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It's Not Just SEO
Here's a conversation that I wish I had with most people before they even get online for their business: it's not just SEO.
While it might've started as just Search Engine Optimisation, SEO is so much more now. When you go out there with your business and just say "I need SEO", it shows that you don't know the landscape. That also means service providers can take advantage of you.
What type of SEO does your business need?
Ideally you'll need all three for your business but you can do this in stages to stagger the cost. Here are the basics:
1) On-site SEO: For this you would ideally have someone doing regular monthly maintenance on your site to ensure that search crawlers like Google and Bing would be able to correctly index your content. This would mean having someone a) structure your webpage data with schema.org text to make each page more crawler friendly, b) regularly check for page ranking and indexing errors on your site, c) ensure that your website is regularly indexed by crawlers and that they recognise the correct data that you've made available.
2) Off-site SEO: To ensure that 'healthy' online traffic is brought back to your website, you'll ideally need a way to share company updates across the web (e.g. through a blog, press releases, or LinkedIn posts), and have them link back to your own content.
Your established traffic channels should be reported on a dashboard like Google Analytics where you can breakdown each of their sources and see the quality of the traffic that they're driving. You should also be able to setup your goals for engagement through Analytics whether it's email queries, brochure downloads, etc.
A good SEO service partner can walk you through the setup of these individual goals directly on a reporting tool like Google Analytics. They should also be able to explain and walk you through how you can measure the value of your incoming leads (e.g. recognising the ROI value on new leads vs. repeat visitors).
3) Search Engine Marketing: This is a specific type of advertising where you pay for clicks directed to your website. Google Ads and Bing Ads are primary examples of this. You also have business vertical-specific aggregators like metasearch directories for Travel .
When you start paying for search results, you will want a result on your investment or ROI. Consider working with a consultant if you're planning to spend more than USD$300-a-month and an agency if you plan to spend over USD$1,000 so you can hold an expert accountable for your investment and get advice from them on how to expand.
What is Schema
Schema are the subtitles of the internet. It's the backbone of the entire internet's crawler data. If you want the machines to makes sense of whatever content is on your website, you need to add schema structure each of your important website pages. You can learn more by going directly to schema.org.
What to Watch Out for
First off, stick to your schedule.
When working with a consultant or agency for the first time, ask for what to expect within the first 30-60-90 days and have them stick to it. This is about building a relationship with each other more than maximising the metrics. Make sure that they can deliver on your agreed goals and that you understand the reporting methods and metrics that they present to you.
Next: Look for conversions over views.
It can be a 'soft conversion' (not an actual purchase, maybe an enquiry or phone call) or a 'hard conversion' (the visitor takes a clear action like a direct sale or website registration). A good consultant or agency will help you determine how you can gather data on each of these for your website and work with you on how to meet them.
Lastly, you should be able to clearly say 'No'.
If you're not seeing the agreed upon results, you should be able to say, "sorry, we're good. I'm done" and walk away without any issues. Investment should also be agreed upon upfront. Don't be scared to talk about what you need to happen for your business. Remember, they're the specialist. They should be able to walk you through how they can help you.
Sam, I'm still not sure.
Ok, maybe this isn't what your business needs. You don't know. A specialist should be able to walk you through. Want to talk to somebody about it? Let's do that.
Connect with me.
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