Can SEO be done successfully long-term? Certainly. When it’s done right, it always plays the long game.
Good SEO courts Google’s attentions and avoids its penalties. It rewards your online presence with robust health that can grow incrementally.
Google wants to be in lock-step with its users. It fixates on the user’s intent and crafts its search engine algorithm accordingly.
We want our search results to find spot-on solutions for our queries. When you’re looking for someone to fix your bathroom tap, you don’t want Google to dig up a tap dancer. And few of us have time for click-bait. So, like a jury of your peers, Google’s linguistic AI decides the outcome.
Bad SEO, more specifically black-hat SEO, aims to exploit Google’s search engine algorithm. This is a red rag to a bull. Websites that don’t play by the rules, end up out of sight and out of mind. If your business fall from visibility, the word ‘costly’ comes to mind.
Let’s take a look at how the SEO game plays out.
1. They said they’d get my website to the first page of Google for $50…
For little more than the price of a slab of beer, if can you manage to beat the competition to prime position, your victory will likely be short-lived. Back up 3 paragraphs to relive the horror.
2. Google likes quality content. I can do quality content. Why do I need SEO help?
If you’re used to writing copy, or if you’re something of an expert in your field with good written-language skills… yes, you might be able to create the kind of content expected online.
SEO strategies and techniques, however, go beyond just content and into the structure and coding. These techniques get your content more kudos from Google.
3. Everyone is on their phone. My website looks OK on the small screen. I’m done, right?
Looking ‘OK’ on the small screen is one thing. Good SEO will fix a whole lot more, including slow page-loading performance. If your site doesn’t load in under 3 seconds, you really are done…
The truth is you simply cannot neglect your website, any more than you can neglect your car. Soon enough, something’s going to break.
4. Stick some links on your website. That ought to get it ranking.
Google has not looked kindly upon ‘spammy’ links for some time now. That said, there are some link strategies that work and won’t anger Google’s gatekeepers.
5. Look at my list of keywords! Google is all about keywords, no?
Tactless overuse of keywords is referred to as “keyword stuffing”. Along with duplicated content, spammy links, and irrelevant content, keyword stuffing is a sure way to end up in Google’s bad books.
Keywords need to be used advisedly. A keyword that might sound logical might also have no search volume. Expecting good search results from it would be like expecting increased battery sales after moving them to the supermarket’s frozen food section.
When it looks like your competition is using the keywords you want, exploring search phrases and long-tail searches can be fruitful.
6. Blogs are easy. I’ll find a monkey with a word-processor.
As with any content that Google would index, quality that is questionable or off-topic (not relevant) is not going to rank.
Your SEO person should be able to demonstrate positive results from blogging, and indeed, from other aspects of their SEO strategies.
7. The way up is Google Ads (formerly known as AdWords). SEO is toothless.
Spending money on Google’s pay-per-click advertising may indeed get you noticed. It’s definitely a way to convert traffic to sales.
More than that, it gives you a way to test content. You will get almost immediate feedback on your content. Successful wording from these trials can then inform your SEO efforts. When a headline gets people clicking, why would you not use the same headline in your on-page copy?
8. SEO is a bottomless money pit. It’s just chasing the dragon.
In the early days, SEO cowboys were thick on the ground. They wore black hats and charged like wounded bulls.
These days, good SEO help is less exorbitantly priced. Do some due diligence to check reputations and you’re in the hiring line.
If you want your business to thrive online, Localsearch is transparent with its practices and better than reasonable with its prices. Get in touch with us today. You’ll quickly see why we’re Australia’s fastest growing digital marketing agency.