Why it is important to use a professional SEO company

SEO, Search Engine Optimisation, Digital Marketing (call it what you like) has changed.

What worked in 2010 can get you penalised now, in fact what worked 6 months ago is pretty flaky. There is so much more involved.

It used to be about keyword research, meta tags, ranking and ensuring that your website pages were Google friendly.

SEO is now more involved – A cautionary tale

This is a story about a large brand that decided to hand over the SEO to their in house Marketing department and what happens when you follow out of date advice.

The company wanted to increase its ranking and so searched online for some SEO advice. They found a document from Google and followed it exactly. The problem was the document was dated 2010 and what they did was over optimise their website.

The results were dramatic with website traffic falling to almost zero within a couple of weeks.

We became involved in May of this year and could see what had happened and quickly took action (see graphic above) to not only reverse the situation, but do what they wanted in the first place and increase traffic and enquiries.

Clear brand positioning – Semantic Search is here now

We also went through the website content to ensure the vocabulary used was correct for what they were trying to achieve and make sure it was written for humans and not just search engines.

What Semantic search does is try and interpret the intent behind the search query. So you need to have a consistent and differentiating brand position so Google can understand clearly what we you are about. So brand consistency, tone of voice and imagery will help Google place context around your brand.

Google studies the vocabulary you use across your web pages. It does this based on the search term, the individual’s browsing habits, location and device used. Trying to get a web page to rank for several subjects will not work any more.

Social Media – Blogging is now part of SEO

It was also obvious when we were called in to help that the client had not posted on social media or updated their blog for several months. With competitors in their market being busy on social media and updating their website regularly, it was clear that Google were no longer seeing them as an authority in their market.

Social media, blogging and having a content strategy is now part of SEO, it cannot be carried out in isolation. This is why we prefer Digital Marketing as the umbrella term for what we do.

Social media activity helps you generate a clearer message behind your content and brand. When content is shared, commented on, liked, tweeted, re-shared and interacted with, Google uses this as an indicator of the quality of our content, particularly if it relates to your market. Basically, the more your content results in interaction, the more likely it will be presented to your customers.

Google Plus matters even more

One of the issues for any brand on this platform is getting any traction or even knowing how to follow people who are even active on Google Plus! Our client here had little or no presence and many of the accounts they were following were inactive. We were able to increase their followers, engagement and help with using Hangouts On Air to increase their visibility via video and YouTube.

Google Plus posts when put together properly can appear in local searches within minutes, helping people looking for your services find you very quickly.

A Delighted Client

The client was very happy to see their website traffic rising again and also seeing increased enquiries coming in from social media and blog activity.

Tip: How to choose your digital marketing agency –

Don’t sign up with anyone who has fewer followers than you. (This is especially true on Google Plus)
If their approach to getting you more followers is to buy them, just walk away and don’t look back.