Gold Coast Search Engine Optimisation Services
Jun 15th, 2010
What Is Search Engine Optimisation?
If you are in business, you would have heard of the term Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). It is a mouthy word for a simple thing – making your website work as efficiently as it can with the internet. Today, this has come to mean putting your website as high up on page one of Google as you can.
Why Does Your Business Need Search Engine Optimisation?
We all know that 10 years ago, people found your business in the yellow pages or in the local paper. We all suspect that these more traditional forms of advertising no longer work like they used to. Despite this, the sales people of these organisations still ask you to invest thousands of dollars of your hard earned money every year, to place your listings in their advertising books. Do you know how they manage to do this? They manage to do this be ensuring you cannot really measure the results of your advertising with them. The lack of specific tracking and measurement of results means you will not be able to work out whether this advertising is making you money or not, so you keep spending you money on it just in case it is.
The simple fact is that these traditional forms of advertising no longer work like they used to. Where people used to “let their finger do the walking” they now use Google. Today, more and more people will go to the internet and look for your services there. This trend is growing stronger by the day, people simply are not going back to the yellow pages or the local newspaper as the internet is easier, more accurate and now, you can take it everywhere you go. (Ie. It is now on most people’s mobile phones) I don’t know about you, but I use my yellow pages purely as a booster seat for my 2 year old daughter these days – it is not an ideal use for your advertising budget is it?
Search engine optimisation is the process you must go through to ensure your website is found when people search for your products and services, using the internet. You need it because, as more and more people turn away from traditional methods of finding your business in favor of the internet, if you have not optimised your website on the internet, a growing percentage of your clients will be finding your competitors and giving them their business instead.
How Does Search Engine Optimisation Work
There are two parts to SEO.
- The first part is structuring your website so the search engines can understand it and recognise the type of search phrases you need to be listed for. This is a once off task, but crucial. If Google cannot interpret your website as being important for the things your clients are typing into Google, your website will never appear when they look for your products.
- The second part is making your website look important, popular – the leader in your industry. This is an ongoing task. Once Google recognises your business is the leader in the industry, it will put you in position 1. That is how it works.
Your Approach To Search Engine Optimisation
Search engine optimisation is a long term process. Despite what many “internet sales people” will tell you when they are trying to flog off their substandard products, it is not a once off effort. As I mentioned above, Google will put the website it recognises as the “industry leader” into position 1. To do this for your website, you need to have the best internet information and be the most popular website in your industry. If you do the work to get to position 1 and then stop doing SEO work, all your competitors have to do to remove you from position 1, is do a tiny bit more work than you did in the past. Google favors new information over old information too – so generally speaking – they have to do less today to beat you, than what you did yesterday.
Similar to traditional advertising like the yellow pages and print advertising, you cannot make one off efforts and expect enduring results. Do you think one ad in your local paper will make you sales all year? Of course you don’t. The internet is no different. For long term results you need a long term approach, a long term strategy and and a long term budget. Size is not the point here, perspective definitely is.
How We Can Help
We can help you in two ways:
- If you already have a website that is not working in Google and not generating results for you, we can optimise that website in the search engines so it does. With this option, we set a monthly budget and ensure long term results are achieved. We ensure people looking for your services find your website before they find your competitor’s website – so you get the majority of business for your industry which is coming through the internet.
- If your website is well positioned in Google but still not sending you clients, we can optimise internally, testing and changing things until it does.
Measured Results and Returns
The final thing to consider about internet marketing is that everything can be measured. This means that every cent you spend can be held accountable. If your internet marketing campaign is not making money, this is something you can see as the figures quickly prove it. If you employ an ethical internet marketer, you never spend money on advertising that does not make you profit as every cent is measured and tracked against sales and profits at the other end. Unlike traditional methods of advertising, you will know exactly how much money your internet marketing campaigns are making which means you can make very clear and informed decisions about how to spend your money in the future.