Now that we’ve covered getting your new website and your beautifully designed, responsive site is live, we’re now moving on to Search Engine Optimisation or SEO. There is absolutely no point in having a website if it doesn’t appear in related searches on Google, so SEO is a vital part of online marketing in general.
Although Steps 1 – 5 below could be managed by yourself if you chose to, it is important however that you consult a professional company specialising in SEO to assist you with the implementation of a comprehensive SEO strategy to ensure optimum results and value for money.
Below follow the basic steps to getting started with SEO:
Step 1: Define your target audience and their needs. The first step in most marketing campaigns, Search Marketing included, is to start by defining your target audience. Your target audience is a defined set of people who you are marketing your product to.
Step 2: Categorised keyword research. Now that we have identified our specific target audience we are ready to move on the specifically targeted keyword research based on your services and products.
Step 3: Define competitors. How to find them? The easy way to figure out who your competitors are is to type a couple of key phrases you have identified as relevant to your own establishment into the search box on your search engine and see who shows up.
Step 4: Finding gaps and opportunities. This means basically looking at estimated search volume, in other words which keywords are doing well and which might not be. It’s a great idea to keep an eye on how your direct competition is doing with regard to similar key words.
Step 5: Learning from your competitors. Here it’s wise to go beyond just comparing search results, but important to look at their accommodation, service and product features that would make people want to visit your site instead of your competitors as well as sign up, link to, email their friends, share on Facebook and Twitter etc.
Step 6: Customized SEO strategy and recommendations: If you have managed all of the above yourself up till now, now would be the time to hand your research over to a professional company to compile your customised strategy and way forward.
Prices for SEO can vary, it is important that you find the company out there that will meet your needs and budget best. Always remember though that SEO is like any other service, you get what you pay for. A lot of companies make empty promises and have very cheap services. This most likely will not be worth even the low cost and will not help you reach your website performance goals. Be sure to contact a reliable, prefferably local company to assit. Do your research before you sign up!