Service overview Search Engine Optimisation Increase your rankings on search engines and generate more qualifed leads with Netregistry s SEO program. Call 1300 638 734 or visit www.netregistry.com.au
Introduction Why are Search Engine Rankings important? Netregistry s SEO Services Keywords Striking the Balance SEO: Beyond First Position What about Pay Per Click? Why can t I do SEO myself? SEO Glossary 3 4 7 8 9 9 10 11 Netregistry SEO Service Overview 2
Thank you for considering Netregistry as your SEO solution. Netregistry uses reliable and proven tactics to improve your search engine rankings. Too many SEO providers like to swamp you with jargon and technical details, however at Netregistry we would rather help you understand the whole picture, and keep your eyes on the bottom line: your business and your sales. Netregistry SEO Service Overview 3
What is Search Engine Optimisation? Most people use search engines to find products or services online, and often they only check the first page of search engine results. Any online business should have a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy, that refines your website to boost your page rankings for the most relevant keyword searches, used by your target customers. A sound SEO strategy will help improve the organic page ranking (visibility) of your website or web pages in search engine results. Market-specific keywords and phrases related to your website, along with correct page titles and meta descriptions are SEO techniques that will help your business website climb the search results. Reach customers right before they buy! Most forms of advertising, both online and offline, target users at the awareness stage. Think about a billboard, a magazine spread or even an internet banner advert, they inform customers that a product or service exists but there is no guarantee the customer would be interested in buying at this point, or indeed ever. However, when you receive traffic from a search engine however, you re targeting customers who have already shown both awareness and at least interest, in a particular product or service. This makes search engine marketing particularly suitable for small to medium businesses. By spending resources, marketing only to customers who already are aware and interested in your product or service, you re making the most of your limited marketing budget and focusing on the very bottom line: return on investment. Netregistry SEO Service Overview 4
Why is Organic Ranking important? Organic listings refer to Google, Yahoo! or Bing s natural search results. In Google organic results are shown on the main bottom left hand column down the page (as opposed to paid listings, which are one the small top section and down the right hand side of the results page). The more authoritative and relevant on a given keyword Google thinks your website is, the higher they will rank your website for that keyword. There are three reasons organic rankings are so important: 1. Higher rank equals more traffic 2. Beat the competition Organic search is a zero sum game. Hundreds and thousands of searches are coming through for your business area daily, and your position on the page determines largely what slice of the customer pie you get. Imagine rankings as a row of shops, and of every 100 potential customers, 48 goes to the first shop, 12 to the second, 8 to the third and so forth. What wouldn t you give to be able to move up a couple of shops? The same applies to search engine rankings. If you re below the second page, that s 98 out of every 100 aware and ready to buy customers who are going to your competitors before they ll ever know you exist. Of users on Google, 94% will click on organic results. On average 48% of users will click through on the first result, 12% will click on the second result, 8% will click on the third result. Even the humble page two organic results, combined, get 5-10% of the traffic. This is because people implicitly trust the higher organic ranked results as being more relevant, and being of better quality. Source: www.web1seo.com/organic-results-clicked-94-more-than-ads-recentstudy-shows/ 3. Long term growth strategy The work you do on search engine optimisation today can yield you dividends for years into the future. Generally, those on search engines page one and two are likely to remain that way, and unlike Search Engine Advertising (SEA), you are not charged for every click, so your growth is not limited by a budget. SEO is therefore one of the best long term growth strategies for your business online. Netregistry SEO Service Overview 5
Netregistry s SEO Services Netregistry uses proven best practice SEO tactics to help your site rank as well as possible on search engines. The techniques we employ include on page optimisation changes on your website to make it as accessible for search engines as possible, and off page optimisation generating backlinks to your website to increase your authority and ultimately, rankings, with search engines. It is important to also note that within Google s SEO Guidelines it states Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a special relationship with Google, or advertise a priority submit to Google - practices that violate our guidelines may result in a negative adjustment of your site s presence in Google, or even the removal of your site from our index. http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291 Here are the benefits of Netregistry s SEO program: Proven, Legitimate Tactics We only employ legitimate white hat optimisation and link building tactics, unlike many black hat SEO professionals, who chase after the short term gain, but can be very easily found out and penalised by Google, causing much greater and lasting harm to their business online presence. Trackable, Transparent Results Netregistry s SEO program is transparent and easy to track. Each month you will receive reports detailing not only your rankings on each keyword compared to the previous month, but also the traffic you receive from organic search and a list of links we submitted that month. Reliable Link Building Program Netregistry s link building program submits your website to a well diversified range of links a month, including social bookmarks, article submissions and directory submissions. Steady and reliable link building is one of the best strategies available to small and medium businesses trying to improve their search engine results. Account Management All our SEO accounts are managed by highly trained experts. Customers on SEO Standard will liaise with a member of the team each month. SEO Advanced customers can expect to deal with their own dedicated account manager that they will liaise with throughout their program. SEO Startup SEO Standard SEO Advanced For new websites that want an insight into their search engine presence. For small businesses that want to start their online presence & stand out in the market. For medium size businesses & e-commerce stores that want to increase their online leads. Netregistry SEO Service Overview 6
Keywords - Striking the Balance The first step to your SEO program is to select the keywords you wish to rank for. This is also one of the most important steps in your entire SEO program. As you are trying to strike a fine balance, selecting keywords which are too generic or high volume may make getting on the first page a very difficult proposition, whilst keywords that are too specific or niche may not get you any traffic. Other than that, there is also a need to balance the quantity of traffic you want, and the quality of traffic. Generic vs. Specific Keywords Generic keywords usually have a larger search volume, are more competitive, and have a lower conversion rate. Take for example a bike shop owner located in Newtown. The keyword bikes here is the most generic it carries 300,000 searches in Sydney every month. However, it would also be difficult to rank on the first page for, and what s more, the keyword is so generic that the traffic will be lower quality it may be someone looking for bikes in another suburb, it might be someone looking for information on bike clubs, or people not yet ready to buy, but researching different types of bikes. So what if we go even more specific, and target the keyword of Newtown bikes as well as the suburbs surrounding it? Newtown bikes, Glebe bikes and Enmore bikes together only have around 500 searches a month, but you would know that almost 100% of those searches could have a chance of converting, and it s also easier to rank on the first page for all three of those keywords combined than for Sydney Bikes. This is also one of the most important steps in your entire SEO program. On the other hand, the owner might decide that her most profitable line is fixie or fixed gear bikes. These two keywords carry respectively only 720 and 260 searches from Sydney per month, but it would be much easier to rank on the first page and gain a higher click through. The keywords are also more relevant, and will gain a higher conversion rate, as people searching for these terms are more likely to already know which kind of bike they want. Local Targeting One of the greatest opportunities that currently exist in search engine marketing is targeting people searching for goods or services in a particular area. These keywords have much lower volume, but are easier to rank for, carrying a higher conversion rate and importantly, are a growing trend. Going back to our bike shop example, we ve established that the keyword bikes is too difficult and generic, but what about Sydney bikes? This keyword has 22,200 searches per month, and is less difficult to rank for, and the traffic is more relevant. But think about all the areas in Sydney that would never consider going to Newtown specifically to buy a bike. Basically anybody in the Eastern Suburbs, North Shore, Northern Suburbs, the Shire or Western Sydney etc. will have no chance of converting on your website. Netregistry SEO Service Overview 7
SEO: Beyond First Position No matter who is doing your search engine optimisation, you ll find that SEO is a long and difficult process. It may take up to several months of link building and fine-tuning your website before you see substantial improvements in rankings. Indeed it is rare for an SEO program to yield significant dividends in the first three or even six months. In some industries, it is simply not even feasible to rank in the top positions, especially when your competitions are authoritative organisations (ie. Wikipedia), large corporations or in some cases, government websites. That does not mean however, that your SEO program is worthless even second and third page results, so long as the searches are relevant, are infinitely preferable than no online presence. There are also more metrics of success than pure rankings, including but not limited to: an increase in traffic, more relevant traffic and an increase in enquiries/sales, both via your website and via phone calls. Remember that no SEO agency can guarantee you first place listing on Google. Remember that no SEO agency can guarantee you first place listing on Google, but what we can do is maximize your website s potential, and give you every aid available to rank better on Google. Netregistry SEO Service Overview 8
What about Pay Per Click? As you may know, SEO is only half the story. Search Engine Advertising or SEA such as Google AdWords are a vital part of search engine marketing. In SEA, you write ads, which are placed on search engines and appear almost like search results, and each time somebody clicks on your ad you pay for said click. This is why Search Engine Advertising is also known as PPC or Pay-Per-Click advertising. SEO & SEA: Complementary or Competing? SEA and SEO may seem to do the same thing at first, but actually cover different needs of an online business. Whilst paid listings only receive around 6% of Google s traffic, these are usually all qualified traffic, ready to convert into a sale. What s more importantly, you can rank for any keywords you want. So whilst you may never get past 4th-5th page on a highly competitive keyword in organics, so long as you pay you can be on the 1st page for search. Furthermore, whilst it s unwise and generally impossible to rank organically for more than 5-10 keywords, you can choose to target as many keywords as you want in SEA, indeed, some SEA campaigns target hundreds or even thousands of keywords. will not have enough time to rank for SEO, and it s unwise to put too much resource into SEO as the promotion will be over a short period. But with SEA you can target seasonal keywords in a matter of days, and once the promotion is over, pause said keywords. It can even be very beneficial to run an SEA campaign before an SEO campaign. Use the SEA campaign to determine your highest converting keywords, and then do SEO on said keywords, so you get longer term growth in these keyword searches and are not just dependent on constantly spending on SEA. The natural reaction to the subject of SEA vs. SEO is that you should do one or the other. This is demonstrably untrue. As For the last five years Google, as well as myriads of agencies and market research firms have done studies after studies on the effects SEA has on SEO and vice versa, and in every case it has found the effects to be positive. For SEO it allows your site to capture a larger market share and reinforces brand image and presence, and for SEA your clicks become cheaper as Google recognises your ads as more relevant, and your conversion rate becomes higher. But perhaps one of the biggest advantages of SEA is the immediacy of it. Most white hat SEO programs cannot realistically see significant result changes in less than 3-6 months, whilst an SEA campaign will usually start bringing in sizeable traffic within 2 weeks. The immediacy of SEA also lets you be more flexible. For example, if you have a holiday promotion, then you Ultimately, both SEA and SEO are components of a successful online marketing mix. The subject of SEA is just as expansive as SEO and can t possibly fit onto this E-book. However, here is a basic comparison of the two: SEO SEA Traffic Volume High (94% of clicks) Low (6% of clicks) Keywords Targeted No more than 5-10 Unlimited Cost for Traffic Free, but SEO itself costs money Pay per click, but your budget can be better controlled Suitable For Long term growth Short term sales/leads Time before Visible Results 3-6 months 2-4 weeks Making Changes Difficult and time consuming Quick and flexible Long Term Returns SEO work lasts Must keep paying per click Netregistry SEO Service Overview 9
Why can t I do SEO myself? Avoid the traps and pitfalls of Do-It-Yourself SEO. The savings of DIY SEO may appear attractive, but for most people it is a process filled with pitfalls, including but not limited to: Obsolete Strategies The internet can provide hundreds of SEO strategies, often mutually contradictory. As the SEO industry moves so fast, many of these strategies may have worked at some point, but are now obsolete. Running a business is time consuming enough without having to keep up with constantly changing news or filtering through what is real and what is incorrect. Black Hat Strategies Even worse than obsolete strategies, you may fall trap to employing less than ethical black hat strategies, which Google frowns upon and may penalise you for. Costly Programs/Providers From tracking software to analysis programs to link building and directory submissions, almost every stage of SEO costs money. There are hidden costs many first time optimisers aren t aware of. Netregistry has paid for and has access to a range of programs, which we deploy on our clients campaigns that would be expensive to buy on a per unit basis in the case of DIY SEO. DIY SEO may appear attractive, but for most people it is a process filled with pitfalls. Netregistry SEO Service Overview 10
Conclusion As more and more businesses get online and the number of people using search engines to find a product or service is exponentially increasing, it s now more important than ever to rank highly on search engines. If you are not preparing your business with an effective online marketing strategy you could be losing potential clients to your competitors. Netregistry has helped over 500,000 Australian businesses get sorted online, and thousands of businesses improve their ranking in search engines. As search engines like Google continually change their algorithm, it s important that you are using the latest SEO tactics and strategies. Our online marketing experts recognise and understands the latest search engines requirements and tailors best practice SEO tactics to help boost our clients online rankings and stand out from the crowd. Search engine optimisation can often be the difference between having an effective web presence or not. Deciding to hire the right SEO company is an important decision that can improve your sites online visibility. To find out how to improve your page ranking, Netregistry has a range of SEO services to suit your business objectives. Contact us to speak to a Netregistry consultant today. Call 1300 638 734 Netregistry or visit www.netregistry.com.au SEO Service Overview 11
SEO Glossary Black Hat - Black Hat SEO refers to unethical or fraudulent SEO techniques in link building (such as link buying, comment spamming, illegal link networks) and on page optimisation (such as keyword stuffing, invisible keywords). Google aggressively cracks down and penalises sites which employ Black Hat SEO. Conversion Rate - Conversion Rate is the percentage of people who go to your site and then convert to either a sale or a lead. Conversion Rate = Conversions/ Clicks. CTR - CTR or Click-Through Rate is the percentage of people who saw your link and clicked on it. CTR = Clicks/Impressions Bounce Rate - Bounce Rate refers to the percentage of visitors who exit the site after only viewing one page. An average bounce rate is around 40%, however this is dependent on your business industry. Directory submissions - Submitting your website to online directories in order to gain a backlink - one of the staples in link building strategies. Domain Age/DA - The number of years the domain has been registered and active. DA is one of the factors Google uses to determine page rank. Google AdWords - Google s advertising platform, which accounts for ~92% of the PPC market. Sometimes used interchangeably with SEA/PPC. Netregistry SEO Program Overview 12
SEO Glossary (cont.) Google PageRank/PR - Google assigns a Page Rank or PR from 1-10 to every webpage, which is a factor that affects how Google will rank you.. For example: a new website with no backlinks will have a PR of 0, whilst, a large website like Wikipedia has a PR of 8. Generally a PR of 3 or more is excellent for a small business site. Impressions - Impressions is the amount of times your link has been seen. Link Building - The process of generating back links which point to your website, one of the most important factors in SEO. Meta Tags - A collection of tags on your website from which search engines can see what your site is about. Meta Tags are a focus of on page optimisation. On Page Optimisation - Altering your site to make it more friendly and accessible to URLs. On page optimisation includes but is not limited to: implementing metatags, editing web copy to be keyword rich, changing URLs and improving site architecture. This is one of the most important factors in SEO. Organic results - Organic results refers to the search engine s natural results for any search, affected by SEO Paid results - Paid results refers to results that come from SEA or PPC campaigns. Netregistry SEO Program Overview 13
SEO Glossary (cont.) SEA/PPC - Search Engine Advertising, where ads that link to your website are put on search engines, and you pay for every click to your website you receive, also known as Pay-Per Click. The two terms are used interchangeably. SEO - Search Engine Optimisation, the practice of increasing your search engine rankings. Social Bookmarking - Submitting your website to social aggregators such as Reddit or Stumbleupon one of the staples in link building strategies White Hat - White Hat SEO refers to legitimate SEO techniques in link building and on page optimisation. Netregistry SEO Program Overview 14