Investing in SEO for an Effective Inbound Marketing Strategy

SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is all about increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results. Through SEO best practices, you’ll attract the right customers and work towards bringing in an increasingly sweet amount of leads to your website. To top it off, you won’t even have to pay Google for it. 

So, what are the basics in improving your discoverability score? Put simply, search enginge strategies in the form of a blog marketing strategy is where you should focus your efforts. Producing lots of high quality content on topics you want to be known for tells Google crawlers that you mean business.

Every time you publish a new blog post, you’re adding one more indexed page to your website. This translates to one more opportunity to show up in search engines and drive organic traffic to your website. It's also one more cue to Google and other search engines that your website is active – and that they should be checking in frequently to see what new content will surface. Remember to also optimise your past blogs, because you reap what you sow and with SEO you can go back in time!

Number and quality of incoming links continues to be one of the strongest indications of authority to Google, which directly impact the page’s ranking in search results.

Back-linking essentially tells Google that other people think your content is relevant and interesting. They are a signal that your site is a high-quality resource that people want to reference. This means that websites with more backlinks and higher quality backlinks tend to earn higher ranking in search.

Reviews are also a great way to up your SEO game. People love safe bets, they love reassuring themselves that they are making a good choice and this where reviews and ratings come into play. Ask for them and show them off to build that trust and authority Google is craving to see. Not only does authority make your company more trustworthy, but doing so enables you to rank higher on SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages) and if done correctly, provides the opportunity to rank higher than competitors. Marketers sure have their job cut out for them to remain on top, but the hard work definitely reaps the rewards.

Ready to find out what the rewards are? Let's get into it and more importantly - why should you invest in SEO? 

1. It helps you to rank competitively amongst high search volume

As of today, Google processes 3.5 billion searches per day. With that kind of search volume, there’s no debating that a high ranking in Google’s search results offers a good opportunity towards driving more traffic to your business’s website. In fact, 75% of most users don’t even look past page one of search results. If your audience doesn’t see your website come up in search results and therefore - doesn't know you exist, they won't (can't) buy from you. Makes sense right?

Through optimising your website, you’ll make it to the podium. From there it’s simple maths -- more eyes on your website + more traffic = more potential for converting those leads into paying customers. Fun fact: Search engine leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads (like direct mail or print advertising) have a 1.7% close rate.

2. It's constantly evolving to keep up with consumer behaviour

In our day and age, our mobiles can do everything. Long gone are the days where we had to be in front of our hardwired desktops to look something up online. With more people searching the worldwide web on their phones, you want your website to be optimised for those wizard gadgets. In fact, local SEO service makes up a big part of your “discoverability” feature. Ensure that you include a location for your business so you come up on the radar. 

How often when looking for a product or service, have you keyed in “xxx near me”. If you don’t include an address to your website, then Google won’t be able to find you and again it’s as if you don’t exist.

It’s a great opportunity to get out there especially if you are a small business. Importantly, the “near me” search pretty much guarantees you that people looking you up are most probably ready to make a purchase decision.

3. It improves your credibility 

Being Miss Popular on Google often means legitness. When you’re considering making a purchase online or in-store, most people will do some research first. If they can’t find you, they’ll probably think you’re a scam -- and we definitely don’t want that.

The truth is, a majority of web users (up to 80%) ignore paid ads, finding them quite often annoying. The focus is then on organic search results because they are “earned” publicity.This means that when someone is doing research for a product or service, they are much more likely to be pre-sold on your business if you rank highly in Google’s organic search results. Plus in order for your website to rank highly, it will have relevant content which will help your visitors progress through their buyer journey and give you those deets!

Having a high ranking means that Google and other searchers have found your website to be useful. This builds trust and authority for your business and gives consumers a positive feeling towards your business before they even start searching around your site.

4. It is here to stay!

The days when consumers would only learn about your brand and products through traditional paid ads on TV or in magazines, are long gone. Phone books and pamphlets barely exist anymore ( I haven't seen one in 10 years!) and in order to be out there, you’ll need to be online. And if you are online (which you really should be), then you need SEO.

While some people may long to go back to those “simpler” days, the reality is that it’s not going to happen. In fact, SEO is here to stay and it’ll only get more and more complex. The good news is that if you invest in SEO, you’ll be investing in the future of your brand and website.

5. You don't need to pay for ads in SEO

SEO isn’t only for the big dogs. You can hire SEO services on a budget and still get great returns. The key is consistency. There are heaps of SEO tools out there that won’t cost you an arm and a leg. In fact, there are quite a few that won't cost you a dime or virtually anything. A key component of implementing an SEO strategy is through blog optimisation. Blogs won’t be pricey to create and it’ll drive traffic to your website.

6. It helps you understand your customers better 

With the ever-changing marketing landscape, making the most of the data you collect from your prospects and customers will allow you to make informed decisions. While choosing to market to Facebook's 2.5 million monthly active users might seem like a foolproof idea, Google analytics might throw you a curveball. The majority of your audience is actually on Instagram! Your SEO strategy should be guided by consumer insight to achieve better results in targeted marketing.

How we can help!

Now that you know why you should invest in SEO services and where you need to be, how do you get there? We've got a roadmap to success you might be interested in. We've recently taken onboard a new member of staff by the name of Tejasvi, whose SEO expertise is second-to-none. She's helping us big-time in boosting our search rankings by looking over the length and breadth of all the content we've published to get in front of more eyeballs, and giving us actionable recommendations for how we can improve incrementally side-wide. But we aren't just telling you this to boast ... 

With Google's algorithms changing weekly (or so it feels), having an audit of your SEO and adapting your content regularly is crucial, so if you'd like a site health-check from Tejasvi to stay hot on Google's trail and get ahead of the pack - hit us up!

Tejasvi is not only our most valuable asset at the moment, we want her to be yours too! 

Join us in making sure the foundations of your website are standing the test of time, to ensure a fantastic experience for both users and search engine bots!