Introduction
When beginning the website development process you are going to be met with a lot of new terms that you may not have previously been familiar with. These may include hosting, SSL, AdWords, domains, but perhaps the most important for you to know is SEO.
What is SEO?
SEO or Search Engine Optimisation refers to where you rank for web searches on search engines such as Google. The goal of SEO is to increase the quantity and improve the quality of users accessing your website. Improving your website’s SEO involves regularly updating your website with relevant content that aligns with the Google algorithm. As this algorithm is always changing there is no one silver SEO bullet to make sure you rank. It requires consistent content planning and development to achieve tangibile results.
What does SEO look like for your potential customers?
When a potential customer has a problem in today’s world, where do they turn? In the days before the internet (back when people had patience), people would turn to a neighbor, or even the golden pages to find solutions to their problems.
In today’s fast paced and competitive world, when people have a question, or need a problem solved, they will often turn to search engines like Google and Bing for guidance.
For example, if you are looking for a professional service in your area, you might go to google and search for something along the lines of “personal injury lawyers in Dublin”. You will then be met by pages and pages of search results. The further up the search results your website lies, the more credible your business appears to consumers and the more likely they are to choose your business over your competitors.
What is happening at the top of the page? What are these “Ads”?
If you look at figure 1 above, you will see that the first few results are marked with a black tag “Ad”. These are Google Ads – one of our main areas of expertise, and the subject of our future blog post. Essentially, these ads are businesses that are paying to be here. They are effectively jumping the SEO queue for fast results. Google ads are great for short-term success and rapid results, however, SEO is a medium-long term strategy for online success.
What is happening in the middle of the page? What is the purpose of the map?
The next thing users see is the map of the local area pinpointing the locations of businesses near you. This is known as local SEO and is the fastest growing area of the Google search network. Google have indicated that local service providers are more relevant for their search customers, and that we can expect to see these listings prioritised over the coming months and years. These results shown are a mix of google ads and natural searches.
So, what are the results below the Map?
Finally, after the ads and the maps we can start to see the “organic results”. These are websites that have put a focus on appearing for your specific search result. These results didn’t have to pay Google to be here, instead, they have built out a strong website with great content. They got there through strategy and commitment to providing their customers with regular & useful through their website.
In Conclusion
Google is constantly evolving, and focusing too intently on Ads, Maps or SEO is a risky strategy. For real tangible and sustainable results, your business needs to be working on at least 2 of these areas, and ideally working on all 3 of these areas.
If online success is a focus for your business, then SEO (and Maps) will be something you will have to think seriously about. At BeQuick Media we specialize in helping businesses maximize their online potential through SEO, Maps and Ads. If this is something you would be interested in learning more about why not drop us a message and see if we can help improve your business’ online presence.
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