If you own a business then you almost constantly think about growth and increasing revenue. To succeed, one thing your business needs is exposure. Traditionally, you could gain exposure with the help of print media i.e. newspaper ads. Since the digital revolution has taken off however, it’s digital media that has taken over.
This shift in consumer behaviour:
Consumers have shifted the way in which they search for information and businesses have had to adapt their marketing efforts. Search engines play the biggest role when it comes to seeking and providing information. In fact, over 90% of all traffic on the internet is generated by search engines such as Google. Also, 80% of people use search engines to look for information about a product before they make a purchase.
Every day, internet users perform millions of searches worldwide in the pursuit of information. Search queries could be related to services, goods or just pure information seeking. Websites that appear at the top of search results are most visible to users and thus inherit the most traffic.
As a result, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) was born, with businesses competing for space on search engines for their slice of the pie. Part of SEM, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) has become one of the most effective and economic methods of gaining exposure on the internet.
SEO is all about driving targeted traffic to your website. To succeed, you need to optimise website content such as keywords, images and text, so that search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo view your website favourably, thus improving your search engine rankings (visibility).
More and more businesses have realised the value of SEO and have employed the services of SEO Specialists like us. The reason being is: with SEO you’re only attracting relevant traffic to your website. Internet users are performing a search term and you’re showing up in the results. We’ll explain it all in more detail below.
It all starts with keywords:
The queries users input into search engines are known as keywords. For example, John Citizen owns a 600-square-metre property in Sydney and has no time to mow the lawn. To find a local lawn mowing service, John will use a search engine. In fact, 81% of consumers on the internet finding products they’re looking for by using search engines.
When John enters “lawn mowing Sydney” into a search engine, his search term is known as a keyword. This keyword – or some variation of it – will be searched by many internet users each month.
Above, we can see the keyword “lawn mowing Sydney” is searched by approximately 260 people each month. It’s important to keep in mind that there are many variations of this keyword that a user could search, each with its own search volume. Find one more example below.
“Lawn mowing services Sydney” is what’s considered a long-tail keyword, meaning that the search term is a lot more specific. Typically, users who enter long-tail keywords are more ready to make a purchase. These keywords are often more difficult to compete for.
As you can see, the first step to increasing your business revenue with SEO is to identify what relevant keywords your target market is searching. Based on just the two examples above, we can see that 300+ people search for lawn mowing services in Sydney on a monthly basis. There are plenty more variations of these keywords out there. Imagine how much revenue you could generate if close to 300 people called your business on a monthly basis.
To see how many people are looking for your service, we recommend you use KW Finder where you can sign up for a free 10-day trial.
Next, you need to optimise your website:
Now that you understand a little bit about keywords, it’s time to tell you about the next step: optimising your website. In a nut-shell, optimising your website means telling Google what it’s about and then giving Google confidence that your website is the best source of information for a given keyword.
To do this, you need to perform on- and off-site optimisations. Moz has written two fantastic articles, explaining on- and off-site optimisation. Have a read by clicking on each of the links below:
- On-site optimisation: https://moz.com/learn/seo/on-site-seo
- Off-site optimisation: https://moz.com/learn/seo/off-site-seo
After properly performing these optimisations, your website will begin to rank higher on Google, which is crucial to increasing your revenue. As you might imagine, the higher you rank on Google then the better your chances are of being seen. In turn, the chances of visitors clicking through to your website increase as well.
On average, over 85% of people using search engines never look past the first page on Google. Furthermore, if you find yourself outside of the top 3 positions on Google then the chances of someone clicking through to your website significantly drop with each position. The chart below depicts this perfectly.
As you can see, being on the first page of Google is not enough. You need to be near the top for users to truly consider your brand. To successfully get to the top, you need to be aware of all the factors that influence your ranking.
So, how will SEO help increase your website revenue?
It’s time to answer the big question. There’s no easy way to do this, but if we’re going to go for a simple answer then: Successful SEO practices help you get found by people looking for your product, service or information you offer.
This means that the people who visit your website aren’t there for no reason. If you’re a travel agency then anyone who has visited your website via organic search has done so looking for travel-related information i.e. holiday deals, travel inspiration ideas, destination guides etc. For this reason, SEO is referred to as an inbound marketing strategy.
Next, SEO will increase your website traffic. Over 91% of all web traffic is generated by search engines. In fact, organic search contributes to more traffic than any other channel i.e. social media, pay per click and display advertising. So, to get found by more people online, you can’t go without SEO.
In addition, SEO will help you generate more sales. How? Because the people who are visiting your website via search engines are doing so because they’re looking for something relevant to what you offer. Remember what we talked about with keywords. Nobody is going to land on a lawn mowing services website via Google accidently.
What if your goal isn’t to make sales? What if it’s to generate leads? It’s the same case here as well. SEO has a better conversion rate than any other digital channel. Overall, if you were to choose a single digital marketing channel, then over the long term, SEO would do the best job of helping you achieve that goal.
Increase your business revenue with SEO services from DesignQ:
At DesignQ, we have been helping a wide range of businesses increase their website visitors and generate sales. From local tradies to nationally-targeted travel websites, DesignQ has achieved Page 1 rankings for a multitude of clients.
Contact us for an obligation-free chat to discuss exactly how SEO can help your business grow.