When it comes to internet marketing, the first choice is often the hardest – to use an SEO firm or DIY?

Search Engine Ranking Matters Because If it Can’t be Found, It Can’t be Bought

No matter how great your product is or how user friendly your site, if customers can’t find you then to them, you don’t exist.

63% of people never search past the first page. Most of those 63% never look any further than the top 3 results. With more business being done online, your website and your search engine ranking are key to your business thriving, not just surviving. You’ll find a lot of conflicting advice online on how to improve your rankings but the very first decision you need to make is clear: get a specialist SEO Firm or DIY?

1. Hire a specialist SEO firm to do the work for you.

Use an SEO firm that is happy to educate you on what they’re doing and why. Look for an organisation that is happy to answer questions rather than trying to shut them down. You need an SEO company that is consultative and open.

Beware of any company offering guaranteed page 1 ranking – they’re usually going to rank you for a low volume search term – or worse, a new term they’ve made up which won’t actually drive any business your way. Beware of lock in contracts and actively avoid any company that claims to have an ‘inside track’ or a ‘special relationship’ with any search engine company.

As with anything else, make sure that you shop around; a cheap price doesn’t always mean substandard service but be cautious of companies who offer ‘pay on achievement’ style deals; rightly or wrongly, these kinds of ‘bargains’ are most often associated with less ethical SEO firms and you may find yourself paying more in the long run.

2. DIY your SEO.

Read everything you can find on SEO. I know when you own your own business you do long hours – you finally close for the day and you get to go home and do book work, or read industry journals, or try to write something for your website or social media page but if you plan to DIY, you need to invest time into reading everything you can on SEO. You’re going to read a lot of conflicting advice. You’re going to be confused by poorly written articles. You’re going to start drinking lots of coffee.

But in amongst all of the fluff, you’re going to find tools and techniques that work. Try to remember that when it comes it SEO there is no right or wrong, there are just techniques and some work better than others for you and your business. No one knows exactly how the search engine algorithms work, most SEO is the result of studying the often limited information that the Search Engine companies release, then making educated guesses and running experiments. Don’t be afraid to run your own experiments to see what works best for your industry. Commit to spending a set amount of time each week on your SEO, whether that’s reading articles, creating content or doing keyword research, consistency is key.

SEO is not a quick fix. Even when you know what you’re doing, it can take months of painstaking work to get to where you’re going. The most important thing to do, is start.

Not sure if you want to hire an SEO firm or DIY? Want some more info on what Agile SEO can offer? Contact us today to find out how we can help you grow your business!

The post SEO Choices – Hire an SEO Firm or DIY? first appeared on Agile SEO - Search Engine Optimisation.

As SEO Brisbane specialists, we often hear people who don’t really understand SEO, but have decided that they ‘don’t like it’ (usually due to a poor experience with an inexperienced SEO company) praise content marketing like it’s a completely different thing. News flash: it isn’t. Content Marketing and SEO are like strawberries and cream – great on their own but put them together and WOW.

SEO

SEO tends to be narrower in focus. It’s more technical. It makes demands. SEO requires content – you need words and articles in order to have something to optimise! There are things in SEO that may not appear to be directly related to content marketing, but they all support content marketing.

Content Marketing

Where SEO is focused and technical, content marketing is holistic. When SEO demands, Content answers. Need a blog post to optimise? Content’s got your back. SEO wants to target some new keywords? Let Content provide you with the vehicle to do it. SEO needs link backs? Who you gonna call? Content!

Supporting Roles

SEO and Content Marketing essentially provide the star supporting roles to each other. Why do you need robots.txt? So that search engines can crawl your site and access your content. Why do you need a sitemap? So users can easily find and access your content. Once all technical optimisation tasks are completed, you’ll find that it’s easier for the user to get to that great content. Because the most brilliant, thought-provoking and technically perfect content is wasted if your site isn’t optimised and no one will ever find it.

SEO is constantly hungry for new content – fresh content is rapidly indexed and ranked higher on SERP’s than older content. Even better, if – due to your SEO efforts – your site’s authority level has historically been ranked quite highly, your consistent, fresh content will usually get a boost in the search engine rankings.

Take Aways

SEO & Content Marketing go together like a horse and carriage. You just can’t have one without the other.

A Content Marketing campaign will not achieve the desired results without SEO techniques. An SEO campaign will require great content to be successful.

Bring them together to get the most out of your next online marketing campaign and get the most out of your SEO Brisbane.

Don’t have time to do it yourself? Contact us now to find out how Agile SEO Brisbane can help you manage your online marketing!

The post SEO & Content Marketing Work Together first appeared on Agile SEO - Search Engine Optimisation.

Key Points to Remember:

Most people will find your site through search engine rankings.

If a customer cannot find your product, they cannot buy your product.

Social Media supports discovery.

Search Engines aim to help users solve their problems by giving them the best sites to do so.

Search Engine algorithms rely on ‘cues’ to help them determine which sites can best solve users problems.

Use frequently updated, compelling content to gain incoming links.

Aim to create concise, scannable content; most people won’t read the whole page.

Where Are You Ranked? How Do People Find You Online?

What search terms are they using? Are there other (closely related) terms that are getting more traffic that you can target as well? Whereabouts do you sit on the search engine rankings? What search engine optimization changes can you make to get higher?

Social Media

Your social media pages can also rank on search engine listings and they feel more personal than a website. In addition, increased traffic to your site from social media can have a positive impact on your search engine ranking, so make sure that your social media and your website complement each other.

Search Engines Solve Problems

The user enters a question and the search engine finds the sites that are most likely to answer it. What questions are users asking that you can answer? Does your website reflect this?

Search Engine Algorithm Cues

Search Engines are continually monitoring users online behaviour, they use this and other cues to help determine which sites are most likely to answer a user’s search query. Good design plays a key part in this, as does speaking the users language – avoid jargon, made up words or ‘cutesy’ headlines. Use keywords that users are actually entering – as shown below, there can be a massive difference between the singular and plural forms of a search term or by adding/removing a location.

Using Content to Gain Quality Incoming Links

Incoming links are an important way to build the authority of your site in the eyes of the search engines. Remember, they exist to solve users problems, if other people are linking to your site it shows the search engines that you must be answering someone’s needs already and thus, can be trusted. Just remember that not all links are created equal and some can do more harm than good. Good search engine optimization will involve building quality links from trusted sites.

Concise, Scannable Content

Want an example? Check out the BBC’s news headlines. On average they use 5 words – that’s around 35 characters to draw readers in. No fluff, no filler; most of us are rarely so concise. There is a multitude of research that shows users rarely read an entire article, rather, they skim over it to find key pieces of information in order to save time. By cutting out fluff, you increase the chance that they’ll read the entire piece, ensuring that your message is clearly received and understood.

Of course, if you don’t want to do all this yourself, you can always contact us for assistance with your search engine optimization, we’d love to help!

The post Search Engine Optimization – Key Points first appeared on Agile SEO - Search Engine Optimisation.

In the online age, many organisations are facing both internal and external disruption, resulting in leaders who are actively searching for methods to deliver increased digital value.

Every business is striving to gain a competitive advantage from their investment and it can be difficult to determine just where you should be directing your efforts.

Here are our tips on how to make sure your digital marketing strategies create higher revenue growth and margins.

The CEO Must be an Advocate for Digital.

In today’s online society digital is what makes your vision, reality. Thus, digital is of vital importance to every area of the business. It appears that this message is being taken on board. The majority of CEO’s today actively lead the charge on the importance of digital marketing to the business. It is a necessity and CEO’s need to be creating their business strategy around digital, not the other way around. On top of this, the CEO’s attitude will set the tone for the entire executive line-up and thus, the wider team. If your CEO isn’t converted yet, they need to be.

Get the Executive Team on Board

If you are your entire executive team, then the good news is that you should already be doing this.

PwC’s annual Digital IQ Survey uncovered that on a global basis, CEO’s are 5 times more likely to focus on disruption than CDO’s, leaving huge potential for plans to fall apart. Every member of the executive team has to be on the same page with it comes to digital. By ensuring this, you will maximise the value of your investments as well as making it more likely that you will identify anything that could adversely affect your strategy.

Use External Innovators to Drive Change

Engage with external parties to utilise their insights and agility on technology. Many organisations are reaching out to those looking from the outside in, in a bid to find solutions to challenges, gain inspiration and react to disruptive technology. Connect with the community via Face Book, Twitter, Instagram and any other way that works for your business. There is an entire world full of people with valuable insights. Use them.

Digital Investment = Competitive Advantage

Actively look for emerging technology that can assist you in growing your business. While it can be difficult to know which step to take first, the priority will always be anything that is going to maximise your growth. Strategically speaking, technology for data mining, data analysis and cyber security are almost always going to be at the top end of your list.

Utilise Your Data

It’s not enough to capture data – all the data in the world does you no good if it sits in a vault. Pull it out, dust it off and use it! Businesses who understand the value of the data they gain will work to extract every ounce of value from it. The biggest barrier to success is a lack of the skill to interpret said data. If you’re unsure, speak to an expert, just don’t let it go to waste.

Build a Road Map

If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re never going to get there. The biggest challenge to growing your revenues via digital marketing is not having a clear plan that details what you want to accomplish and how you plan to accomplish it. There’s always scope to update a roadmap as the digital landscape changes, but you need to have something in place.

Measure Your Results

Any business that invests in digital marketing & tech is going to want evidence that the investment was a sound decision. When comparing your results against your roadmap, don’t forget to measure increased customer satisfaction. Traditional metrics such as ROI and increased revenue only tell part of the story where digital is concerned – cyber security, improved brand awareness and customer satisfaction are all valuable outcomes of your investment.

Digital investment is a necessity in todays marketing landscape and is frequently the difference between mere survival and stratospheric success. Think of the most successful businesses that you know – chances are, they all have a digital marketing strategy that is executed with meticulous care. If you need some help with your digital marketing, why not contact us today to find out how we can help?

The post Maximising the Return on Your Digital Marketing Strategies first appeared on Agile SEO - Search Engine Optimisation.