Let’s start with a simple definition!
What is SEO or Search Engine Optimisation?
Search engine optimisation works to maximise your website and online profile for both search engines and users.
Targeted, local SEO especially helps you to make your website relevant to your ideal customer, be user-friendly at a glance, and position you as a subject matter expert for your chosen keywords and audience.
Now let’s break down the exact elements of effective local SEO in digital marketing for you.
Before you even start building or revamping your website, there are important aspects to plan ahead of time:
Keyword Research:
We work with you to determine the precise words your potential visitors are typing into Google’s search engine. We also use professional tools at our disposal to mine databases for clues, and to analyse your competition.
We’re looking for relevant keywords and search terms that fit perfectly with your specific products or services. Then once we have these precious phrases, we can create content for you that matches what your audience is looking for in the search results.
On-page Optimization:
Here’s where we look at the content, structure, and code to make sure they’re all aligned with those keywords we found above. So that’s both the content of each page or post, and the behind-the-scenes or under-the-hood technical SEO elements.
We know what Google and the other search engines need to be able to make sense of what they are visiting so that they can show the most relevant results to each searcher.
It’s about getting all the ducks in a row!
Technical Optimization:
This step shouldn’t be skimped on! Google now actively punishes sites that are too slow to load (you can check your site – or your competitor’s! – at https://pagespeed.web.dev/ or https://gtmetrix.com/).
Fixing it takes very specialised technical knowledge, but we can start by making sure your site doesn’t have large images or video content sure to slow it down.
But technical optimization also means we have to make sure your site displays perfectly on the wide array of browsers and devices now in use.
And that means paying special attention to mobile browsers. Any errors or problems for visitors accessing content on their mobile devices usually means they’ll hit the back button pretty quickly.
Google then notices this “bounce” and logs it as a site that hasn’t been helpful to the user. Meaning they’ll try not to show it again for that keyword term as they want every result to be of 100% value to their users.
Poor technical optimisation (or the complete lack of it) is almost guaranteed to bury your site way down in the rankings and hurt your ongoing SEO efforts.
By taking care of all of these aspects, a good local SEO agency can make sure your foundational elements are all perfectly aligned with a solid search engine optimisation strategy.
After your brand spanking new or rebuilt website is up and running, this is where the real sales value of a local SEO agency can deliver.
Off-page optimization
The technical term here is misleading. “Off-page optimization” doesn’t give the sense of what is really involved.
But if we go back to the essence of “the world wide web” then our job here is to plant your business right in the heart of your ideal customer’s “web” so that they see you everywhere.
This involves building links back to your site (from relevant, authority sources).
It means creating fresh content, with relevant keyword phrases, that serves to expand on your “internet footprint” and with perfect alignment to those profitable search terms.
And it involves literally putting you on the map: making sure your business profile is correctly configured on every service (surprisingly something that even many professionals overlook or get wrong!)
And when this is delivered as an ongoing service, it works over time to keep your business highly prominent on Google and future-proofed against the competition.
So let’s cut to the chase:
What Are the Benefits of Spending Money on Local SEO for Businesses?
- You’ll reach more potential customers: SEO can help you to rank higher on search engines for relevant keywords and phrases that your customers use to find your products or services. This alone will attract more organic (free) traffic to your website, and help you reach more customers who are actively looking for your solutions. Many businesses also report needing to spend less on paid advertising because their internet “footprint” brings in calls, leads, and sales without needing to run ads.
- You’ll increase your conversions and sales: There’s a surprising hidden benefit to the technical elements of SEO: it can help you to create a website that is not only attractive and informative, but also persuasive and compelling. We work behind the scenes to optimize your website’s content, design, and encourage your visitors to take action, such as calling, requesting a quote, or making a purchase.
- You’ll improve your brand awareness and recognition: Effective SEO increases your online presence and reputation, and builds trust and loyalty with your target audience as they start to see you “out there”. You’ll showcase your brand and the unique way you stand out from the competition, as well as providing useful information and solutions for your customers’ problems.
- The metrics help you optimize your marketing performance and ROI: Part of ongoing SEO tracks and analyses your website’s metrics (traffic, rankings, conversions, and sales). This means you get even more granular insights into your marketing performance and return on investment (ROI), as well as identifying lucrative new opportunities, or ways to increase your reach.
Why Do I Need a Digital Agency with Local SEO Services?
Ha! We’re glad you asked… oh wait, we wrote this. Anyway, it’s a good question if you haven’t already worked out the answer!
In reality, although the principles are straightforward, smart SEO is a complex and dynamic process that requires constant monitoring and updating. And it’s a competitive and challenging field that requires a lot of skills, knowledge, and experience.
SEO is not something that you can easily do on your own, or with a few tools and tutorials. And in our opinion, your time is best spent ON your business, not with hours and hours trying to be an expert in SEO!
But here’s a quick scope out of what we do and how we’d approach helping you grow your business – whether you want more calls, leads, quotes… or just to crush the competition.
We start with a Comprehensive SEO Audit and Analysis
This is where we get serious, looking into every aspect of your website and business. In conjunction with you, we look at what’s working, what’s not working (yet!), and identify opportunities.
Then we come up with a custom local SEO strategy just for you. And one that fits your budget…
Where the rubber meets the road: Keyword Research and On-Page Optimization
Here’s where we get to where the gold is buried. Keyword research is part science, part art, and part creative thinking. We get into the minds of your ideal customer and work out what they look for.
We uncover variations; spy on the competition and assemble a list of the juiciest keyword phrases that your website should appear in the top results for.
Then we get down to business, scouring all the elements of your site – the content, the code, the navigation – so that it matches perfectly what Google is looking for when your customer types in those valuable words…
Where we’re your invisible and 100% online secret weapon: Link Building and Off-Page Optimization
It’s a really boring term for putting us to work like a dog with a bone. We work out ways to get everyone linking back to your site so that the ideal web is woven to trap oops, to win over your customer.
This means SEO tactics that match you with other sites, creating guest posts that link back to you, sourcing citations, reviews… and everything aligned with those ideal keywords we talked about.
What Google sees: an authoritative site that it’s happy to show to customers searching for your products and services.
It’s ongoing work (in fact, called “Ongoing SEO” haha) that is worth its weight in gold… and can lighten the load on your paid advertising budget.
The Geeks come out to play with Technical Optimization and Maintenance
No one likes a slow-loading website. Or one that they can’t navigate on their mobile. But the technical elements behind this are quite… technical.
So we make sure your website’s speed, security, and compatibility with different devices and browsers works flawlessly to avoid any errors or issues that can affect your SEO ranking. Google has outright stated that sites loading in over 2.5% may well be penalised in the rankings. We recommend getting your site speed professionally assessed and putting a specialist tech on it if there are any issues.
And if we told you exactly how we do this… we’d have to you’d probably fall asleep with terms such as caching, compression, and minification.
Good job we love it.
We report back every month!
There’s no point in doing all this unless we can all see how it works.
So we monitor search engine rankings, traffic, keywords, links etc all to keep an eye on your progress. And we send you a summary of your growing empire each month.
The good thing about all this measurement is that you’ll start to see where money is well spent (such as calls and forms submitted; new articles that get ranked and bring traffic; social media posts that bring folks to your website and business; and advertising campaigns that are converting.
The point being that this is all about optimising for ROI (your Return on Investment). Local SEO gives very precise feedback, unlike some advertising where it can be tough to see what works and what doesn’t.
Our goal is to see your improved rankings and traffic lead to more sales from the best customers.
The Nitty Gritty: What Are the Advantages of Hiring an SEO Agency?
Here’s our advice (you did ask for it, didn’t you?):
We’re local SEO professionals
Don’t try to do SEO on your own. It’s too technical and is like going down a giant rabbit hole. We know what we’re doing, so there’s no need for you to scratch around trying to do it all yourself by watching YouTube videos. We help free up resources and keep you focused on your business.
We’ll save you time, money, and hassle. No need to hire, train, and manage an in-house SEO team, or deal with pesky SEO errors.
Tap into our technical skills
We think it’s way better to rely on the skills, knowledge, and experience of the SEO professionals to handle your SEO needs and goals. We’re guessing you don’t repair your own vehicles (unless you’re a mechanic).
So use a local digital agency to take the weight off your shoulders. We have access to the latest tools and technologies, we keep up to date with current SEO practices and techniques, and we’re laser-focused on achieve the best results and performance for your business.
There’s no “one size fits” all when it comes to it. Everyone’s goals, budgets, businesses are different. We’ll craft a tailored SEO strategy and plan that suits your business and budget. We deliver customised and flexible SEO services, and a scalable service that will adapt to your changing needs and goals as you natural grow and prosper.
What Should I Look for in an SEO Company?
Not all SEO agencies are the same, and not all SEO agencies can deliver the same results and quality. Therefore, you need to be careful and selective when choosing a search engine optimisation partner for your business. Here are some of the things that you should look for:
They need to demonstrate the ability to understand the nature of your business, how you acquire customers, where your more profitable business comes from.
They should also ask you about your business goals and objectives and how a smart online campaign can help you achieve this faster and with less effort.
Most importantly, they should care about your business and deliver tangible SEO campaign results.
We’d love to talk to you about YOUR business and your goals, and how we can help you grow, get more leads, calls, and sales with less effort.
Contact us now and start the conversation!
