Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the art of structuring a website to rank highly in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP), emphasising Google results.
As we like to say at GOOP Digital
“If you want to hide a dead body, put it on page 2 of Google.”
Many people believe that SEO is simply about scattering keywords on a website page, and the rest is easy. As many business owners will tell you, “it’s not easy ranking on Google without professional help”.
As an SEO Agency in Geelong, working with clients Australia wide, we get SEO and how it works for small to medium businesses. So what we tell you today may be completely different tomorrow and then different again next month.
Google is forever changing its algorithm to prevent dubious behaviour (to increase Google rankings) and at the same time reward websites that deserve to rank in Google. Ironically the term ‘Search engine Optimisation (SEO) was credited to Bruce Clay by an industry analyst, Danny Sullivan (now Public Search Liaison at Google). But the term optimisation goes against the grain of Google rewarding business. I think the term Search Engine Validation (SEV) would have been a better term to use.
Photo: Karl with Bruce Clay SMX West, San Jose.
Back to SEO
As mentioned, Google is forever changing the metrics as to what helps ranking or not. To write about this would take a book, and in reality, it is something that most businesses really need to employ an SEO specialist agency; however, some simple factors impacting SEO are:
- Keywords
- Backlinks
- Duplicate content
Keywords
keywords are a no brainer to mention. When we first commenced GOOP Digital (2007, wow, that’s a long time ago), You simply loaded up the keywords in regional areas and watched the rankings begin. Plumber Geelong this and plumber Geelong that. Next thing you know, you were on top of Google.
Then along came the Panda Algorithm (released February 2011) by Google. A lot of conjecture about keyword stuffing commenced here. (And this is when Google started getting very clever, in my opinion). Too many keywords meant a serious drop in rankings. However, many people interpreted this as being penalised. Google was not so much penalising keyword-stuffed websites rather. It was rewarding better written natural content that was valuable to users. Relevant valuable content that solves the problems of users will always win 🙂
Backlinks and Link Farming
Links from other websites to your website were once one of the key premium drivers of Google rankings. This led to the development of link farming. A practice that once almost always guaranteed immediate results in Google rankings. Google made a major algorithm update named Penguin (released April 2012). This was a major overnight game-changer. Those agencies and or businesses with websites that were heavily invested in the practice of link farming disappeared from the face of the earth (otherwise known as Google SERPs) overnight. Backlinks are still, to this day, a premium factor in Google ranking; however, this needs to be done ethically and with reputable websites.
Duplicate content
If you happen to write a cracking blog that may focus on a geographic location, you cannot just copy and paste this blog and swap the name of the town out for another location. This is duplicate content, and Google does not like this at all.
You read a blog, and you like the content? You can’t just copy and paste this and pass this off as your own blog. Apart from the fact that you are probably breaching copyright laws, you are also doing things that are not going to help you with SEO.
The world of Google is constantly changing
Many people call themselves SEO copywriters. It’s a very objective exercise in measuring their work. Do a keyword search for the topic and location (if applicable) and see where they rank. Doing this very simple test can highlight the deficiencies or the skills of your said SEO ‘expert”.
SEO is not just about rankings for our clients. It is reporting our SEO efforts, measuring Google rankings for keywords we have focused on. Cross validating Google rankings with Google Analytics to measure any true impacts. i.e. have people been landing on this blog?
If someone is doing SEO work for you, it doesn’t take much to do a Google search to see how their work is performing.
SEO knowledge is not something you can get from quickly reading a blog. You need to continually learn and adapt to the latest trends. Over the years, GOOP Digital has attended some of the world’s largest SEO conferences. SMX West in San Jose and PUBcon las Vegas provided incredible insights, and we monitor blogs from a variety of sources daily and share them within our team daily.
However, our greatest knowledge comes from implementing what we have learnt and then monitoring and measuring the impacts of what we have done. This ongoing commitment to SEO as an SEO specialist agency means we can consistently deliver outstanding results in Google for our clients. By regular reporting of our results, our clients can get about doing what they do and where they do it. It’s our job to get them to rank in Google for what they do and where they do it. We should be good at this now. We have been providing SEO services tp our clients since 2007.
If you are looking for an SEO specialist agency in Geelong that can help take your digital marketing to the next level, feel free to give us a call.