SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization which is the process of optimizing a website to rank naturally in a search engines organic search results using onsite and offsite optimization methodologies. For a business SEO is a way to get more visitors to their website as well as to establish brand awareness and become an authority in their industry online. Search Engine Optimization can be done to achieve national rankings or local rankings as well as a combination of both.
We mentioned Organic or Natural Listings above so lets define what that means as well as what other models of search engine listings their are:
- Organic Listings – These are the search results that you see below the PPC advertised listings as well as below your local search results if the search engine decides that the search that the user input is a search that should show local results first. Many of the times these are for terms that offer services that require the business to be close to your location. These are search terms like plumbing repair, mechanic shop but they can also extend to product searches.
- Paid Listings ( PPC) – These are exactly what they sound like. These are the listings that you see above the natural listings as well as local listings in the maps. These listings are strictly advertising listings where companies bid on search terms and pay for the advertisement by the click. This means if someone clicks on your ad you will pay for each and every one of those clicks.
- Local Listings – These are the listings that appear locally and they are what you see in the map pack. This is designed for people that are looking for a local business or service in their area. Its a perfect place for businesses like lawyers, dentist, plumbers, mechanics, and shops of all kinds to work towards existing. This is also part of SEO and is what is called local SEO which basically just means that the optimization works toward your website ranking on terms that a search engine deems to be local.
Looking at these different ways of marketing your business online it’s important to think about how your business operates as well as what type of client is the best fit for you.
Organic Listing
Paid Listing
Local Listing
Local SEO Versus National SEO Or A Blend!
When it comes to search engine optimization with the purpose of getting in front of as many possible customers for a business the first real question becomes ” Does the business operate locally only or does it operate all over the Country or even the world.”
Factors in deciding on a local search campaign or a national one:
- Local Search – A local campaign is really something every business should consider even if your focus is to sell products nationally it’s always nice to be able to cultivate business in your area. Local SEO campaigns are structured towards searches with local intent like someone looking for a product or service close by.
- National SEO Campaigns – This is an approach to rank on keywords that are pertinent to your business service or products on a national level. These campaigns usually take more effort and resources to achieve and for a new site can take some time. Here the whole intent is to be seen by a national audience and therefore service the whole country and break out of a local market.
- Blended Approach – If you offer a service or product that can reach outside the local area we recommend a blended approach to your digital marketing This is where you work on ranking locally as well as across the entire nation to solicit business from all over.
How We Do SEO
Our approach is to optimize your website and google my business listing in a way that uses googles best practices guidelines. Now that seems like well anyone can do that what do I need an expert for? Well, it’s not as simple as it looks while we follow the guidelines we are constantly working towards understanding the Google algorithm and its ever-changing natures to feed it quality information and offsite signals to solidify its understanding of what your website and business are about. This ensures that your site has the best chance of ranking on search terms that are relevant to your business. Take a look at our SEO offers and you will start to get an idea of everything that goes into making good organic rankings happen.
Be Different & Unique
Google as all search engines looks for sites that are informative and helpful so if your intent is to have an e-commerce site that sells things that is fine but while that maybe your focus the focus for the search engines is to offer their users the best search results and therefore the best information for their searchers. So think more how can I help people looking for my type of service and help them. When you do that the rankings, as well as the clients, will come!
For service-oriented business, it is very much the same which does seem contradictory in the sense that if I tell them how to do it why would they use me? What we have found is that if you provide quality solutions to problems most people will start to view you as the expert and a problem solver. So who do you think they will do business with when the time goes that they just don’t want to deal with it even tho you showed them exactly how? Yes, you guessed it most likely the business where they found helpful information and that sounded like they were pros at what they do!
Every site and industry is different
While we have out of the box SEO packages we always recommend a custom plan for your SEO project. The main reason for this is because no two websites are the same in what they need to get the best results. When it’s a brand new website then it’s easy it needs everything in cookie cutter SEO plan, however, when its a site that has been around for a while it may already bring some assets to the table which changes the best approach to getting it as much visibility and traffic possible. Also, every industry has different needs which are generally dictated by what your competition is doing as well as what the search engine is allowing them to get away with. Sometimes there are things that everyone in a vertical is doing that would not fly in another. While we always steer towards caution and best practices sometimes the only way to get the results needed is to bend but not break the rules a bit.
White Hat SEO How Clean Thou Sounds!
- White Hat SEO – Our approach to optimization is what is called white hat SEO which is the approach that is optimization within the guidelines of the search engine. With Google search engine optimization it is very important that you adhere to the rules or otherwise you will face the wrath of Google in the form of penalties that can rob you of a big chunk if not all your traffic. While you can recover from a Google penalty there are times when someone has gone too far and your site can be permanently penalized and delisted which means all the resources spent are lost and you have to start over in such cases. This usually happens when someone uses black hat or outdated SEO tactics. We have seen this happen when someone uses cheap SEO services that are overseas that are still operating like its 2000 and not 2019 and are therefore using tactics that are no longer valid for SEO optimization in this day and age.
- Black Hat SEO – This refers to using search engine optimization tactics that violate the guidelines of the search engines but can get you quick but usually fleeting results, as well as that black hat tactics, can cause long term damage to a site and someone may have to clean up and do a penalty recovery clean up after its all said and done which can be quite a time consuming and costly activity. That is the best case scenario. Worst case is that the site is permanently damaged and will need to be scrapped entirely.
All of our SEO services use only white hat search engine optimization techniques. It’s the right way and most sustaining way to get search engine rankings that are made to last.
