Search Engine Optimisation
SEO is the part art, part science of driving qualified traffic to a website via the natural listings on a search engine results page (SERP). There would be no digital marketing topic which has more written and said about it; and here are the reasons:
Lots of Money at Stake
The business level advantages of appearing high up on a results page for a given keyword phrase are undeniable - most people turn to their favourite search engine as their first stop for information discovery (and few search past the first page of results).
Once You're There it's a Beautiful Free Ride
There are no direct costs associated with appearing on a results page, or any costs incurred if a person clicks on a natural listing bringing them back to a page on a website.
Nobody Really Knows For Sure
Nobody but a select few really knows every in and out of how the search results are determined in the order in which they appear; the make-up of the underlying algorithms for each search engine is secret sauce. We know most of how it works, but not all of it.
This combination of high stakes and no definitive instruction manual has created a prevalent industry dynamic: money being paid to individuals and companies who have a less than a half-baked grasp of the fundamentals at play. Knowledge gaps are readily plugged with jargon and acronyms.
Here’s What We Do Know
Get these two sorted and you’re 90% of the way there:
Firstly, the staple of the search engine indexing process is words; search engines seek to match up search queries with web pages which have been discovered to contain the same words. Secondly, search engines attempt to serve web pages higher up the results page which are deemed as being more ‘important’ than others within a particular keyword phrase space; the determinants of importance from a search engine perspective are the quantity and quality of inbound links to a particular webpage (Google uses a 0 - 10 logarithmic scale called ‘Page Rank' to rate each webpage).
If you can get the right keywords onto your website and get the right kind of websites to link to your own, you will have gone a large part of the way to optimising your ability to attract search engine derived traffic, hence search engine optimisation. Be wary of anyone promising a page one position for a given keyword phrase unless it’s a performance based arrangement, i.e. no position, no pay. There are just too many uncontrollable variables at play to guarantee page one success.
The Importance of Segmentation
Like so much of digital marketing, segmenting your market is the key to successful SEO. We strongly recommend a good old fashioned ‘butcher paper’ exercise. Map out your business by isolating your various target segments, sub-segments and sub, sub-segments. Each defined segment should be allocated its own webpage with its own keyword focus. The chosen keyword phrases will be derived by researching how people within each segment search for the product or services which you offer. Don’t assume you know which keywords people are using – in our experience it’s not what you would first expect.
By optimising each webpage for each segment you’re targeting, you’ll end up optimising your whole website. Don’t build a website and then look for content to fill it with - let the butcher paper segmentation exercise drive the website’s final structure.
Shysters and Other Shonky Dealings (or Just Plain Stupid)
The unsolicited - spam - email below typifies a smoke & mirrors SEO element that is all too prevalent. This firm is so good at what they do that they need only apply their own ‘system’ to their own business to get all the juicy online leads they’d ever need – oh, but wait a minute, why then would they need to be spamming me…?
Hi There,
I know you place tremendous value on your time so I'll be brief.
I came across your site, www.***.com.au, and it was obvious that you've poured a lot of time and effort into building your business to where it is today. However, I have also noticed that your internet search positions are very low for some very profitable keywords in Google and the other major search engines. As you most probably know by now, top internet positions are an extremely effective way to help customers who are looking for products / services, like yours, to find you instead of your competitors.
In doing my research, I found and searched several quality keywords (associated with particular locations that may be relavent (sic) to you, including Melbourne VIC) in all the major search engines including Google that have good traffic volumes and can bring you more customers. For each of the different key phrases (I only focused on key phrases with good search traffic volumes), I found you ranking outside of the first page. In fact, in most instances, you were nowhere near the first page of Google or any of the other major search engines.
I'm sure you'll agree that the biggest challenge most business owners face is fishing for prospects. There is no reason why your business should not be on the front page of Google and the other major search engines for these high traffic key phrases.
We have a system that could potentially bring you hungry customers searching for your product / service and being driven to your website without you having to spend hour after hour on the phone, cold calling your way through the phone book getting rejection after rejection.
Every day there are over 250 million people online; Google services over 7.5 Billion searches every month, if your website is not getting top rankings it is simply getting lost amongst the millions of competitors sites on the internet.
Premium organic (left hand side) rankings driving qualified customers to your website are one of the most effective forms of marketing. These are people who are already searching for the products you offer. I'm talking about being able to get rankings that will steadily increase your profits over time, and doing all the things the search engines love on a steady and consistent basis to produce the results you are looking for.
I'd like to invite you to use our system so that you can stop fishing for prospects, battling voice mail - and make your customers chase you instead.
Plug your business into our step-by-step proven system that will deliver more new customers to your website, no matter what industry you're in.
What our company does is unique, and critical in getting top rankings. Not to mention the profits that come with it....
We have a very simple method to show you results in a way that doesn't force long term commitments or excessive risk, you'll never have to guess whether this is something that will work for you or not. If you don't see the results you are looking for within a few short months, you simply cancel and move on - this is how confident we are in our ability to secure first page rankings for your business, and our ability to further defend those top rankings in the search engines over time.
I work with a limited number of businesses in each industry to ensure there is no conflict of interest. I have written to others, however you're definitely one that I feel could benefit from what we do and I am confident that we have the ability of delivering the type of high quality leads that you have been looking for.
There is no reason why you should be missing out on all the profits top rankings can bring you.
I understand that you, like me, are busy running your business. However, if you are interested in working together to get your product in front of more interested highly qualified customers than ever before, or you would just like to know how increasing your search engine rankings will increase sales and revenues then pick up the phone and call me on 02 **** ****, now. Alternatively, I will be more then happy to call you with your permission. I have your number as 61 3 **** ****. Is it ok if I give you a call?
I'd greatly appreciate the opportunity to discuss how easily we can work together.
Thanks in advance and I look forward to hearing from you.
Dedicated to your Success,
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