In the ever changing world of Google search it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. As a business owner you may be wondering if SEO even matters anymore. The answer is yes, but with a twist. Today I’ll share with you the important details you need to focus on when looking for SEO services to be provided from a vendor.
What are SEO services?
An SEO service provider provides search engine optimization (SEO) to increase visitors to your website by obtaining high-ranking placement in search engines, search engine ranking positions (SERP). Business owners can hire a SEO vendor to manage their search engine rankings.
1. Old School SEO Doesn’t Work Anymore
When I say “old school” what I mean is that just building hundreds and thousands of links doesn’t necessarily help your rank anymore. This is what old SEO service providers did years ago, they just built links to your site, and that alone was enough to drive traffic to your website. Now the game has been changing for the past 4-5 years, and it’s actually very good news for business owners. SEO in many aspects has become simpler and easier to manage.
2. What Kind of SEO Do You Need?
I’ve spent nearly a decade working in the SEO services industry. There are thousands of providers out there and each of them has a unique approach to how they rank sites high in the search results. If you’re unfamiliar with SEO than it can be very confusing to try and understand all the different techniques that a traditional SEO service provider tries to explain in their pitch or proposal.
Does SEO even matter anymore? Yes it really does matter in a big way, but the great news is that you as a business owner already have all the experience and skills you need to decided if you need more SEO. You also already possess the tools that are necessary to determine if the SEO work proposed by a vendor is adequate. Next I’ll show you exactly how to gauge both of these areas.
3. Search Engines Are Getting Smarter (They Act Like People)
In the past link building worked for ranking your site because that was a simple algorithm that told search engine software how valuable and important your site was. The good news in today’s search marketplace is that search engines are getting smarter and smarter. They act more like humans and less like robots. What does this mean for you?
The fact that search engines focus on content that humans enjoy reading and viewing is a great opportunity for you. This means that you can stop worrying about how to “game” the search engines, and start creating valuable interesting content that people enjoy engaging in. This is the “new” SEO that every business owner should be focused on doing themselves or hiring out to a qualified SEO and content marketing firm.
When You Hire an SEO Service Provider:
- Make sure that outstanding content is their first priority
- Social media must be a major component of their proposal
- Video marketing should also be included in your SEO strategy
- Link building should only be a segment of the strategy, not the primary focus
- Last but not least, make sure that your SEO firm is recommending that you utilize some paid search as well
Search engines are businesses just like you and I. I have yet to find a time where a small amount of paid search didn’t help organic SEO rankings. Search engines don’t like to disclose anything about this, but they don’t have to. Imagine if you had 10 paying customers and 20 non paying customers that used a free tool or service that you offer. One day one of the paying customers calls you (imagine they pay for a different service your company offers), and they asked for a few minutes of help with the free tool you have. You would of course assist them with the free tool. They pay you on the other side of your business, so it makes sense to make sure they are happy using your free tool as well.
I am sure that some SEO professionals or pay per click (PPC) experts may disagree with that theory, but it’s proven to be true for me every single time I have incorporated it into a campaign. Make sure that you discuss this aspect with your SEO vendor so you are both on the same page on this front.
4. A Simple Content Marketing SEO Strategy
As I mentioned earlier, outstanding content must be the first priority of your SEO campaign. If you are creating outstanding content that people want to read, you’ll have no issue dominating the search engine rankings, but more importantly, you’ll get a piece of the traffic that your website deserves. Last year I realized that this approach was not just an important component, but now a primary component, so my team and I launched a service the specifically focuses on creating outstanding authority guides.
Here’s what one of our client’s experienced after adding this rocket fuel to their SEO strategy:
Our new service is called Get Traffic Booster and with this service we provide 7,000 to 10,000 word authority guides, sometimes called pillar posts, around a specific topic. As you can see in the traffic log above, our regular SEO work was creating a steady increase in traffic for our client, but after posting the authority guide they started to get huge spikes in traffic, and their overall traffic increased dramatically.
There was a large increase in traffic compared to the previous time period:
All this increased traffic came from one principle shift in our SEO approach for this client, and that is that we decided to spend more of our resources on creating outstanding content, than on doing any of the traditional SEO work that many SEO services like to focus on. SEO is a complex practice, I’ll be the first to admit that, but it doesn’t have to be so complex as it used to be anymore.
The primary focus of all SEO should be around content marketing now. A great content marketing service can help you do your own SEO work, or you can hire an SEO services provider to handle it for you. Either way, remember that you need to focus on providing really useful and helpful information to the visitors of your website. If you make that you’re primary goal, you’ll find success no matter what in the long run.
5. How to Take Action Claiming Your SEO Rankings
Ranking well in the search engines does in fact matter, so yes, SEO matters big time for every business these days. It doesn’t matter if you’re a local retail shop, or an all online retailer. You need to pay attention to how well you’re ranking and how much traffic you’re getting.
Ranking highly in the search engines takes time and effort, so if you don’t have the time do to it yourself, I’d recommend that you outsource this activity. Even if you only have a modest budget, the investment can pay off over time and secure more visitors and more revenue for your business.
Are you ready to take the next step? Does your business deserve the traffic, leads, and revenue that SEO can bring? I believe that it does! I’d love to spend a few minutes of time with you to discuss your goals and needs and talk about what SEO services would be the best fit for you and your company.
If you’d like to start dominating the search engines and put SEO power back in the hands of your business, take 30 seconds and complete the form below. I’ll be back in touch and we can make sure that you’re business gets the results you deserve!
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