Most businesses consider investing in SEO services at some point. Who wouldn’t want to be at the top of Google? Sadly though, we can’t all be at the top of Google. A fact that makes any decision around an SEO investment less than straightforward.
So how do we weigh up whether our funds are best spent with an agency who promise Google rankings, or to consider a different marketing channel, like buying an advert in the paper? Normal due diligence might involve a couple of Google searches, but you’ll quickly find that most of the advice online about SEO comes from the people who are best at ranking their pages - SEO companies who want to sell their service.
We know the way a budget is allocated can make or break a small business, so our aim with this post is to cut through the noise, and offer some realistic, impartial advice, based on our experience working on websites. If you’re considering an investment in SEO we hope you benefit.
It can be easy to focus on SEO and almost forget about a wider marketing strategy, so it’s important to remember that SEO is just one of the tools in a marketing toolbox.
Try Googling “restaurants in Sheffield”. You’ll see the first page doesn’t actually bring back many restaurants. Google knows most people searching this are probably looking to compare different options, so most of the results are editorial articles ranking restaurants in the area. In this particular case, considering paying for a spot in one of those articles, might be a better use of your marketing budget than trying to outrank them.
There’s probably no “right” strategy for any business, and really we’re talking about risk and resources here, standard business running stuff. If you’re smart however, you’ll be hedging your bets, with SEO being one of multiple marketing channels employed at the same time.
Our advice on this one though is to simply make sure you’re not blinkered by the allure of rankings alone, and be aware of all the options available to you.
“Competition” here has its own set of fancy quotation marks, and that’s because it’s a fancy technical SEO term. While broadly meaning what you think it does, generally “competition” or “difficulty” is a score assigned to a term or keyword to measure how much effort needs to be put in to rank well.
Ranking for “sandwich shop in Hillsborough” is different to ranking for “car insurance”, one of the most competitive terms in the UK. Achieving page one for super competitive term requires teams of people, and budgets running into the millions. The key here then is to be realistic about your competition, and understand that the more people spend to get top results for a term, the more expensive it will be for you.
Most decent SEO agencies will help you evaluate your competition before you enter into a paid campaign, so it’s something we advise you do before you enter into a contract.
Websites highly optimised for SEO are a bit strange.
Have you ever Googled something like “recipe for ravioli” and had to scroll through the entire history of pasta and the cultural significances of ravioli before it gets to the point and actually lists the ingredients and method? This type of long, cyclical, keyword laden content is what’s required to rank well on search engines.
It’s not really content that’s written for humans, it’s for the search engine algorithms. As a human who’s tried to cook your dinner before, I know I want the content on your website to be concise and helpful, and the same goes for shopping for a product or service.
Your primary sales messaging is probably something you’ve refined and condensed over a long period of time. Engineered to steer a prospect directly into thinking about your business in the right kind of way. Be prepared that this will be at complete odds with the narcoleptic long form content required for SEO.
The way around it is to sort of shoehorn the robo-drivel underneath your actual purpose. It’s easy to spot websites that do this sort of thing. Have a look at any of the top rankers for “car insurance”. They know the user probably just wants a quote, so they all have a big GET A QUOTE button somewhere prominent, and then the endless explanations into what car insurance actually is, along with some FAQs for good measure, are underneath.
Effective SEO requires a mix of skills, including technical expertise, content creation, analytics, and strategic thinking. While there are undoubtedly individuals out there with the right mix of skills, our experience has taught us that the best results often come from larger teams, with a mix of people who can lean on each other for support when needed.
Keep in mind that SEO is a long term investment as well, so choose a partner who you trust, has a genuine interest in the work you do, and whom you can work with for many months and years.
A key element of SEO is what’s called “technical SEO”, and the idea behind this is that Google doesn’t want to send people to web pages that don’t work properly. As a result, they publish a set of standards, and best practices for web developers to follow, and mark down any websites that don’t stick to them.
This means extra development work might be required to make sure every box on Google’s list is checked off. Bigger issues like slow loading pages can be costly to identify and replicate, so be prepared, and speak to the people who built your website before you hit go on an SEO campaign.
If you have more than one marketing campaign on the go at once, it’s sensible to know which ones are brining in the new business, and which ones aren’t worth the cash you spend on them.
If you’re considering SEO, it’s important to know exactly what the aim is, so you can realistically track the return on your investment. Set targets with any prospective SEO partner, regularly review progress, and remember to be diligent with your deal attribution!
Climbing to the top of Google isn’t something that happens overnight, SEO is all about making marginal gains here and there, and compounding results over a long period of time.
This can get frustrating because months can go by where the work has gone in, but the results don’t follow. Expectations are key, and communication with your SEO partner is key. Also don’t underestimate how much cash SEO can swallow over time. Campaigns can run over multiple years, and those costs add up.
Think carefully about whether SEO is right for you, engage with prospective partners to help with your decision, and if you do decide to take the plunge, don’t expect instant results.
If you need any advice relating to anything SEO, we’re happy to help. We don’t do SEO in house, instead working with a number of different partners depending on the needs of the customer. This means we’re able to be impartial, realistic, and have a conversation without trying to sell you anything!
"Unspun showed a clear understanding of our brief and fulfilled our aims and objectives, creating a site which reflects our fresh and modern brand."
Hannah
