SEO stands for search engine optimisation. You’ve probably heard of it before, but what exactly is it and why do you need it? SEO is a long-term marketing strategy that helps your website rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), which means more people will see your site when they’re searching for something relevant to what you offer.
It can be complex and confusing to execute correctly, but thankfully there are plenty of helpful resources out there. In this blog post, we’ll break down everything you need to know about SEO so you can make an informed decision about whether or not to invest in it. Let’s get started!
SEO Myth Buster #1: Build it and they will come….
Does this sound like you?
- You have a shiny new website, everything looks lovely but no one comes to buy from you?
- You re-designed your website but your website traffic has crashed?
- You bought a business, you were promised leads from your website, but the reality looks different?
- You are really not sure about your tech stack but someone said you should do SEO?
Truth is, you have a chronic problem of an over-promising and under delivering website.
If you find yourself with one of the listed issues above, we have a lot of work to do already. Let’s hope your content and online reputation is good. And oh, we hope you also have solid products or services…. If all these are in place, with some ethical SEO work, we can turn your business in the right direction.
There are 4 components to every SEO job we lay hands on and yes, you need it 🙂
- Technical SEO
- On-Site SEO
- Off-Site SEO
- Content Production
With technical SEO, we look after the technical aspects of your website and your content. We will check if search engines can actually read and interpret your website. Although helpful, we can assure you having a pretty theme is not enough for search engines to understand what you sell or do. You need to structure your content and posts in a way that a search engine understands. I can hear you asking yourself; What does that mean? This is where I introduce you to the concept of structured metadata.
Onsite SEO focuses on optimising the content that is already on your website to make it more sound. This means, we look at the architecture of your post. We will add h1 and h2 tags, we’ll also add content to the pieces that look a bit light. That’s not all, we will also add imagery that are well titled and have ALT tags so that a search engine can read them. This is a manual process, by optimizing what is already there, it is easier to find and it’s also indexed better.
Off-Site SEO is the attempt to link your content to reach more people. We can do this by organising an outreach campaign and by collaborating with other content providers and also take part in online conversations happening in your niche.
Content Production is the delicate art of producing content that leads prospects and customers through your products and services and part of our marketing suite. So if you want a hand with your content, then squawk out.
SEO Myth Buster #2: Content is king
Yes, content is super important but technical SEO and structured metadata will do 75% of the job of getting you found. The metadata indicates the organisation of digital asset on your website, (almost like how pages in a book from chapters). Before google can index your page, content, and digital assets, it must understand the pain point you are going to solve for a customer. This way, your website becomes an option for various search queries. With the right piece of code, you can tell Google what your products, services and website is all about.
Once Google understands what you are doing, it can index your website. Then you can worry about the content and its delivery.
SEO Myth Buster #3: Produce blog posts, it’s fun, they said.
When you start producing content for your business, you might have so much to say and share with the world. But after some time, blogging can become a bit of a burden. We see it across all industries and no matter the size of the business; small or large, content production is not easy to keep up with.
The parrots recommend you get yourself a copy of Marcus Sheridan’s book ‘They ask, you answer’ if you are in need of some inspiration on content marketing. If you prefer someone else to help you, we can assure you we know how to map out what part of content is important and what is nice to have. Over the past year or so, we have established a proven process of finding relevant topics, keywords and search queries that attracts people. And f course, we develop worthy contents around our findings. You still don’t like the idea of producing content? Well, you could save yourself the stress and get the parrots to do it for you.
SEO Myth Buster #4: I can outsource SEO cheaper to somewhere in India
Did you ever get an email about SEO services and promises about guaranteed rankings? Do these services come at a cost of $150 a month? Tell me, are they going to be done in a 3rd world or developing country? Well, if you have hired one of these dodgy SEO companies, you already know it’s a bad idea. Time after time, we are left cleaning up after so-called SEO companies who leave a trace of shame behind them. You’ve heard of Back links on Russian porn sites? Shitty PDFs on shitty link farms? Fake answers to fake questions on Quora with an anchor link to your site that you can’t seem to shake? Yes, we have seen it all. And we have cleaned it all up for our clients too. Yes! It can be done, we’ve got you covered… I should warn you though, it is labor intensive and time consuming. I recommend you do it right the first time. Let people who use logic, systems, and ethical marketing practices take care of your needs.
What’s next? Do I need SEO?
So, if you find yourself nodding along as you read this, we have some work to do. Luckily for us (and you) our team is full of experts in driving website traffic and turning it into paying customers. In fact, over the years we’ve helped businesses in a wide range of industries achieve their online marketing goals—from lead gen to ecommerce growth. If you want to learn more about what we can do for your business, take a look at our services page or contact us today. Our team would be happy to chat with you about your specific needs and see how we can help get your website performing better than ever before.