Choosing The Right SEO Services Can Make or Break Your SMB

We all know that many people find our products, services and webpages via a google search. But what is lesser known is that it’s how they search that influences the number of visits/leads that you get.

Enter: SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) – The science and practice on how to get people to land on your page when searching for something relating to your business.

Just having a webpage does not mean that you show up on the first page of a google search; there is quite a complicated process behind it, with algorithms that evaluate thousands of different metrics to give you a specific ranking. SEO Services vary depending on the content marketing agency, but they all aim towards the same goal: to tip these metrics in your favour, to give you a higher ranking (which means more visits).

But hiring a SEO company to work on this is not an easy task, there are several companies out there promising you miracle results for very little money and in a very short time. Real and lasting SEO is a long-term process, that can take up to several months before you see any tangible results.

Let’s give an introductory explanation to some of the services that most SEO companies offer:

• Keyword research – One of the keystones of good SEO practice. Identify words and phrases that a potential customer uses to find your offering, and start targeting them with actions that will place you in the first 10 positions of the search results. This is what most of SEO is all about and is the first step, as without the keywords, no actionable strategies can be executed.
• On-site optimisation – Audit your webpage to determine if said keywords are present, that meta information is present, and that content is up to par. This may also include UX (User Experience), how easy the page is to navigate, and that all information needed for a sale is present.
• Link building – One way of generating trust and authority to your site (the higher the authority, the higher the ranking) is to have other sites link back to it. Finding and researching these links takes both time and effort, as finding high-quality links for a good price requires patience and knowledge.
• Technical website audit – Making sure that your website is technically correct, with 302 redirects, titles, loading speed and quality backlinks. Also to check that the site is easily accessible for the “crawlers” (the programs making up part of the algorithms that scan your site), and that there are no broken internal links.
• PPC – Pay-per-click advertising. While some do not see this as part of SEO, many companies offer this service as it ties in nicely with keywords and rankings. Paid advertising that shows up together with the natural search results.

These are some of the SEO services that are normally offered by companies, but some others offer complete packages and free evaluations.