SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is a
digital marketing strategy used to push your website up on search engines like
Google, Yahoo or Bing. Research shows that about 90% of people don’t go beyond
the first page of results when searching online, which means being found on the
first page of the results will help your website get more traffic and
consequently put your business in front of more prospective clients.
More traffic in itself doesn’t
increase revenues if that traffic isn’t taking advantage of revenue generating
actions. But, you also can’t sell a
product or service to someone if they can’t find you. In 2018 statistics showed that in Australia
more than half of small businesses still didn’t have a website. This is pretty scary, when 97% of search
engine users search online to find a local business.
And in today's environment, now more
than ever small businesses need to be implementing local SEO strategies in
their marketing plan.
1. SEO is a relatively cheap marketing strategy
Imagine you’re at the pub and you
decide to play a game of darts. You’re
trying to hit the bullseye and because you can see your target you’re more
likely to succeed. Now imagine you’re
blindfolded. It's a lot harder to hit that
target, correct?
Using traditional marketing techniques
is a bit like playing darts blindfolded.
They tend to promote products or services to a large, un-targeted audience in the hope that someone will buy
what you are putting out there. It is
also known been referred to as
interruptive marketing since commercials, billboards, and in some cases print
ads often disrupt someone’s concentration.
When was the last time you truely paid attention to a television
commercial? In fact, most of us like streaming
and it has become so much more popular because we don’t want to watch
commercials.
Compared to traditional marketing
strategies, SEO is one of the most cost effective channels available to get
your products and services to your audience, mainly because by using the SEO
strategies available you will be marketing your product or service directly to
the people that need it, after-all they are already searching for you.
Also, if you decide to take a break
from doing any active SEO online, your content and strategies will still
organically grow, but keep in mind at some point your competitors will overtake
you, especially if they are actively doing SEO.
2. SEO improves customer engagement
At the core of any SEO plan and
strategies implement is the idea of building trust, authority and credibility. Visibility in the organic search results
creates the implication of endorsement by Google and if your business is ranked
in the 1 to 5 position on page 1, then you are perceived to have more
authority, trust and credibility online.
But to improve customer engagement, we
want to go beyond what is perceived to actually provide high quality content
that is valuable to your audience. As a result of doing this, the search engine
will understand that people are accessing your content because it is relevant
to them and in turn will rank you higher on the results page. Google is getting smarter and now thanks to BERT, understands conversational language
which enables Google to provide more relevant results to users when they
search. You know who your target
audience is and now you want to build relationship with them through your
content and SEO stratagies. Once you
have them on your website you then want to keep them engaged. You have a maximum of 8 seconds to impress your potential customer before they
leave your website. In this limited period of time you need to assure them
that your service or product is useful to them, that you are going to bring
value to their life.
If they start leaving your website
within a short period of time, this will increase your bounce rate and decrease
your rankings in the SERPs, as well as show search engines that your content
isn’t relevant to your visitors search.
The right SEO techniques for both on page and off page look at
preventing this from happening and concentrate on improving your customer
engagement.
3. SEO brings a higher return on investment
Generating sales or leads are probably the most important
objectives of the majority of marketing strategies. Search Engine Optimisation
is no different in regards to this objective, it is however more likely to
achieve that goal by delivering relevant traffic that has a higher chance of
converting. The potential customer is searching with intent for what your
business has to offer. This is highly targeted and sort after traffic.
Typically a successful SEO campaign will result in more
traffic and increased search rankings.
About 60% of all traffic goes to the top 1 to 3 positions in the organic
search results, so one of the first measurable indicators is that you’re
getting an increase in traffic if the SEO company you are using is moving your website up the rankings. You should also receive a monthly report
showing you how you are positioned and where you are positioned for the search
terms being used. If you are not
receiving this, then you should find a new SEO provider, as these reports
should help you to leverage this insight to improve further your visibility in
the SERPs and maximise your SEO ROI.
To achieve a higher ROI, then a large percentage of the
traffic being driven to your website needs to be one of the following:
• Your
target audience
• People
who engage with your brand/website by either clicking, commenting, liking,
sharing, or by adding to cart if your site is e-commerce
• Visitors
who are ready to buy or take a desired action within moments of interacting
with your brand/website
• Customers
who buy more
• Customers
that don’t take a lot of convincing or time to make a buying decision
When you have these goals incorporated
into your web design, these types of visitors will naturally increase
revenues. These types of visitors are
who you are targeting in your SEO strategies, so it is a good idea to keep
these objectives at the forefront of any digital marketing plan.
If you want to calculate your SEO ROI
percentage, then use this method.
Gain from Investment – Cost of
Investment / Cost of Investment. Then, multiply the resulting number by 100.
It is also important to remember that
tracking conversations will look different if you are an e-commerce site as
compared to a lead based business that provides a service. If you are lead based, then give the intended
goals (actions) on your website a value.
For example, someone lands on your site and fills out a form for more
information, you can assign that action a monetary value. You’ll have a number actions on your site, so
in turn assign each action a monetary value from least to highest.
4. SEO can improve offline conversions
Did you know that over 88% of all
mobile searches are people looking for local businesses to visit in store or
call within 24 hours? 46% off all Google
searches are looking for local information and 97% of people learn about a
local business online then anywhere else.
61% of mobile searches are more likely to contact a local business if
they have a mobile friendly site and it its expected that by 2021 (which is in
less than 12 months away), that mobile devices will influence more than $1.4
trillion in local sales. Lastly, “near
me” or “close by’ type searches have grown by more than 900% over the last two
years. So, I guess local SEO services
Gold Coast are pretty important! And in
case you missed it, we just threw in a local search keyword to help with our
own local SEO.
If you are implementing a good local
SEO strategy in your marketing and you have consistent listings and business
information across the web, then it is much easier for a searcher to transition
into becoming a customer, by either visiting your location, sending an email or
by giving you a call. Although we live
in a digital world, offline sales still drive the consumer economy. The vast majority of purchases are still made
offline, so to be hyper-competitive in the world of search, your SEO strategy
should optimise not only for what is happening online but also for highly
valuable offline conversions. By having
a holistic view to your SEO Gold Coast efforts, it will put your business in a
better position both in the SERPs and on the street.
Boost your business with SEO today
Assuming you can just skip SEO and
maybe just ‘wing-it’ might be keeping you from reaching potential customers who
are actively searching for your business online. If they don’t find you, then you can bet they
have found your competitor. So if you’re
not using SEO in your marketing strategy, then now is the time to start. And if you are unhappy with your current SEO
company, then now is the time to do something about it. SEO doesn’t have to be expensive and is in
fact one of the most cost-effective
strategies that you can use to market your brand today.
If you want to find out how SEO can
help your business, then give us a call on 07 5592 2685 or email info@seoplans.net.au. We also have a great FREE
online SEO tool that can audit your website and
provide you with SEO suggestions to help you improve in the SERPs.