Achieving success in the search engines is all about getting your website found by the right audience. You may have a great looking website that you have spent lots of money on but if you can’t attract the right visitors then you will struggle to make your online business a success. As a proven SEO Consultant I can help you to employ clever SEO strategies to get your site in front of the right people for the right searches.
Why do I need an SEO Consultant?
If your website visitor traffic is low then you are clearing not appearing in front of enough potential customers. If you traffic high is but your conversion rate is low then you are probably attracting the wrong type of customer.
As an experienced SEO Consultant, I can help you to understand how you should be using your website to target potential customers. I will teach you the right techniques and clearly explain the activities that will make a real difference to your Google ranking and ultimately, your sales revenue.
Matt, I have used SEO agencies before and they haven’t delivered. What are you going to do differently?
Many people think it is a case of attracting as much traffic as possible but it is more important to attract fewer people who are more inclined to buy. 100 visitors who are potential customers is far better than 10,000 visitors who don’t really care about your products.
Effective SEO is about ticking all the boxes in the right way to reach the right customer. My approach is clear and simple. I will never make promises of unrealistic results and there are no secretive techniques. I will help you to identify the right keywords you need to target to attract the right customer. I will then tell you how to implement the changes on your site for maximum impact and then how to increase your overall exposure using a number of clever strategies that are both achievable and affordable. All my SEO strategies are Google-safe and there are no short cuts.
If you want to learn a little bit more about SEO and my approach then continue reading.
Getting to the top of Google
The term ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ search, as it is sometimes called, refers to the way your website is listed in search engine page results without having to pay for it. Every public website on the internet is listed in the search engines somewhere but with the millions of sites competing for the same space it is often seen as difficult to rank highly. This is why businesses spend vast sums of money on paying for adwords to get above their competitors. If you have an effective SEO strategy in place you can achieve high positions in the ‘natural’ listings for many of your keyword search terms and start generating revenue from it.
Why do I need an SEO strategy?
The main reason for developing an SEO strategy is so you can attract traffic and generate revenue for FREE. When you see a page of search results, it is littered with paid text ads, maps, shopping results and local search listings. However, sitting in the centre of it all are the ‘natural search results’. The websites that appear in these positions are there because they have worked hard to get there. If you can archive a page 1 listing for key terms that reflects your business then it can boost your revenue considerably because these listings will often stay there, provided you maintain the quality of your website.
A successful online business must be visible to the right audience. The websites that appear in the first page positions are there because the search engines have deemed them to be the best matches for the search term that was entered. This means that the site is very high quality in terms of subject matter and content thus most likely to give the user the desired results.
Gaining a high natural search listing takes some time and usually takes quite a bit of work because you are proving to the search engines that your site should be at the top of the listings. Once you have developed a strategy that works and achieves higher ranking results it means your site will stay at or near the top, provided you keep working on it. This then builds confidence in your users because they will often give more trust to a site that is naturally ranked than a site that has appeared overnight in a paid listing. There is also a lot of ‘kudos’ for your brand or business by being on the first page of Google.
Natural search optimisation is generally free but it does take a lot of effort in particular areas to ensure your website is optimised for the right search terms you want to appear under. The majority of companies that trade online don’t understand the first thing about how search engine optimisation works. These businesses live in hope and waste their time and money in the wrong areas. Many people think that because they have a website then success will follow.
This is wrong.
Where to start with SEO?
To gain effective results you need to be clever about the way you optimise your website. If you already have a website there is a very high possibility that it is being seen incorrectly by the search engines thus attracting the wrong type of people. It probably converts poorly too. This needs to be rectified.
Your website should be fully optimised for search terms and key phrases that your customer would be using to find you. These keywords may not even be that obvious. Some people are too close to their own business to really know what their customers are searching for. These search terms form the foundation of your online strategy and can only really be found by conducting intensive keyword research to understand the behaviour of the customer. Once you have these terms you can begin to craft you business around them.
Now, imagine owning a website that is fully optimised for Google, MSN, Ask and Yahoo and reaches the right audience. The people who find your website are the right people which means more will convert, buy more from you or inquire about your service. You will be viewed on the top pages of the search engines and you will be more successful than your competitors.
To achieve this, you need to address the following areas:
- Coding your website for SEO
- Writing website content for maximum SEO
- Keyword Analysis for SEO
- Improving Search Engine Ranking
- Advanced SEO for Google
Coding your website for effective SEO
Search engines view your website in two ways. They search the code behind the pages to find various pieces of information and they also search the content on the page to gain an understanding regarding the context of what the page is about. Both are vitally important which means your pages need to be constructed so the search engines can understand the different elements, read them and be able to index them for a great ranking. If the text in the code is spam, shows duplicate content or is jargon then your page are pretty much useless.
Your website code must contain the key website meta data including meta page titles, meta description, header tags, link properties and image properties. These coding tags must be fully optimised to ensure they reflect the keywords and key phrases you are trying to optimise for. If these are not clear then it will be detrimental to your website because the search engines will not be able index and rank your website effectively. If you are a non-technical marketer or business owner then you can either call me for help & advice.
Writing Website Content for SEO
Search engines assign a rank to your website based on a large number of factors. One of the major factors used in the ranking process is your website content. Search engines cannot read images but they can read and understand text. If your website is full of targeted, relevant and keyword-rich web copy, that is structured in the right way, then your website will perform strongly and should rank in a high position. Alternatively, if you get this wrong you could find yourself with a website that performs very poorly and even gets penalised for irrelevant and sporadic content, regardless of how hard you are working on it.
When writing your website copy it is important to understand that you have two audiences; your customers and search engines. If you write the website copy using slang words or language that you may personally find humorous or ‘sexy’ then you may find that search engines do not fully understand it and are, therefore, unable to index and rank it appropriately. This means you pages will fail to make the impact you need. On the other hand, if you write web copy in a way that is too formal and technical you will alienate your audience because they will not find it very interesting or user-friendly. The key is to strike a balance but your main focus should be on your customer.
Effective web copy should be factually useful, relevant and designed to engage your visitor. The content must be structured with keyword-rich headings and body copy making it easy for the search engines to digest and index. This is both an art and a skill but once you have established a formula that works you can then roll it out across your website and achieve some substantial results.
Keyword research for SEO
Keywords or phrases are the search terms that people enter when using search engines. These terms form the foundations of your website’s content and are perhaps the most important factor you need to take into account. There are millions of different types of search variations so it is vital your website focuses around the right ones. It is all too easy to think that just because you know what subject your website is about that your customers and the search engines will know. You should ask yourself:
- What are your potential customers searching for in search engines?
- What are the latest search term trends for your business?
- Where are the low competition search term opportunities?
- What search terms do you choose to target and why?
- How many search terms should you choose?
Your search terms are very important because they form the basis of your website content and your search marketing strategy. This content is what will attract your customers and get you the higher rankings. If you get this part wrong, it could fundamentally damage or ruin your online business.
The importance of fresh content for SEO
You cannot gain a number one Google ranking overnight but a high ranking can be achieved fairly quickly if you apply the right strategy to optimise your website. A key part is to ensure your website is regularly update with new content. This is where you will gain an advantage over your competitors.
Many people tend to neglect their own website once it is up and running because they need to focus on their business. They think that just because the website is live then the job is done and they should automatically hit the number 1 spot in Google by right. Wrong!
Gaining results is all about continually tweaking and tinkering with your website to keep it up-to-date with news, products and services. Imagine you are a mechanic and your website is a sports car engine. The engine must be tuned and tweaked on regular basis to gain the maximum output to win the race. Your website is no different. A regular flow of extra content on your website will enhance it’s reputation when the search engine spiders come searching every few weeks for fresh content. The content will be indexed and Google will automatically catapult your website up thousands of places in the results.
Contact me now to see how I can help with your SEO and search rankings
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