Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is all about getting your website returned in the free listings in response to searches for your target keyword terms. Sounds simple, but the reality is very different. Each page of the SERP's (SERP's - Search Engine Results Pages) is only 10 listings, plus sponsored advertisements on the top and bottom of each page. The majority of people will only look at page 1, or 2 of the SERP's, unless they are looking for an obscure term, or wanting a wide variety of information. If your website is in a very competitive market then 10 slots on page 1 SERP's is a very small window to hit, but the difference between being on page 1, to say page 4, is totally dramatic. If you are selling products from your website then of course it's vital that as many people as possible find, and connect to your site. It is for this reason that SEO is so important, but achieving a solid base in the SERP's takes skill, time and considerable effort.
The answer to this question is simply, live within your means and balance your website's promotion between SEO and Pay Per Click (PPC) because the reality is that your business will need both types of promotion. SEO will take time, usually a few months to kick in enough to make a real difference to your traffic. Meanwhile you want to get qualified visitors (qualified meaning people looking for what you offer) to your site and this is where PPC comes in. SEO is the best medium term strategy and PPC is the best short term strategy, so this is why we say you will need a balance of both types of promotion. How much budget do you assign to each type of campaign? Ideally you want to front load SEO because results take time to kick in, but it all depends on your finances. If you are financially strong then yes, front load SEO but if cash is tighter, then the more important is PPC to get that crucial Internet visibility. Most companies want to see results that generate cash flow from an early stage and to achieve that there's a need for paid promotion through PPC. As a ballpark allocation of budgets, we suggest initially weighting the promotional split 75% to PPC and 25% to SEO. At around 3 months, review your traffic sources when it should be possible to adjust the weighting to 65% PPC and 35% SEO; further review and adjust the balance as your online business matures over time. Clearly, promotional campaigns must work and be seen to do so, which is why monthly reporting is important to prove the case. Bottom line results are the final proof that justifies any promotional spend.
The best SEO strategy for your business is a customised project that takes account of many factors that determine what can be achieved in the short, medium and longer terms. Your SEO investment should be set against clear goals with progress being reported each month to prove that the strategy is working and that it's making a real difference. Keyword research is a vital step to ensure that the right keywords are selected for SEO promotion, right being not too competitive and which are easily mapped to pages on the target website. Search volumes for the selected keywords should be large enough to produce healthy traffic to the target site resulting in a steady, consistent level of enquiries. A typical SEO project would follow the outline below.
| Analyse the target website and generate an audit report detailing any issues | |
| Keyword research | |
| Agree target keywords, milestones and project budget | |
| Map keywords to website pages generating new content if necessary | |
| If not already done, undertake 'on page' SEO for key website pages | |
| Set up redirects from old page urls to new optimised pages | |
| Generate a new sitemap and submit to the major search engines | |
| Produce a starting position Keyword Rank Report for the target keywords | |
| Commence building incoming links (off page SEO) | |
| After month 1 analyse Google indexation of keywords and check url keyword mapping | |
| If index mapping is not as planned, make page content adjustments | |
| Continue reporting monthly progress for the project duration |
Our advice is not to ignore SEO because the alternative is to run Pay Per Click campaigns ongoing, and this can get quite expensive. Small Business SEO is our speciality and as we've said above, we will work with you even if your budget is small (small being around £150/month). We offer a 'flex' SEO package over 6 months where monthly cost varies between £150 - £500 per month according to the schedule of work carried out in any one month. Such a 'flex' approach actually works well with SEO and ranking gains are usually quite steady and consistent. Every project is different depending upon the market your business is in, the strength of your competition, the status of your website and current ranking status.
Please click on the 'Get A Quote' button above if you'd like an affordable SEO proposal.
One of the best ways to improve your website ranking is to populate it with quality content, especially original content that others may want to link to. Before starting any SEO project we will do an audit of the target website and, as part of this process, will provide feedback on content quantity and structure. We work with clients to assist them with content advice, population and if required, will originate bespoke content (SEO Copywriting). Website pages should include relevant keywords in headings and body text as well as in background meta tags. Content is an important part of any SEO project either in improving what you have by better organisation or structure, or adding additional content to strengthen your page authority and organic search rankings.
For affordable small business seo, get in touch now!