SEO continues to be one of the most cost-effective and scalable way to build brand awareness online and attract qualified, valuable website traffic.
But here’s the thing, SEO has never been and will never been an exact science. There are more than 200 individual variable elements that must be considered in an effective SEO campaign. SEO professionals are tasked with understanding these individual elements and creating SEO campaigns that can increase organic visibility in search engines like Google.
SEO is infinitely scalable – so long as there is search demand for your products or services. Unlike pay per click advertising mediums, search engine optimisation continues to work around the clock to improve the organic visibility of a website even when a user is not paying for Ads.
At Safari Digital, we have seen more than one hundred businesses flourish with the help of SEO services. From small businesses SEO services that have enabled small businesses to grow from three employees to more than 16-employees over the course of 12-months, to enterprise level SEO services that have grown from eight to nine figures of revenue per year.
SEO continues to be effective for a wide range of business types and niches. The general rule of thumb that we need to follow is this:
If a user is accessing the products or services that you are selling through Google Search, then it is worth putting time, money, and effort into SEO.
What Is SEO?
SEO or search engine optimisation is the process of optimising the on-site and off-site elements of a website to enhance organic visibility. The four essential pillars of an effective SEO campaign include:
- Technical SEO
- On-site SEO
- Off-site SEO
- Content Marketing
Search engines determine how to rank and sort content based on more than two hundred individual ranking factors. It is the job of SEO professionals to understand how to optimise a website in-line with these key ranking factors. By improving the technical, on-site, off-site, and content aspects a website, you can boost organic visibility and keyword rankings for revenue-generating keywords.
When Does SEO NOT Work?
Not every business is the right candidate for search engine optimisation. At Safari Digital, we receive dozens of enquiries each week from business owners that are looking to grow their business with search engine optimisation. Of those people, we only end up working with a very small percentage (less than 10%). There are a range of reasons why we will not work with a business for SEO, but some of the most common ones include:
1. The Market Does Not Necessitate SEO
As the famous quote from Henry Ford Goes: “If I had asked people what they wanted; they would have said faster horses”. The same logic must be applied to every business that enquiries about SEO. If an individual or company comes to us with a ground-breaking product, they may not be the best candidate for SEO. Search engine optimisation is only effective when people are searching for the products or services that you are offering. If people are not searching for your goods or services, then it won’t matter if you are ranking #1 or #100, you are not going to get valuable leads from SEO.
2. Your Budget Does Not Match Expectation
Ranking for competitive keywords is hard. It doesn’t matter if you are doing SEO in Coffs Harbour and competing for lower search volume keywords, or you’re attacking a large metro like Sydney or Melbourne – ranking for competitive keywords is hard work. At Safari Digital, we have to dedicate technical SEO professionals, content writers, web developers, and SEO specialists to each SEO campaign. The expertise of these professionals all comes at a cost. Getting results from SEO is not cheap. That being said, when done correctly, the revenue derived from SEO should far outweigh your investment. We focus on delivering a return on investment. If a client comes to us with unrealistic expectations on a shoestring budget, we’ll be the first to tell them. There are more than enough SEO providers who will promise you the world and deliver nothing – we are not one of them.
3. You Do Not Understand the Process
Search engine optimisation is not a ‘one time fix’. We cannot ‘SEO your website’ and be done with it. So long as your competitor s are trying to get ahead of you in the Google search results, we will need to keep improving your website to stay visible in the search results. One of the biggest misconceptions about SEO is that you can do it once and be done with it. SEO is an ongoing marketing investment that requires constant attention and time. If you are not in the position to commit to SEO for the long term, we recommend that you hold off until a time when you are in a position to do so.
What Does SEO Success Look Like?
SEO Success is defined by an increase in your Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). Depending on your business and your industry, the KPIs that matter the most to you will be different. Some of the best metrics for measuring the success of your SEO campaign include:
- Improved keyword rankings
- Increased organic website traffic
- Increase in enquiries
- Increase in leads
- Increase in sales
- Decrease in cost per customer acquisition
- Improved business efficiency
- Improved brand awareness
Before we start working with a new client, we always plan out what SEO success would look like to them. We need to understand what they want to achieve and what their most important metrics for measuring success would be.
So, Does SEO Really Work>
In short, Yes!
SEO is still one of the most effective ways to grow your business online. Over the last few years, the process of improving organic visibility has become increasingly complicated. With so many different factors at play, it may be worth speaking to an SEO company that can help you through the process.
