For those not in the know search engines such as Google etc look for certain criteria in your website. They crawl billions of sites and index them as they feel they need to. They then rank them on importance. Factors include keyword ratio, h tags, alt tags, compliancy, age of site and much much more.. (this list is very big!)
In the main companies either have someone in house working on this or come to professionals, like ourselves, and we push their search engine rankings up based on agreed keywords.
SEO once in action can make a huge difference to a business; it can increase leads and enquiries. Traffic on the high ranking listings is without doubt much higher than that of a site not optimised. But does this mean that the business is doing better? Does it mean you can kick your feet back and watch the business come in?
This blog entry I hope will get business people thinking in the first part and secondly realise the internet may not necessarily be the be all and end all of a business model, and to think so is very hopeful.
WE CAN ONLY DO SO MUCH!
Your behaviour, conduct, grammar, spelling and etiquette are a tool you need to utilise.
We can only get you there... what you do with it is down to you. In fact this has been tried and tested. A very good client of ours tested the theory. I have optimised 2 sites under the same keyword for him.
He received the same enquiry from both sites.
Site 1 sent a beautifully written email showing the lady all the positive points of his service, and how it was an experience to use his service. This quote was £25 more than he would normally send.
Site 2 sent a quick thanks for the enquiry and a price £25 less than the original sent out. The lady booked from the first site. (He also charged the correct rate at the time... in case you thought someone was being ripped off!)
Our Advice.. Sometimes simply replying isn’t enough, especially the general public. Make every enquiry feel special.
DO THE BASICS
There are also some classic errors in seo, especially for companies trying to do it themselves. Again a recent client showed me their impressive seo work, but was frustrated at the lack of enquiries. After a quick look at the Google keyword tool it seemed that on average the main keywords were searched for less than 100 times a month. The keywords we felt they should be aiming at came in around 3,400 searches a month. Our advice... do your research!
One of the hardest jobs in life is to tell someone who is very proud of their work, that in all reality it’s not very good. Being top of Google is fine, but if the site doesn’t deliver on looks, navigation or just making sense the bounce rate will increase. Fortunately so far the people we have had to tell this too have become our biggest advocates, so all good in the end. Just awkward to begin with!
Let’s face it we are all vein to a certain extent, maybe a look at your site and an overhaul are needed.. it’s not as expensive as you may think.
Our advice... hire a professional.
BACK TO BASICSAnd... finally.. before the internet came, before Google began their world domination.. What did you do for leads and enquiries?
This is the cannibalistic part, so I’ll be quick. Ask yourself that question.. look at your business, before the internet what were the traditional methods of gaining business.. Obviously internet related services can look away, but even people who E-Commerce.. what would you have done before..? Is being top of Google everything?
Some businesses just aren’t made for search engines, your business will and does come other avenues. In certain industries we have found 20% of business comes from seo, 50% who you know and the rest word of mouth/promotions.. this came from a very frustrated client. They were putting all there effort into the 20% and wondering why the site wasn’t performing as well as his rivals. Who of course put the right effort in the right places. We had to tell this one we couldn’t really help him with the rest of his business in the politest of ways.. Our advice.. seo is brilliant, but don’t rely on it alone.
IN SUMMARY
A well optimised and pretty looking site will do well on search engines and more importantly with your visitors, the internet is to be taken advantage of and some remarkable achievements can be made. But to rely on it solely can be somewhat narrow minded and not necessarily profitable. Remember your behaviour is part of your corporate identity and you are judged on this. Put the elbow grease in, ask any Dragon on BBC2 they will tell you exactly this. Very rarely does a site produce a millionaire overnight.
