What is SEO?
What is SEO? Search Engine Optimisation, is the practice of optimising content, as well as other on-page and off-page factors, in order to increase the visibility of a webpage or website to search engine users. Traffic obtained in this manner is called organic traffic since it is obtained from search engine results with no payment made for the search rank.
How SEO Works
The search engine recognises the value of a webpage/site based on the quality of the content, its relevancy, and a variety of other factors, and ranks it accordingly in the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). This is the basics of how SEO works.
The higher you rank for relevant keywords the higher the possibility of getting a high ROI of your SEO campaign.
Google is the king of search. Net Market Share determined Google dominates a whopping 75% of searches performed by internet users. Success in SEO, therefore, means optimising your site for Google. Other close competitors include Baidu, Bing, and Yahoo who hold a collective market share of 22%. These too must be factored in for a successful SEO campaign.
The Benefits of SEO
In order to understand the benefits of SEO, it is crucial to understand the different types of search results presented by search engines. There are two main results: organic and paid.
As mentioned, in organic search, the results are free. Google ranks pages in the order it considers them to be the most trustworthy and authoritative.
In paid search, however, the results are ranked based on how much advertisers are willing to pay for every click to their website. This is known as Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising. In order for a site to appear at the top of the SERPs, the owners have to pay considerably more than the others.
While large corporations with huge budgets can sustain this, small businesses tend to struggle since they are unable to outbid their competition. With SEO, small businesses can yield similar results, albeit at a slower pace (initially), without breaking the bank.
The ROI of SEO: How SEO Increases Business Revenue
SEO done right will give your business a high ranking on search engines. Depending on the nature of your website, the high rank can help you increase your business revenue in one of four ways:
1) By increasing search impressions.
A search impression is counted when your site appears on a search result page for a given term or query.
Appearing in top positions translates to more exposure for your business. Thus, people searching for your services are more likely to click on your website and engage with your business if you can solve their problems.
2) By increasing your click-through rate (CTR)
A higher search rank will generate more impressions. If the search snippets (meta title and descriptions) are well optimised this will translate to a higher click-through rate and thus more revenue.
3) By increasing your sales conversion rate
SEO helps your business better compete by appearing high in the search results whenever someone searches for a product or service that you offer.
The higher the rank, the more trustworthy your business appears to the customer since search engines only rank businesses highly that they consider to be credible and trustworthy. In the long run, this helps you net more sales.
4) By increasing your average order value.
Part of SEO is to increase a site’s usability not only for search engines but for users as well. By re-arranging a site’s page links and architecture it becomes easier for users to navigate and find information and engage with your business. In this sense, SEO is highly effective particularly for growing businesses since it can translate to an increase in revenue due to higher engagement.
How Long Does It Take for SEO to Work?
It depends on a variety of factors. No two websites are the same. Some websites may take a few weeks and others months depending on how much content they have, how much (if any) SEO they’ve done in the past, how long the site has been around e.t.c.
How SEO Can Be Measured Through Analytics
The best tools for monitoring SEO progress and rankings are Google Analytics and the Google Search Console a.k.a Webmaster Tools.
Google Analytics collects data from your website automatically and prepares periodic reports. Some of the data presented in such reports include the bounce rate, your visitors’ demographic e.g. age, gender, the device used e.t.c. Analytics also helps you to understand where the bulk of your visitors come from i.e. the social platforms to target, your site’s click-through rate (CTR), the number of successful conversions e.g. calls, contact form submissions and other actions you want your visitors to take.
How to Measure Revenue Generated By SEO
Depending on the mode of monetisation your site uses, there are different methods of measuring revenue generated by SEO.
A business that offers services, for example, can use Google Analytics and similar tools to track the number of contact form submissions, calls and other actions that show engagement on your site and compare this data with before you started your SEO campaign. This way, you get a good idea of how much business SEO brings you.
Depending on your website you can use the data from Google Analytics to determine your overall monetary growth and adjust your SEO plan accordingly.
SEO is Complex
SEO is like investing in the stock market. A solid understanding of the industry is required in order to be successful.
In order to develop an effective SEO strategy, extensive research must be conducted on a variety of factors such as the potential traffic levels, high traffic keywords, the competition for the keywords, the past performance of keywords, the searchers intent, industry predictions and trends, e.t.c.
The decision on how to proceed with the campaign will then be based on all the accumulated bits of knowledge and information gathered.
Why Choose Digital Surfer?
While it is easy to believe that SEO is easy, the truth is it’s far from it. SEO is not a one-time endeavour. It is an ongoing process that is constantly evolving not just with the changes in search engine algorithms but also with technological advancement.
Google releases more than 500 algorithm updates a year! In order to ensure an SEO campaign remains effective such updates must be studied in depth and appropriate action taken. This requires a full time commitment.
At Digital Surfer, we are full time, committed SEO and digital marketing specialists based in Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast. We will handle the SEO for your business, big or small so that you can focus on your core business activities.
We have a task-driven system to ensure client campaigns are run with the highest possible efficiency. Our primary focus is on raising your SEO ROI to ensure you receive more revenue or leads.