How Not to Break the Bank on SEO
It doesn’t take a genius to realise why it’s important for businesses to have a strong online presence… but just in case! We are now living in an age where everything and everyone is online, the development of tablets, androids and smartphones has simply added fuel to this fire. Simply put more people are spending more time online, hence more businesses want to get online and more importantly position themselves in front of their targeted audience.
A recent online study from ComScore reports 70 per cent of online shoppers cite online access as their preferred path to retailers. Out of this 70 per cent over 50 per of people only click on the first result they see in Google and 95 per cent of consumers never go past the first page of results. Point being, positioning your business as near the top of Google’s search results, could be the difference in making $50 or $50,000.
To illustrate this point, let’s draw a parallel with opening a sweet shop. Being near the top of the first page of Google’s search results is the equivalent of opening your sweet shop in Times Square. Lots of people passing by and lots of them will walk through your door. If you are on page two or three of Google it’s like being on one of the quieter streets in Manhattan – from time to time you’ll get some passing trade, but most of those people will know you already exist. If you are not listed on Google it’s like having that sweet shop in the dentist land.
Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is the process used to help improve your search engine rankings.
Sky is the limit when it comes to investing in SEO, and many companies believe throwing substantial amounts of money into getting to the top of Googles search results is the best approach. I’m here to say NAY, there are plenty of things you can do to improve your businesses’ rankings without breaking the bank.
Understand Your Market
Understanding your market in SEO means think about the phrases your potential customers or clients would use to find a business like yours on Google. Write them down – these are your ‘key terms’ and you’ll need them over the coming months.
Try to be realistic and think of phrases that you will be able to compete for, for example if you are a shoe shop and you sell UGG boots – don’t try to compete for the term “UGG Boots” as essentially you will be competing against multinational brands who will have a far stronger online presence initially, and you will also be competing against the brand UGG boots, so not so smart. Be tactical, think smart!
If you are uncertain of the terms to select for your business, use a simple tool such as Google Trends or use social media as a gauge of what people talk about when it comes to your business and related products. A more complicated tool is Google keyword planner tool to see what phrase are associated with your sector or business, but this tool is becoming less and less relevant because of the term not provided.
Use those terms
After choosing these terms use them appropriately to optimise the pages on your website, using these terms in your page titles, content, URL’s and so on. Be careful of over optimisation or keyword stuffing, where essentially you are using there phrases where it makes no sense. For example the “about page” of your business, there is no need to mention products in your title tag for this page, as it doesn’t make any sense.
Quick tip, you can also add value by linking from one page to another by using these phrases using the terms as the anchor text for a link.
Google+ Local /Google Places
Google have two services that businesses can use to help promote your business, specifically for localised search, Google Places and Google+ Local. There are some very helpful articles that you will find online to help you differentiate between the two, like here. I would use these for local businesses opposed to virtual businesses (business only operating online) spend time improving their Google Places listing.
Add value to your profile, use images and encourage customers to leave reviews on Google Places.
Technical Errors
Google frowns upon sites that load slowly or have technical errors i.e 404 errors . The majority of sites do have some technical errors even if the average user doesn’t see them.
There is a suite of professional tools to check site speed and identify errors with your site. However, Google Webmaster Tools is a great (free) first stop to check if there are any technical issues that might be holding you back.
Be Socially Active
Social Media is becoming a bigger and bigger part of the search engine algorithm, meaning being active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. is important in the eyes of Google. Having a large following across these channels that you engage with regularly, can really help your business search rankings. This has become a bit of a specialist category in recent years, and businesses have put a lot of time and effort into gaining valuable Facebook likes, re-tweets, pins etc.
Quick tip, think of what people want to hear and add an engaging angle, good subject matter; what’s current, cute, sexy or funny.
Keep It Fresh
The greatest challenge for small businesses is keeping content on their site fresh. Google has a bit of a love affair with new content, and is obsessed with customer concentric content – content aimed at the customer for the customer. So try to update and add pages to your site when and where possible, this adds value to your website. While preferably this should be text, the use of pictures and video can also help.
Link Luv
Try to get as many quality sites to link to your website as possible. With Googles Penguin update clamping down on spammy links (bad links) getting the right type of links is now a crucial part of any SEO strategy. The safest way to do this is to get links to relevant websites or that have a connection with your industry. There are a number of ways to do this, from existing mentions links, to guest blogging to online PR.
Think Mobile
According to a report from Smart Insights mobile share is now around 25% on average. However, this can easily vary depending on your businesses target audience. Generally, business To business(B2B) companies should expect a lower percentage of mobile views compared to business to customer companies(B2C). For example our own website is mainly aimed at businesses, so only about 20 per cent of website visits are from mobile phones. However, some of our clients are seeing upwards of 40% of their visits from mobiles.
Unfortunately, there are no quick fixes here, you simply need to optimise your site for mobile. Some factors to consider are load time, a user friendly experience and clean design with a focus on usability – imagery over content.
If your website isn’t optimised for mobile you may find people don’t browse your site for long, or get fed up waiting for it to load. Google will interpret both as negative factors and will start to down-mark you in searches done from mobile phones.
Final Thoughts
Feeling the love from Google can take time, so important to be patient andt by following the steps above, the web could quickly become your best friend – helping you find new business.
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