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It’s Time to Stop Hiding. You need to find out exactly what search engine optimisation (SEO) is and why it is so important for your business.

 

As soon as some business owners hear the term Search Engine Optimisation their eyes glaze over and the shutters come down.  They are just not interested. These tend to be the business owners who dismiss the Internet and try to ignore it, fooling themselves into thinking that it isn’t really happening.

 

On the other hand, there are some business owners who either find the internet too confusing or simply don’t think they have the time to learn how to promote their website online.

 

If you fall into the latter category, then we invite you to take a few minutes over a cup of coffee to find out what SEO is and how your business will benefit by attracting more customers.

What is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)?

SEO is simply the process of optimising your website so that it ranks well on search engine result pages such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. enabling people searching for products or services that you provide to find you and buy from you.

So, let’s apply this information to your website:

Why Does My Site Need SEO?

You want your website to be found on the search engines by people looking for your products or services.  The fact is there may be thousands of websites out there all offering the same or similar products or services.  You want your site to stand out and be ranked above all of the other sites and pages so that the person searching online can find you.  The way you achieve this is by making your page or site relevant to what people are looking for.

When someone types a word or phrase into search engines (like Google) looking for your product, you want to appear on the first or second page of the search results listings on search engines.

There are literally billions of different websites that are relevant to the search query, but really, if your website doesn’t appear in the first 10 pages (or first 100 results), it’s virtually invisible to the world. Ideally you need to be on page one…or at worst, page 2. If not you will never be found because visitors very rarely go beyond page 2.

Why Can’t The Search Engines Find My Website Without SEO?

Search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing are very sophisticated but they still need help.

The developers are constantly working on and improving the technology behind the search engines so that they can crawl round your web site more deeply in order to give better results to the people using their search sites. However, there is a limit to how search engines can operate.

As a result the search engines reward the web sites that help them out with good SEO by promoting their sites above the ones that make things more difficult for their technology by not optimising their sites. This means that with the right SEO, you can attract thousands more visitors to your site, resulting in more sales, whereas the sites that don’t bother are hidden and buried deep in the results making it much, much harder to be found.

As the amount of sites increase on a daily basis, the internet is becoming even more competitive. The companies who perform SEO have the distinct advantage by being able to attract more visitors and customers.

Can I Do SEO myself?

The world of Search Engine Optimisation is very complex, but as we have hopefully just proven in the information in this short article, most people can easily understand the basics. Even a small amount of knowledge like you have gained today can make a big difference.

To be honest, there is a lot of information about putting SEO strategies into place available for free on the Internet. By applying some of the tips, you can make a difference to your search ranking.

It all depends on how much time you can commit to SEO on top of running your business. You also need a willingness to learn and have to have a basic understanding of how your website works.

You may decide, like many other companies that it is best to hire an SEO consultant to effectively handle your SEO instead while you concentrate on doing what you do best and running your company.

Whichever option you choose, the important thing is to do something….and to do it soon.

For a quick test to impress how urgently you need to take action, do a search online for your business. Don’t just do a search for your name, but type in the same words and phrases that potential customers might use if they were to look for products or services that you provide.

If you don’t appear on the first two pages of Google then you desperately need to start thinking about SEO either by implementing some SEO strategies yourself or by using a professional company like ours.

Give us a call or email us today to find out how we can make sure that your site is seen by everybody who looks for products and services that you provide so that they buy from you and not your competitors.

It has been said the Amazon could officially arrive in Australia by November 24th to coincide with the Black Friday online weekend spending.

According to the doomsayers, Amazon’s launch in Australia will accelerate growth in the online retail market resulting in reduced growth and turnover in some shopping centres. This could lead to lower retail rents as retailers rationalise and demand for retail space decreases. Most analysts predict that electrical and appliances will be hardest hit with Harvey Norman and JB Hi-Fi the most likely Australian local retailers to be negatively affected.

 

However, clothing and footwear could also be under fire as beginning this month Amazon is scheduled to undertake three fashion shoots per day, five days per week, at secret locations across Melbourne.

 

In other markets, Amazon sells other brands’ clothing label as well as its own private label clothing, including men’s and women’s basics, business attire, children’s wear, and a recently launched sportswear range.

 

Amazon Australia has registered trademarks in Australia on brands including AmazonBasics, which sell mass market products covering everything from electronics to kitchenware.

 

So what should local retailers do to prevent Amazongeddon?

If you try to fight Amazon or Ebay for that matter, on their terms you will struggle as they have website authority due to world-class backlinks and high domain authority. Amazon with their enormous advertising budgets are experts at building brand exposure which leads to more branded searches in Google. Branded searches can be a huge trust signal for a website.

 

So website authority combined with branded searches makes these global brands an SEO supremacy, allowing them to publish duplicate or thin content and still rank highly.

 

However, the good news is you can fight back and with some SEO stealth tactics even beat these e-com giants at their own game.

 

Step 1: Niche Down

 

These larger sites are competing across many different categories and they don’t have the ability to reach the level of dept that a niche site can. When you niche down, every page on your site is about the same topic, for example, a site that specialises in outdoor and camping supplies, this makes it very easy for Google to determine what your site is about camping.

 

This combined with everyday SEO best practice (which we can help with!) will ensure you have put your best foot forward in the e-comm online battle.

 

Step 2: Long Tail

 

Niching down will also help you to rank for those longer tail keywords which is something that the e-com giants don’t do well. Using the outdoor and camping store example this might be “cold weather sleeping bags”, this search has little or no Australia competition except for the Adwords advertisers – who should do some SEO and rank free for this term.

 

If you sell these type of sleeping bags ensure you optimise the product description for these sorts of long tail searches, this will also help you rise above the duplicate product descriptions that appear on other sites.

 

When doing or having your digital agency do your keyword research look for keywords that have a clear commercial intent. Although sales volumes will be lower for these longer tail keywords conversion rates (purchases) can be much higher.

 

It is also worth sometimes adding a geo term or city name eg sleeping bags Melbourne as this will limit your competition from the bigger sites like Amazon and Ebay.

 

Tip: Don’t compete for high volume search phrases drill down into your products figure out your ideal customer and create content to hit them with.

 

Step 3: Topical Relevancy

 

Considering that over 50% of keyword queries are unique and even search engines have not seen them; information retrieval relies on contextual relevance to determine a pages quality score determined by the domain authority.

 

So using the outdoor and camping store example you might try to rank for informational type content for example “best sleeping bags for summer” or “best down sleeping bags australia”.

 

Topical relevancy differs from keyword research, with keyword research you only focus on keyword search volumes in a particular market eg Google Australia or maybe Sydney if its a more localised business.

With topical relevancy, your primary focus should be to help users solve their problems or to find what they were looking for, even if they don’t know what that is yet and even if the keyword doesn’t have search volume.

 

Step 4: Backlink Strategy

 

Backlinks have been an important part of online marketing for a long time now. For those that are asking What is a backlink? A “backlink” is created when an external 3rd party website links to your website.  

 

Backlinks if done correctly can help improve your website’s traffic, rank, reputation, and even relationships. If done incorrectly backlinks can lead to a Google Penalty as happened to Interflora a couple of years back.

 

Successful brands should incorporate backlink strategies into their overall marketing strategy, building links on sites not only with high authority but also meaning to their personas.

 

There are a variety of methods that can be used to increase a website’s backlink profile. You need quality content, with something valuable to say in order to earn your backlink.  

 

If considering a backlink campaign or outreach campaign it is best to talk to a reputable digital agency such as Flarecom Digital Marketing first rather going ahead of yourself and buying a heap of dodgy links on a site like Fiverr.

 

If you can’t beat them join them – Start with Selling on Amazon

 

If all of the above seems to difficult there is always the option to sell your own products on Amazon. Amazon offers a range of selling plans and price points to suit a variety of business sizes.

 

Amazon’s vast influence and presence make it an appealing platform for retailers who want to take advantage of the site’s unmatched volume of traffic. At our Sydney digital agency, we work with many clients who are exploring the decision to sell on Amazon. If you’re considering whether or not Amazon is a viable channel for your brand, here are some things to keep in mind.

 

Amazon SEO Requires On-going Maintenance

Search visibility is the key to success on Amazon. According to Amazon, a search is the number one way users find products on their platform, so in order to have success on the Amazon platform, you need to invest in optimizing your listings.

 

Just like regular SEO, Amazon product listing optimization requires constant upkeep. You can’t simply set your product listings, forget about them and expect the sales to roll in.

 

Similar to regular SEO, Amazon has created its own ranking Algorithm for retailers with the intention of gaining maximum visibility of their products. However, understanding the Amazon algorithm for your Amazon SEO strategy is necessary for all retailers who are looking for high volume sales on Amazon. That means paying close attention to product titles, keywords, product information, and quantity and quality of reviews.

 

Optimizing your product listings on an ongoing basis is critical to obtaining enough search visibility to move your products. This is something which we can help business out with as we have recently launched an Amazon Product Optimisation service that looks after all the hard work for you, more details can be found here.

 

Selling on Amazon is a personal decision for every brand, and it’s important to weigh all the factors before jumping in. In terms of getting your product out in front of an enormous new audience, Amazon presents a major opportunity in Australia. But Australian retailers that aren’t able to compete on price may face challenges in the Amazon marketplace. It’s also worth noting that success with Amazon is similar to success in any other channel in that it takes both time and expertise to manage it properly and optimize it fully.

However you choose to move ahead, it’s important to keep your overall business goals in mind and stay focused no matter which you choose.

Flarecom Digital Marketing is everything you’d expect from a smaller digital agency: accountable, autonomous, flexible and personable.

We work across all the main business sectors: retail, finance, charity, travel and b2b. Our work for some of Australia’s leading brands is recognised for challenging the market, driving innovation and accelerating business performance.