When it comes to SEO, there is a lot of work involved in on-page and off-page SEO elements including Title Tags, H1 Headings, content, image alt attributes, link building and much more (in fact we have over 200 elements that need to be constantly worked on for SEO! – ssshhh that is our little secret). Ensuring a successful SEO campaign involves much more than just including all these elements. The better your website’s credibility with Google will help boost your rankings, and all of these SEO Elements work towards building your website’s credibility.
To understand SEO correctly, you need to understand Google’s reason for SEO. Google’s reputation and business model revolves completely around a user’s experience. If Google were to put irrelevant information in front of the user, then the user will go elsewhere. The algorithms that Google writes is purely to improve a user’s experience. And no, Google does not tell us it’s algorithms. Suggestions are made by the world leaders, after lots of trial and error, as to what Google is potentially looking for.
Google’s Mission Statement: “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” – 14 Oct 2016
However there are 4 major elements that are essential to a successful SEO off-page campaign that most people overlook.
Facebook Advertising
We all understand the importance of Social Media whether it be Facebook, Twitter, linkedIn, Instagram or one of the many others. But have you considered running a facebook advertising campaign? I hear you! Many of you are right now saying, been there – done that. And often more than not, the campaign has been unsuccessful and just got you time and money. When I talk about a campaign, I am not talking about a “boost” campaign on facebook, I’m talking about a proper advertisement.
Facebook has a higher Domain Authority (100) than Google Australia (68). Yes that sounds strange. Wouldn’t Google have a domain authority of 100 / 100 as they have written the algorithm? But no! There are so many factors and engagement and interaction are huge. Facebook is filled with engagement and interaction. So with that in mind, it would be safe to consider having a website like facebook link back to your website. What great credibility that would give.
Okay but there is more to it than just that. Yes your business page will have a link back to your website already but it isn’t generating “engagement”. An advert will generate engagement through clicks (driving traffic to your website), shares, comments and likes. This shows that real people are interested in what you have to offer or what you do. This all leads to building a great credibility campaign.
So go out there and start a Facebook advert campaign. You don’t need to break the bank, setting a daily budget of $5 will go a long way to getting your business name out there, getting some engagement, linking back to your website and oh yes… potentially bringing you in more leads.
If you are interested in finding out more about Social Media Marketing, we have a brilliant expert that we can refer you to – Lars Halvorsen at Admarketing Australia (Social Media Guru)
Google Adwords
Google Adwords is one of the most powerful tools out there, it can bring you business from the moment you set it to run. You can pause it, alter it, run multiple campaigns, setup video campaigns, target specific demographics or specific website pages, remarket back to people who have visited your website, set your own budget and best of all – Only pay when someone clicks on your advert.
Yes Google Adwords can be a complete waste of money and time if it isn’t done correctly. Recently we had a client come to us to review his campaign. He was trying to target Pest control in Robina. He had setup his own campaign, he had not setup a campaign budget limit, he had not considered the campaign quality score and he had setup a keyword “Robina”. In one day he had over $200 in clicks, with no enquiries and after a quick investigation the clicks he had paid for were items such as “robina train station” and “robina shopping centre”.
It is imperative that you setup a successful Google Campaign to drive you traffic so that you are not just wasting money. It is said that running a Google Adwords campaign helps give your website much needed credibility as your business truly exists and you have an operating bank account which shows Google that your business is here to stay and can be trusted. The more your website can be trusted the better it will rank. So if you have $300 to $500 (minimum) a month set aside for marketing, then we advise you consider giving Google Adwords a try.
If you are interested in finding out more about Google Adwords (which is targeted, measureable and cost-effective) then contact [email protected] or 0449 679 519, we are Google Adwords Certified and Google Partners.
Google Plus
Now Google Plus is one of those very much “I don’t have the time for this social media platform” yet for Google – Google Plus is a definite tick for SEO. So if Google favours websites that have a Google Plus presence then we can only recommend you take the time to get one setup. If we are managing your SEO already, don’t worry – we already have you covered.
Google Plus is also great for Bloggers. We have found over history that if you post a blog on your website and then put the blog onto Google Plus, it shows up much faster in SEO organic rankings (a little tip there for those of you bloggers!)
Reviews
Everyone loves a 5 star review and no-one likes a 1 star review. We completely understand that, but reviews are essential for giving credibility to your business. There are two places that we also recommend people go and place reviews – Facebook and Google My Business. Having reviews that are not on your website and that have been written by genuine people, not just put onto your website by you, gives your website credibility. It allows Google to see that your business does what it says it does and how good it is. This helps Google to give the end user a better experience as the end user can see how well you perform. It all comes down to credibility and the more credible sources you have the better your rankings.
But what about 1 star reviews? We all get them! They are painful. But if you handle a 1 star review correctly, you can turn it into a 5 star review. An end user will always look to see if the company responded to a 1 star review. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you have a 1 star review, do not attack the person, thank them for their review and offer a way to fix the situation so that you can turn that 1 star into a 5 star. It is all about customer service.
For 5 star reviews – don’t forget about these. Remember to always thank the person who has given you the review, show them your appreciation, it is very important.
So how do you get people to review you? We recommend sending your client the links to where they can review you directly after you have completed the job / service / delivered product (make it as easy as possible for them to give you a review). It is then fresh in your client’s mind and they are often more willing than not to write a review for you. If you leave it too late, your client has often moved onto their next project and doesn’t have time to write a review. For your existing clients who haven’t reviewed you as yet, you can always offer them something in exchange for an honest review i.e: a bottle of wine, or movie tickets for two ( we don’t support bought reviews and you will get penalised by Google for fake reviews)
So Where to from here?
We have given you a lot of useful information that you can use with small monthly budgets to help with your website’s credibility and SEO positioning. To start we recommend setting up your reviews link and getting clients to give you reviews, make sure that your Google Plus page is setup and linked to your business, then get your Facebook Advertising campaign setup (it is a setup and forget) and if you have some marketing budget then most definitely get setup on Google Adwords.
If you are looking for another interesting Article – go and read “Benefits of Facebook for Business” on the Business Queensland Website.
If you have any questions around any of these areas or would like any assistance with any of this, then please do not hesitate to contact our team [email protected] or 0449 679 519
