SEO Manifesto. We treat your business, like it s our business. David Jenyns. These methods have been proven to work with: Published by:

Transcription

1 SEO Manifesto We treat your business, like it s our business. David Jenyns These methods have been proven to work with: Published by: Melbourne SEO Services has been featured in, worked with and is trusted by:

2 Are You #1 On Google When Your Prospects Look For You? No? Well the fact is, your potential clients are on Google right now looking for your products and services; and unless your website appears in one of Google s top 3 positions (or at the very least on page #1), they re going to do business with your competition. This isn t just a possibility, it s a reality. Can you imagine that? Your prospects actively searching for your products and services, and because you re nowhere to be found, you virtually drive them away! And to make matters worse, because you re site is missing from the top search results, they head straight to your competitors! Scary thought, isn t it? The fact is, simply having a website isn t enough anymore. Unlike the early days of the internet, the build it and they will come strategy simply doesn t work online. A website is worthless if no one finds it. You'd have to agree even the most beautifully designed website won't make you a cent unless visitors are coming to it. So, Where Does Your Website Rank When Prospective Clients Seek You Out? And we re not just talking about appearing when people search your specific name (e.g. "Joe Bloggs Dentist"). Where does your website appear when would-be clients search for the product or service you provide? For example, if someone was searching for a dentist, they would type: "Melbourne dentist", "teeth whitening Melbourne", "emergency dentistry" and those sorts of terms. People searching those phrases are clearly ready to buy; however, unless you're on page #1 of Google, they aren t going to do business with you. Conversely, imagine your website has now taken a top 3 spot on Google for the key phrases your prospects use to search. How would this benefit your business? Here are just a few of the rewards -New, highly targeted, and ready to buy prospects visiting your website. -No more cold calling to drum up new business. -Build trust and authority, as well as position yourself as the market leader in your industry. The bottom line is

3 More Page#1 Rankings = More Website Visitors = More Money But, What s The Secret To Getting To The Top Of Google? It s through a process called Search Engine Optimisation (or SEO for short), and with it you too can begin to move your website up through Google. SEO is all about understanding how the Google search engine works, and then attaining results by giving it what it wants. So, how exactly do you get your website to claim a top position on Google? Thankfully, you don't need to spend nine years in development, nor have to run hundreds of website tests, like we did to find out. We're happy to share what our hard work has uncovered! Achieving a high ranking position comes through the process of building a successful SEO campaign (and becoming popular on the internet). It can be broken down into four simple stages: 1. Market & Keyword Research 2. Onpage Optimisation 3. Quality Link Building 4. Testing & Measure Oh and in case you were wondering we re #1 in Google for our keyword Melbourne SEO those sites above us are paid listings. Head to Google and see for yourself

4 Stage 1. Market & Keyword Research Firstly, search engines are built around the concept of keywords. Keywords determine what the visitor is looking for, and consequently, what Google will show as a result when a term or phrase is searched. With that in mind, you need to ask yourself these two questions: 1) What search terms are your prospects typing into Google? 2) Who s already coming up for those keywords, and what are they doing to get there? The aim here is to build a list of potential keywords to further analyse later. At this stage, the more keywords the merrier we ll filter down afterward. Start with a common word or phrase applicable to your business. Your starting point doesn't need to be overly clever, just relevant to your business niche. For example, if you were a dentist, the obvious term would be 'dentist'. To help expand on this initial keyword, search the word using one of the following keyword research tools: Watch this video about keyword & market research. Free Google Keyword Tool Wordtracker Market Samurai *These tools are designed to help enlarge your original keyword list by offering a number of derivatives and suggestions related to the word or phrase, thus helping find even more relevant keywords. They also tell you how often those keywords are searched and how competitive they are (eg. How many other dentists are utilizing the same keyword). Create a list of all these new keywords and phrases and run a second keyword tool search on them to create another generation of phrases. Now, with your big list of keywords, identify the top 10 to 20 to start targeting and single out those with the best opportunities for your niche. TIP: Focus on keywords we consider buying phrases * with varying levels of competition (e.g. Low, medium and high). *Buying phrases (opposed to browsing phrases) indicate the customer is ready to purchase. For example, a user searching Sony Handycam HDR-SR11 is much further down the buying cycle than someone entering the term Sony. They know what they want - remember, you want buyers, not browsers.

5 Stage 2. Website Onpage Optimisation Having identified the keywords you're targeting, you now need Google to see your website as a good match for those words and phrases. You gain this visibility by putting your keywords in the right places on your website; this is known as onpage SEO. So, how does Google know what words and phrases are on your site anyway? Well, search engines use software programs called spiders or bots that trawl through web pages. These virtual critters find and store information on each word appearing on a web page, then log it into a exceedingly fast database called an index. So, when keywords are typed into a search engine, relevant websites are recalled and displayed on the search engine result pages (SERP). For more on website optimisation, watch the video. Websites which are best matched to the keywords entered will appear; and they ll be positioned in higher (better) to lower (worse) order, with the best matches in the uppermost spots. The reason for the variances of who appears, and in what order, is a result of complex alogrithms created by the search engines. We recommend a maximum of 1 to 2 keyword terms for each page of your website. And for each page, include your keyword(s) in the following places: - The title tag - The meta description - The meta keywords - Within the <H1> tag - Early on and often within the text on your webpage * If you don't know html, you probably won t be familiar with these terms and that's okay. Just pass this information onto your web designer or SEO company and they ll know what to do.

6 Stage 3. Link Building Link building is arguably the most important stage in any SEO campaign, because it s how you make your website become more popular through something called authority. Authority is achieved through backlinks, which is when another site links to a website. This backlinking gives a website credibility, therefore increasing its authority. It s also important to note the keywords other websites use in their backlinks, called anchor text, play a vital role. Using good keywords as anchor text builds up link reputation; and all this contributes to how search engines will rank a website. Simply put, you want to get lots of quality links pointed back to your website, using your targeted keywords, and from a good range of sources. *Important note: Link building needs to appear natural. That s to say, it wouldn't look normal to go from zero links to ten thousand overnight. Similarly, it wouldn't look right if all the links pointing to your website came from one place, or if they said the same thing. In short, you want a good range of one-way links sent to different sections of your website that build over time. If you're building links yourself, the easiest way to do this is by publishing good quality articles and then syndicating them on other websites. Other methods of link building that we use include: - Press releases - Directory submissions - Blog and forum marketing - Web 2.0 promotions - Video marketing - Building additional websites There are many other ways to link build, but we find those above provide the best return on investment (ROI). Heads Up: Now that you understand a bit more about SEO, it s vital to identify the negative techniques used by some SEO companies, which appear good at first glance, but have seriously damaging repercussions. The two common things you should look out for

7 1. Alleged #1 ranking guarantees: Some companies promise number one positions based on obscure and unrelated keywords, but what s the use of ranking first for a keyword nobody will use to find you? Not to mention, no one can promise #1 rankings because it s actually against Google s guidelines. 2. Huge volume backlinking: There are some businesses out there who flood the web with tons of backlinks, trying to gain website authority. This kind of low quality linking does more harm than good and reduces your site s authority. Why? Because all links are not created equal; if you combined the worth of 1,000 very low quality links, if anything, they may only hold the merit of a single great quality link. Remember, search engines like Google are no fool, they recognize and penalize dodgy, lowquality tactics and spurn offending websites to the far reaches of the internet. Stage 4. Testing & Measure Unlike many traditional marketing methods, SEO provides a very clear, measurable result for your efforts. You can see where you appear on Google, how many new visitors are brought to your website, and how many of those visitors went on to make a purchase. And that's just the beginning! Once you see the benefits of a successful SEO campaign (through website reporting), it can become very addictive. You'll find yourself searching for more new keywords, which will bring you even more visitors and more sales. This is exactly why SEO needs to be a part of your long-term sales and marketing strategy. In fact, once you start tracking, you ll find SEO can provide one of the best ROI s for your marketing dollars. Just remember, you can't improve what you don't measure. If you don't currently have any monitoring systems in place on your website, check out a free service called Google Analytics - it'll provide you with more information than you'll know what to do with. Here are a few metrics we like to watch when tracking results

8 A) Unique Visitors It's important to keep an eye on the number of unique visitors to your website. Be wary of anyone talking in terms of "hits". Hits alone are not a good representation of visitor numbers to your site; they can make things appear busier than they really are. You want to see your unique visitors increasing month on month because that s the real sign you re on the improve! *By following the steps we have outlined in this report, you can very easily see traffic increases of 300%+! But it will all depend on how your site is currently performing. B) Actual Pages Visited Knowing where your visitors go while on your website, and which pages are most visited, identifies easy opportunities to increase profits by improving conversion rates. This is often overlooked by SEO newbies, yet it s a step that can give you some of the biggest returns! *Increasing a page's conversion rate from as little as 1% to 2% will yield the same profit results as doubling your traffic. In other words, you're converting twice as many people from the same number of visitors. C) Length of Stay Have you ever visited a website and left almost immediately? You most likely didn't find what you were looking for, so didn't hang around to make a purchase. By reviewing the length of time your visitors stay on your website (along with a few other tests) you can identify what made them leave. Obviously, you want to give them what they are looking for; and the longer they stay, the greater the chance they'll purchase. D) What Customers Are Buying Many businesses tend to focus on their weaknesses, thinking they need to become stronger in those areas to see improvements, but the reverse is actually true. It's important to analyse areas where you're already successful and then do more of that. By examining what's already working, such as focusing on what customers are already buying, you'll be able to build your website (and profits) faster than you ever thought imaginable. Now that you re an astute tracker of your website s improving statistics, it s time to look at other strategies that can take you to the next level

9 Additional & Advanced SEO Strategies As previously mentioned, once you start to see the benefits of a successful SEO campaign it can become very addictive. This is when you may want to add more strategies and advanced SEO tactics to your campaign. *Please note: every website is different, so additional services should be based on your needs. Here at Melbourne SEO Services we've found some of the best additional SEO strategies include: - Split Testing & Landing Page Optimisation - Viral Marketing Campaigns - Press Releases - Web Video & YouTube Marketing* *In fact, we love the effectiveness of web video & YouTube Marketing so much, we created a sister company called Melbourne Video Production, where our experienced film crew produce professional online videos for our SEO clients. Watch the video below to learn more about our new obsession Watch the video above to see why we love web video so much.

10 SEO Can Be Daunting Making a start in SEO can be daunting, but isn't that the case with nearly everything that's new to you? Hang in there, because the rewards are well worth it. It doesn't matter whether you DIY your own SEO campaign (click here to learn about some of our home study courses) or use a SEO company the simple fact is, you need to start! Heads Up: Because the SEO industry is still relatively new, there are a few unscrupulous individuals out there taking advantage of their clients. At first glance, they appear good and probably cheap; but once hooked in, their services are ambiguous and they ll hide themselves (and their results!) behind smoke and mirrors. Bad SEO can actually hurt your website and business. The old adage is true: you get what you pay for. To help you make the best informed decision, we ve provided a list of what you should be looking for when searching for an SEO company to partner up with. Five Characteristics Your SEO Company Should Have 1) Ethical and Transparent This may seem obvious, but not everyone holds these principles dear. You need to get a good feeling about the SEO company you want to work with. Moreover, they should be able to explain, in simple terms, what they're doing for you. Good SEO isn t complicated or mystifying. Having ethical core values at the base of any business ensures a rock solid future. Integrity, ethical conduct and mutual respect are just a few ideals which have gotten us to where we are today. See all the values Melbourne SEO Services embraces by clicking here. *By reading this document, you've already begun the process of educating yourself. Now you need a great SEO company to take you the rest of the way. 2) Proven Track Record Any decent SEO company will show you honest results of their work. What you're looking for is verifiable examples of good rankings. If you're given examples like "Grandpa Joe's Pizza Shop Fitzroy" make sure to ask for ranking results on broader keywords, too (e.g. the keywords people are actually searching, such as best pizza Melbourne ). Remember, this is your business and your livelihood, so don t get mixed up with frauds, phonies or wannabes.

11 We re proud to be a key part of our clients success. But don t just take our word for it, click here to find out what our clients are saying about Melbourne SEO Services. Heads Up: Please don t forget, anyone who offers a #1 ranking guarantee isn t going to hold any of the 5 characteristics listed here. Their promise isn t worth the paper it s written on! Not to mention, #1 ranking guarantees are against Google s guidelines, which means you re likely to do considerable harm to your website if you use them. 3) Tailored Service As with most things in life, one size doesn't fit all. Accordingly, a good SEO company should start their relationship with you by analysing your current business. This would include an in-depth look at your company background, target market, current web presence, objectives, and so on. From there, your relationship should develop into, and feel like, a partnership because that s effectively what a good SEO company would see themselves as: your partner. That s one of the drawbacks to using big SEO companies; as a result of their sheer size, they ll treat you more like a number than a person. These larger firms will also have unchangeable systems in place, making modifications to your campaign cumbersome and costly. For something as important as your livelihood, you should entrust your business to an SEO company who sees themselves as an extension of your marketing department as a working piece of your business. Melbourne SEO Services are fortunately and uniquely positioned, we re large enough to access all the talent & resources that create big results, all while maintaining personalized service, and providing a level of care you d only get from working hand in hand with a true business partner. *You need to feel confident knowing that your SEO campaign is going to give you the best bang for your buck. Because we have your best interests in mind, we go for the lowest hanging fruit first to get you the quickest results then continue to build on that! 4) End to End Project Management Like most business owners, you re probably busier than ever! If you've chosen to go with an SEO company, it s most likely because there's not enough time in your day to do everything, let alone add SEO to your 'to do list. You should be focusing on your core business, not on SEO.

12 Your SEO company should offer end to end project management, meaning they can handle all aspects of your SEO campaign, including analysis, implementation, tracking, constant improvements and tweaking. Once you ve established your plan, your SEO company should be able to confidently take the lead to creating better rankings, more traffic, and higher conversion. *If lack of time is why you're looking to use an SEO company, then you'll want one that can handle everything from end to end: from stage 1 to stage 4, and beyond. 5) Expert, Professional and Timely Since you've made the decision to hire a professional, you should insist on expert and qualified service. Don't settle for poor communication, non-transparency or late work. The only exception to this is would be if you chose an SEO company based solely on dirt cheap pricing. You can t expect the Rolls Royce Treatment if you jumped into a Ford Edsel (*note: the Ford Edsel was voted one of the world s worst cars - Google it). Remember, as we ve said before, you get what you pay for. But if you select an SEO company based on expertise, professionalism and timeliness, then those attributes should be clearly present at all times from first contact to full campaign implementation and beyond. *You're looking for a company who clearly understands and believes in your products and services. One that will grow and change with your business; an SEO company with a long term vision of working with you, and knows your success builds theirs: the perfect win-win situation. Introducing At this point we could say Melbourne SEO Services is a leading Australian search engine optimisation (SEO) company providing services tailored to our clients unique business needs. We assist clients across all business sectors ranging from small businesses to large corporations. Blah Blah Blah But that s not really our style, plus you would ve heard that all before, right? Interestingly, our story isn't quite so typical. We never set out to become one of Australia's leading Another packed Melbourne SEO Services seminar. SEO companies. It just kind of happened. And after nine years of research, we re proud to deliver our transparent 4-stage SEO strategy that connects our clients (you) with an avalanche of new prospects. Click here to read more about our unique story.

13 Why Do People Choose Melbourne SEO Services? First and foremost, because that list of 5 characteristics is just part of what we do and then some. Furthermore, we re not just button pushers, we re SEO strategists with roots in real world marketing. That means we re always improving our services and looking for the next big wave to catch. Lastly, because we actually train other SEO companies! Who better to learn from than the people who educate other SEO experts, right? Right! Isn t this what you want? To partner up with an ethical, efficient and professional SEO company, who s always skimming the leading edge for ways to push your business forward? Yeah, we thought so. Click here to see some of our results. The only hitch with us is we don t work with just anyone. Because of our commitments, dedication and guarantee (which ensures our clients make more money from our methods than what they ve spent with us), we re selective with who we partner up with. Our clients are usually hands-on entrepreneurs, who can recoup their investment with a few solid leads or sales. Our clients are pushing forward in the direction of their dreams, and have partnered with us to turbo-charge the pace. Do you think your business would be a good fit for us? Click here to see what we can do for you and your business. As we ve noted a couple of times throughout this report you get what you pay for. Let s lay it open, we re not the cheapest (nor are we the most expensive) SEO company you can engage. But one thing s for sure, as you can tell by our willingness to educate others - we honestly want to help people succeed. Who do you want working on and in your business? A worthy team player, or a cheaply hired hand? One last thing, instead of throwing out some hard sell pitch like you must act within the next 24 hours otherwise the world will end let s just say, we re in an era that s quickly moving online, so the pace at which you implement SEO really does matter. Remember, if you don't use SEO to your advantage, your competition will. We trust you enjoyed this report and if you d like to find out what melbourneseoservices.com can do for you click here. We'll see you at the top! The Team at P.S. Not long ago we did a street-side study asking people, Do they use the Yellowpages or Google? to find an online business. The results will astound you, watch the video here.

14 Have you seen or heard of us before? Maybe you saw us in the media? In the Herald Sun paper In the Green Guide David in Smart Investor Magazine David in Nett Magazine David in Ecommerce Startup In Internet Marketing Magazine

15 One Final Note Remember the core message of what you ve just learnt: Your online success is truly dependent on two things, traffic & conversion. When Dave talks, others listen.