The world of web marketing is fast-paced, and navigating SEO can feel like scouring a coal mine in search of a particular diamond.
As the business owner, you’re aware that your customers go online to look up the products and services you offer. The challenge is finding out how to drive them to your website.
Enter search engine optimization (SEO). When done right, SEO can turn your website into your best salesman. Using the right SEO practices makes it easier for people to find you. If you generate the majority of your sales online, SEO becomes more of a requirement than an option. This is also true if you operate in a crowded field in a specific location, where you need to vie against more established brands.
SEO drives you to the top of search engine results page (SERPs), gaining you traffic, leads, and eventually, conversions. Ranking high up in search results is, essentially, the most fruitful way to advertise your web-based business.More...
What's The Best Way To Advertise Your Web-Based Business?
Smart Insights looked into studies that aimed to give a quantitative estimate to the returns from SEO. They noted that for searches done on desktop, the average click-through rate (CTR) for results on the first pages was 31.52%. Meanwhile, the CTR was 24.05% for searches done on mobile.
They also revealed that the CTRs decline for results positioned further down the SERPs. In fact, the CTR for results on the first and fifth pages decreases by 25% on average. The farther off from the first page you get, the lower your chances of getting clicked on. Users are also disinclined to move to the next result pages. Most of the time, users trust the recommendations they find on the first two pages.
Please Note: This means that if you're not on the first page of SERPS (Search Engine Result Pages), you're losing potential customers, sales, and profits. YOU'RE LOSING MONEY!
DIY SEO: Can You Truly Do It Yourself?
Budget is always a top consideration, regardless of the size of the business. And in making sure every penny counts, some tough decisions need to be made. Many of budget-related decisions begin with the question: “Is this really something we need?”
When working on a lean budget, SEO can be one of the first things you think you could cut corners on. It’s true that when given enough time, business owners with basic marketing knowledge can do some SEO on their own anyway. There is also a wealth of resources that can support their SEO efforts, from tools to online courses, and many of them are free.
But, the time they devote into learning SEO has to come from somewhere. The problem is, learning good, sustainable SEO practices doesn't happen overnight; it eats up valuable time that startups and new entrepreneurs don't always have.
The rudiments SEO can be relatively easy to grasp, but to be a master takes a lot of expertise and experience. What’s more, SEO is a dynamic industry. The rules and best practices shift constantly because search engines update their algorithms regularly. As search engine preferences become more nuanced, simply winging SEO will not give you the results you want.Get Help Navigating the SEO Maze
An SEO expert can help you navigate the different twists and turns of SEO. You're also likely to arrive at more favorable results than if you choose to go the DIY route. Here are reasons it makes sense to work with an SEO expert:
Find new perspectives on improving your website
You may have already put a lot of work into your website, but you can always do more to improve it. The problem is, it can be hard to break out of your box and look at search marketing ideas with a fresh perspective.
SEO experts can lend you the fresh set of eyes you need to boost your website and turn it into an essential tool for growing your business. They can also help you find new ways to drive leads and improve your site’s conversion rate.
Optimize your website and make it user-friendly
One of Google’s top objectives is to provide online searchers with a smooth user experience (UX). SEO experts can help you create a better UX and to optimize your website for both your site visitors and search engines.
They can help you get indexed by examining your website, determining whether you follow coding best practices or if you pay attention to elements such as page speed, navigation, or responsiveness. From there, they can develop a solid content marketing plan, including your website copy and blog, through in-depth keywords research.
Develop an organic growth strategy
Experts can create for your brand an SEO strategy that gains more organic traffic. Through an extensive analysis of your target market, they can determine the type of content that organically attracts and engages your visitors.
The beauty of an organic strategy is, it can turn your leads into repeat visitors. Having loyal customers translates into a steady and robust bottom line for your business.Save money, time, and effort
Entrepreneurs, especially those who are in the process of growing their business, can be pressed for time. One of the biggest advantages of enlisting the help of SEO experts is getting extra hands to work on your marketing, so you can focus on your business’s main function. In fact, many digital marketing companies offer a full range of services, which means they handle your campaign from branding to lead nurturing, and everything in between.
Here are more ways an SEO Expert can help save you time, money and effort:
- They know the SEO techniques to maximize - If you’re working on a limited marketing budget, experts can explore various marketing strategies available to you. They may, for example, create a PPC campaign or focus on social media marketing.
- They know the ins-and-outs of SEO - Digital marketing experts know SEO like the back of their hands. They understand the tools at their disposal and how to maximize them to boost your rankings. Like I mentioned earlier, an experienced team is uniquely positioned to handle all aspects of SEO for you, from the research work that provides a strong foundation for content creation to link building and online reputation management. This means you get to fully focus on core activities that grow your business, instead of spending time and effort learning, applying and testing out SEO techniques.
See Real-Time Results for Your SEO Campaign and Business
SEO professionals are well acquainted with analytics. They know how to interpret the data they derive and how to apply the information correctly. This tool also tells them, real-time, whether a technique delivers results.
As analytics deliver real-time information, an SEO expert can tweak the campaign or speed up certain marketing activities. This way, you can see organic ranking improvements and conversions faster.Get Access to Tried and Tested SEO Techniques
When you hire an SEO expert, you get access to in-depth industry knowledge and resources. Some aspects of Search Engine Optimization require expertise to carry out. Experts can help you make sense of the complex parts of SEO including:
- 1Your website's existing content and structure, through a comprehensive audit of your web presence.
- 2The factors that drive traffic to your website.
- 3Your visitors’ behavior on your site.
- 4The SEO strategies used by your competition.
- 5The formulation of a powerful content strategy.
- 6The selection of relevant and highly targeted keywords that will help your prospects find your business (certified PPC experts can even help you win bids on sought-after keywords).
- 7The application of reputation management techniques on external sites, including listings, business directories, and review sites.
- 8The integration, interpretation, and implementation of Google Analytics.
- 9The analysis and monitoring that goes into your site.
Finding the SEO techniques that will work for you may entail a series of trial and error. SEO pros have probably encountered all the techniques and approaches there are. With expert help, you don’t have to waste time on practices that might never work. SEO experts eliminate the guesswork, focus on what works for your business, and implement effective strategies quickly.
Get Access To SEO Tools
There are plenty of SEO tools available online. Some of these are pretty straightforward, but some require a certain level of knowledge and constant monitoring to deliver results. An SEO specialist can give you access to these tools. They also know how to use them to give you an edge over your competition.
Be In The Loop of Recent SEO Practices
As has been noted, search engines constantly update their algorithms. Major algorithm changes are usually announced, but smaller tweaks can happen several times throughout a single day without warning.
Expert digital marketers keep track of algorithm updates. They tweak your SEO campaign so it aligns with the new algorithm and they adjust your SEO efforts around recent algorithm updates. Alternately, ignoring these changes can negatively affect the way search engines index you.Avoid Search Engine Penalties
To make sure that users only get results that are most relevant to their search queries, Google has a set of rules; break them and prepare to get penalized. Similarly, being on the wrong side of an algorithm can have consequences that feel like a penalty.
In the past, it was the best practice to use a single keyword in an exact match as many times as possible in a copy. Today, if a primary keyword appears too many times in your content, you might get a penalty. You can also get penalized for using irrelevant links or for giving the images on your site the wrong name. Duplicate or poorly written content and broken backlinks can also trigger a red flag or get you a manual penalty.
With SEO, what you don’t know can cost you a lot. An oversight or a misstep in your business’s legal or accounting matters can have serious consequences. The same is true if you neglect SEO. You wouldn’t go to jail for bad SEO, but it could result in lost revenue.
A penalty may, for example, result in a devastating loss of traffic. It will also take time and money to develop and carry out a recovery strategy. In worse cases, you can even be blacklisted by Google.
SEO experts help you dodge penalties by using ethical, search engine-approved techniques. They help get your brand out there without violating search engine guidelines.A Higher Return on Investment (ROI) Using An SEO Expert
Ultimately, hiring an SEO expert can help boost your ROI. Not only can they push you to the top spot in organic search rankings (boosting your online visibility) but they can also drive targeted traffic to your website.
As you generate leads that know you or are specifically interested in your offerings, they are highly likely to convert. Experts can also help you nurture existing clients and turn them into loyal patrons of your brand.Be Found Online: On-board With Our Experts
When your prospects do an online search, you want them to find you, not your competition. To be in front of possible customers at the exact time of their need, turn to Alkries LLC for a full suite of SEO services.
We are home to certified digital marketers who can create for your brand a tailored SEO strategy that’s tied to your business objectives. We handle every aspect of your digital marketing plan, from lead generation and campaign monitoring to conversion, customer nurturing, and beyond.
We have invested in the people and tools that can help you grow your brand online and overtake your competition. The best part? You don’t have to lift a finger. Just sit back and watch us do all the work for you!
Call us at (540) 808-0996 to schedule a consultation today.