Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a well-established technique. Unfortunately, too few companies appreciate the benefits and so effectively leave cash on the table. When in fact, a small investment, would have a disproportionate effect on the businesses results.
Like with so much of business, a strategy must be developed and employed. To effectively satisfying your customers, they must first find you. Search engine optimisation is an effective tool to get the right people to your online property. Only once they know and trust you, will they be buying your products and services.
You are of course intimately familiar with your brand but, it is unlikely that everyone else is as well. So, we need to change that. We need to give people a reason to visit your website and utilise your content as part of their buying cycle.
Normally, we don’t recommend doing something just because everybody else is doing it. In fact we usually recommend the opposite. However, we must produce good content for no other reason than if we don’t, and our competitors do, then we fall behind. If we fall behind we automatically lose.
It is important to understand that SEO is not a race, it is not the destination, it is the journey. Everything that we do must be focused on always having good high quality content. The irony is that simply by standing still, you are going backwards. Not in relation to your own business, but your competition.
Every single content management system will claim to be SEO friendly and that it’s there to help you rank better. However, if you look at what they have to offer, it is probably no more than a couple of text boxes for you to type in keywords' and possibly an alternative description. This is not SEO! This is only basic page construction. The search engines are interested in content. Currently, there is a debate, as to the value of even supplying keywords in the metadata. Most of the search engines no longer use them as part of their ranking system and might actually penalise their use as they are used heavily by spammers and other Black Hats. We are focused on producing original content to a high standard, this means the actual body of the text is the piece that really matters. Remember, if somebody is selling a content management system then they are going to do whatever they need to do to sell it to you. You must focus on your own goal.
Search engine optimisation can be outsourced to a third party up to a point. Most people don’t have the time, inclination or skill to do all of their own SEO. There is only so much time in the day and so many other things to do. With a small amount of input and using a tool such has DVANA's Simple SEO Planning Toolkit™, it is simple to have that expert or consultant do the work on your behalf. They can take the bits that matter to you, apply their skill and expertise and produce for you your high quality unique content.
If you want to go one step further, then they can be fully in control of your online presence, manage and maintain it while you get on with something else. And that something else should be much more profitable for you then learning and doing search engine optimisation.
Please play along with me for a moment, and jot down on a piece of paper approx. costs for the following:
Okay now add all those things together and what you get? I have no idea of course because there your numbers. But I wouldn’t be surprised if you spent significantly more on your website. Here’s the funny thing though, how much time and effort was spent proof reading, sample testing, test viewing and otherwise honing your message and the presentation of that message in all of those mediums. I am quite sure it is significantly more time and effort then you placed into “SEO proofing” the destination to all of those other activities. Yes, that’s right, all those other marketing channels direct people to your website. Even if, visiting your website is not the call to action many will anyway.
Utilise the skills of a professional, make sure that you have “SEO proofed” your website. Have them run through the whole website, and ensure that it is optimized for the search engines. Don’t leave it to chance!
You should be clear, on how critical I think it is for SEO to be part of a business’s marketing strategy. When it comes to bringing in the right types of prospects or leads, SEO is the perfect tool for the job. Think about it, if the right people are visiting your website, then your SEO activities are directly boosting conversions, i.e. sales.
While this article is primarily on SEO, we have also talked about the importance of a marketing mix. No technique can live in isolation and expect to be optimally successful. However, we can apply the techniques of SEO to all of our marketing and as a direct result gain the benefit of SEO in our twitter feed, gain the benefit of SEO in our Facebook postings and gain the benefit of SEO in our LinkedIn articles and in everything else. Once you start thinking of SEO as important you begin to see where you can apply it. It turns out that to apply it everywhere that a search engine can find. This means if you are producing digital version of a print brochure, then SEO applies there as well.
White Hat organic search engine optimisation is the most effective and powerful tool available to businesses online. By integrating this tool or technique into the whole of your digital marketing mix, you can reap the benefits across all of your marketing channels. Once you start to think of SEO as an essential tool, you begin to see where it can be used and it can be used everywhere. In terms of cost, it is a cheap long-term strategy.
Use it, use it everywhere, and use it all the time.
SEO is a fun and fascinating field, if you would like some help, courses, tools etc, then we’re more than happy to help. Give us a call and see how!