Search Engine Optimization
There is a great deal of snake oil sold to businesses for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). There are companies dedicated to relieving you of your hard-earned money with claims which sound incredible. Beware SEO providers as they can destroy your ranking as well (we have personal experience with this). Here’s our take …
Firstly, if any one person or company could guarantee top placement on Google in a given sector, they would be so rich they wouldn’t need your business. Claims of “top ranking” sound great but often have no duration (so it could be top for one second and the promise fulfilled) or for keywords so long/complex they will never be searched.
Google (70%+ of all searching) has been clear on the subject. Content is king along with properly designed, responsive, and hosted website. If you say the right things, say them well, and do it within the best (published) practices, often you will prosper with good rankings. Some things you can’t change (domain/site age etc.) but there are always options.
Example of keyword SEO monitoring over 6 months for a site we own and manage
SEO consists of several elements including page speed, back-links, security, front-links, content curation, relevancy, GUI quality, mobile-friendliness, METAS, location, social connections, and around 200 more elements. We have tools to assist in monitoring and improving SEO as well as ensuring the tech is optimized.
There is both on-page and off-page SEO. “On-page” are the things that your web designer can influence, being all elements in the coding, design, and hosting. Off-page SEO means (among other things) getting people to link to you (back-links) and can be effective or disastrous – we have seen both.
The good news is that very few people actually do SEO properly meaning you have an opportunity. The bad news is that SEO (especially off-page) can be expensive because it is time-intensive and often the tools needed to manage it are also subscription-based. We would be delighted to discuss this further with you.
AdWords, PPC, CPC, Facebook etc.
It is possible to buy ads on Google and Facebook (to name but two, large providers). Usually, you pay when a user clicks on an ad. This is called PPC (pay Per Click) or sometimes CPC (Cost Per Click) advertising.
These campaigns are designed to be self-administered and open to all (the systems are public, not hidden or subscription-based) but in actuality, unless you are pretty familiar with the process, it can be complicated.
Example of short-term PPC marketing December Retail Campaign
We have experience with Google and Facebook ads in particular. We know the pitfalls and the benefits, how to admin accounts as well as set them up. We are happy to discuss this with you. This goes hand-in-hand with social management.
