Search Engine Optimisation
What is SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)?
That’s a good place to start! When you perform a search on an engine such as Google, Yahoo! or MSN Live, they use an algorithm to produce your search results, these results are ranked in order of perceived relevance to the search term you entered.
There are dozens of factors which come into affect to produce this ranking and just to make things harder, they change frequently and the search engines don’t tell you what they are! An SEO agency such as zoomzoom has search engine experts which are dedicated in researching these algorithms, finding out how they work, then applying this knowledge, in an ethical way to your website.
Why is SEO important and how can it benefit my business?
Think yourself about how often you use search engines, like most people, you’ve probably got one as your homepage. Even if you know the address of a website, it’s far quicker just to type a couple of words into Google to bring up the site for you. Sound lazy? You’re certainly not alone, over 90% of people use search engines to find websites.
We know people use search engines, but how far do they go to find search results? Do they only go for the first three pages? Is being on the top of the second page better than the bottom of the first page? Take a look at this pie chart, it shows how far Internet users go to find search results:
This data was collected from 650,000 AOL users and it demonstrates that over 91% of users do not go past the 1st search engine results page! A lot of this traffic is sent to “above the scroll” sites, which means the results that show, before you have to scroll down the page.
Why is search engine traffic so valuable?
We’ve established that you need good rankings to be found in search engines, this all sounds like a lot of effort, why is it worth it? Search engine marketing is what’s called as “pull” marketing, meaning you are exposing users to your brand with their permission. Imagine if you were selling a product and I gave you two options, option A) would be to deliver leaflets through the doors of 10,000 random people, option B) I can deliver leaflets through the doors of 1,000 people the instant they are thinking about buying your product. This is essentially what you are doing with search engine optimisation, you are exposing users to your brand at the most critical decision and buying stage. There is no other medium where you can so precisely target and measure your performance. Once you are ranked well in search engines, this traffic is free, you are not paying per visitor, per click, per lead - you are getting targeted results naturally. This is why search engine optimisation is one of the best long term online marketing strategies.
Is zoomzoom any good at search engine optimisation?
The SEO industry is flooded with cowboys and people that will make promises that they cannot deliver. Rather than try and sell zoomzoom and tell you we’re great (that’s what every other company does) we’ll tell you what to look for in an agency and let you see the results we can achieve for yourself.
Here are some things to bare in mind and some questions to ask when you’re hiring an SEO firm:
- Nobody can guarantee you rankings
As unfortunate as this sounds, there is absolutely nobody who can guarantee you organic search engine positions for competitive terms. This is because the search engines, Google, Yahoo!, MSN and the like have the final say - and what they say can change, other websites can change. There is a lot you can do to improve you rankings, however there are far to many variables for any guarantees to be made. - What is the SEO agency’s track record
The best way to see how good an SEO agency is, is to ask to see the results they’ve had for other clients! They should be able to provide documented evidence of the work they have done, the rankings they have achieved and how they got there. - At what stage should I look at hiring an SEO agency?
As soon as possible! There are a lot of technical requirements for search engine optimisation and you can save a lot of money in the long run if you have professional SEO advice as your website is being designed. - Nobody has a “special” relationship with Google
Google does not run any schemes or programmes or maintain any relationships with professionals looking to optimise websites. Anybody claiming to have inside knowledge or contacts at Google, is very likely telling fibs. Google do not release information about their algorithm as this would compromise the quality of their search results. - There are no “tricks” in search engine optimisation
There are a lot of ways you can try and “trick” search engines into rankings your site well. These methods are known as “black hat” in the SEO industry and will most likely end with you having your site banned from Google, not the best long term business plan. There is no need to try and trick search engines, you can work your way up ethically without having the risk of losing all the time and money you have invested into building your online presence. - How long does it all take?
Search engines such as Google have to “index” and compare literally hundreds billions of pages on the Internet before they can sort any type of ranking. For this reason it is not unusual for results to take 3-6 months to surface, along with the fact Google has preference to older domains - SEO is an investment, not a one off service you can have and be done with. - How much does SEO cost?
Search engine optimisation prices are normally charged by hour or by project. You’ll probably get people offering to optimise your website for £50, I’ve even heard as low as £30 a year! Too good to be true? That’s because it is. If their services were worth more, why would they be selling them for so cheap? Search engines are a central part of your online strategy and deserve to be invested in like any other part of your business. Hourly rates for SEO range over agencies from as low as £10 per hour all the way to £300 per hour with minimum project sizes.If you are interested in using search engine optimisation to drive your business please e-mail us and we’ll discuss your needs with you.