Frequently Asked Questions

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation and simply means the optimisation of a website, or any other online property (article, blog post, sales page etc) so that it can be found on the internet when a user enters a specific search request. For example, if you want to find a plumber in your local area and your local area was Sydney, you might enter into google "plumber sydney" (without the " ") and a number of websites will be shown to you. The website with the best SEO, will be the one at the top of the search page. That is, it holds the number 1 spot in Google. The page/site was "optimised" for the search term "plumber Sydney".

SEO helps you to get your business seen in search engines. The better your website's SEO is, the more likely you will get your website to rank in the number 1 spot on Google. That number 1 spot, generally, gets up to twice as much traffic as the number 2 spot. That additional traffic means more calls, more business and ultimately more profit for your business. You still need to be able to close your deals, but it all starts with the volume of traffic that comes into your sales funnel.

Dominating the number 1 spot in Google doesn't just get you more traffic and thus more sales. It also shows you to be a leader in your industry. The longer you can hold the number 1 spot, the more your business becomes the one at the "top of mind" of people looking for your services, and by competitors in your field. Those competitors will all want to be like you.

As the name implies, on-page SEO is SEO work done to the pages of your website. This can be things like, using the best keywords for page titles and section headers, adding code scripts to the site improve user experience and searchability, speeding up the site for better loading times and generally making the site more appealing to vistors. A lot of additional marketing experience can be utilised with on-page SEO if you use SEO specialists who are not just technical experts, but marketing experts as well. A good SEO specialist can use on-page SEO to help guide businesses to create websites that sell instead of just websites that give out information.

Off-page SEO can encompass many tasks and not all of them may be needed depending on your SEO needs. The most common off-page SEO tasks are things like backlinking (getting other good quality, relevant websites to link to you). Citations, which are confirmations of your businesses name, address and phone number (or NAP) that Google uses as a guide to determine the trustworthiness of your site. Othe tasks can include ranking your website in the map pack. The map pack usually shows up at the top of search pages and shows 3 (or more) businesses with links to the website, directions and other information. Tha map pack is a very powerful place for your business to appear in. Off-page SEO is critical for website authority and longevity.

Your web developer probably DID SEO your site. But they probably did it based on the limited SEO knowledge they have and maybe even to some sort of "formula" that they've been told works. In most cases, this is just the very basic starting point to SEO. Real SEO is about making YOUR website work in YOUR market, with keywords that YOUR potential clients may enter into google and then having those searches turn into YOUR clients. In case you haven't got the hint, it means that SEO is different for every business and every industry and so a thorough investigation needs to be done before even one SEO task is perfomed on or off your site. A good way to get that process started is to get a site audit.

Costs for SEO vary, depending on the level of SEO you need. Sometimes, all that's needed to gain some traction in the search engines is a re-working of your site. That could be a one-off cost from between hundreds or thousands of dollars depending on the extent of work needed. But a site re-working will only get you so far. SEO is a monthly commitment if you truly want to get long-term, consistent traffic and stay on top. That commitment could be anywhere from $500 per month to $2,000 per month depending on your industry, your competition, the state of your site, and where you currently rank at the present moment. If you'd like to get a website audit done to see how your site is doing SEO wise, click here. It's free.

The biggest reason to spend money on SEO is because it works. When done correctly, the benefits to your business on a dollar-to-dollar comparison basis with other marketing methods, is incomparable. For example, spend $2,000 per month on advertising and you WILL drive traffic to your website. But when you stop spending the money, traffic stops also. Spend the same $2,000 on SEO per month, and your traffic will continue to increase, month-on-month not only while spending the money, but long after you cease spending the money. Why, because the benefits of the work are still on your website for all time. They don't just stop. Granted, leave it for 12 months and your business will lose some of the benefits of off-page seo tactics such as link building and citations etc, but the keywords will still be there. People will still find you although your rankings may drop and your traffic numbers decrease a little. Every business should budget for a monthly SEO spend if it wants to remain competitive.

As explained in the previous answer, if you stop doing SEO it won't mean an instance stop in traffic. It will slowly reduce over time however because there are two parts to SEO. On-page SEO and off-page SEO. On-page SEO is about keywords and structure and so that remains on your website for all time until changed. Off-page SEO is about backlinks, and citations and getting your site's authority increased in the eyes of Google. This requires an on-going commitment and the "power" of the off-site SEO will diminish over time if not maintained. It costs you a lot less to stay at number 1 than it does to get there.

Sure, you can do that. But wouldn't it be better to start SEO to get that traffic in the first place. Why wait? The potential lost sales from waiting until you build traffic volume doesn't compensate for the increased traffic and sales you could potentially get by having effective SEO started immediately.

Yes it does. If you want to be found by potential customers searching the internet then SEO is the best way to ensure that your website stays relevant and visible. Advertising is great for "specific" needs, but SEO wins the long-term battle. And if you're not doing it, you can bet your competitors are.

That's the magic queston isn't it? And here's the wimpy answer: It depends. There are so many factors that affect website ranking such as site structure, keywords, site speed, relevant content, backlinks, citations (authority signals), competitors and many more. A good SEO specialist can whittle the problems down or improve neglected areas to make a site rank faster, but time is the only constant. If you want to know how your site stands, call me on 0439 787 139 or get a site audit done today.