of work and of free enterprise. I've worked with him on several formal and informal projects over the past few years, and he has never failed to enlarge my perspective, challenge my blind spots, and clarify my vision.
