We’ve noticed that SEO has become a buzz word. Business owners know they need it, but they may not know what it is exactly and what they are paying a specialist for (especially what the deliverable looks like at the end of the day).
We thought we’d break it down so that you have a reference point when you’d like to embark on this empowering digital marketing journey.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimisation”.
In short, this is how we teach search engines to connect us with better results.
When people type into Google words that relate to our service or offering, we want to be an option for them to consider! The great news is that we can teach search engines what kinds of results we want to be connected with.
There are two main things to know about SEO efforts in general:
1) This is part of your digital marketing strategy which is ongoing – there is always something to improve. You won’t just create content for your website, hit a check point on your to-do-list and move on with life.
Why is this?
Google works with millions of webpages on a daily basis. The amount of these that are live websites is astronomical, and as businesses, we want to do our best efforts to stand out from the crowd. SEO is part of this. We need to continuously teach Google that we are in business.
2) SEO has multiple tiers. Making sure your website has the correct keywords to teach Google to connect you with better results is step one. Once this has been completed, there are a number of other efforts to pursue to keep our SEO efforts relevant.
So here is your SEO checklist, in the order we would suggest you tackle the tasks:
1) Your website – Your website is the backbone of your digital marketing efforts. This is where you need to have good SEO keyworded copy that is relevant to your offering, and is written in a way that gets your brand message across. Your images need to be keyworded, and if you have an e-commerce store – every product needs to be looked at.
2) Blogs are a great way to create new content. Keyworded blogs tell Google your website is still relevant, and what keywords you want to rank for,
3) Google Ads – driving traffic to your website is paramount when it comes to SEO. Google sees this as people taking an interest in your site and therefore it must be relevant. Google Ads is a way you can drive traffic to your website.
4) Social Media – Good social media efforts assist your SEO. Your message needs to be crystal clear on your social media platforms, and you need to drive traffic to your website. Social media tends to be a brand awareness exercise for most businesses, but if your business can get these two points right, you will see a difference in your conversions.
5) A link building strategy – Link building helps direct more traffic to our website from a multitude of sources. There are three ways of doing this:
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- Backlinking – a very specialist SEO marketer can help here. They usually charge a retainer and find places to link your website to. They use a short list of keywords to move you up the listings.
- Strategic Alliances and Affiliate Marketing – Creating partnerships is a great way to get your content on other people’s websites, and on their social media channels directing their traffic to your website. And you can return the favour which strengthens relationships.
- Public Relations – A good PR specialist can help get press onto digital newspapers/magazines/radio stations/TV. These drive traffic to your website from a reputable source. AND it develops content you can use on your website and your social media, completing the SEO loop and helping you with great content.
Please do your business a favour and don’t try and get these all launched at one. We’d suggest that this process can take you between 6 months and a year. Start with step one, complete it and build a plan for step 2. Execute this. And carry on in this way.
Want to roll out your SEO plan out and need some help? We can assist, contact us!