Whilst SEO works for many industries, you need to think long and hard before spending any money on it.
To help, think about the word optimisation. To optimise something means to make the most it. If you really want to get the most out of SEO, you want it to generate business.
To do this, follow these tips:
1. Don’t spend money on it
Are you thinking about spending money with an SEO company? Well, my first tip is don’t, unless you need a white label provider. Especially avoid pay per click. While they may provide a good service, they don’t see the big picture. Besides, you can actually increase your business without spending money on SEO.
2. Sort everything else out first
Many companies try to convince you that SEO is the best thing since the last best thing. Guess what, it isn’t.
First and foremost you need to ensure you are optimising (there is that word again) everything else in your business first. Otherwise, time, money and energy will be wasted. The three key elements are: your website, customer service and branding, all of which all need to be optimised.
Website
If your website is not up to scratch, it’s pointless driving people there; they’ll just pop in and say goodbye. So you must create a great website as the crucial starting point.
Find tips on websites here in my previous Mortgage Solutions feature.
Customer service
Focus on converting more enquiries and getting greater word of mouth by examining all the main touch points of your service and seek ways to enhance it. This is key.
Branding
When I talk about branding, I am not talking about your logo but your reputation; it’s everything you say and do. If someone has heard of you, through word of mouth perhaps, they’ll be more likely to click through from the search engine. Focus on building a strong brand.
3. Think about the search
Intermediaries still generate most of their business from existing clients and word of mouth. Therefore, an existing or prospective client is likely to find you on search engines by simply typing in your business name. If that’s the case, why spend money on link building and fancy search terms?
4. You can DIY
It is important to optimise your appearance in the search engines, even if someone is just searching for your name. You still need to drive them to your website and guard against any competitors that may end up appearing in the listing with you.
On the search engines, you need your headings and descriptions to entice people to click through to your site. The heading is the main thing you’ll see in a listing, with the description appearing below.
To see what currently appear on the search engines, go to your own website, starting with your own home page. Now press the right click button on your mouse. A page will appear, with a list. Click on “View Source” and a page will appear, showing the coding for your site. The main things to focus on are the “meta name” and “meta name description”; the “key words” is becoming less relevant.
The “meta name” is your heading or title in the search engine. The description is exactly that – a description of your business. Both of these need to encourage people to click through to your site.
Don’t make the mistake of having these too long. As a rule, the “meta name” should be about 70 to 80 characters. The “meta name description”, a bit further down, can be longer but no more than say 150 words or so.
5. DIY key words
Some people get carried away with the key words on their site. The result is a ruined website with copy that is too long.
Have your key words (which may be your company name, mortgages, broker and your geographic location) appear in about 5% of the copy, although not necessarily all of them all the time.
However, never forget that your website must engage; keep the copy short and easy to understand.
So to conclude, if you really want to get the most out of SEO, don’t spend a penny on it, at least not until you have superior service, branding and a great website. Do the basics yourself and business will increase, by which time you won’t need to spend money on SEO anyway.
Okay, I am off to sort out my own meta description now; it’s long overdue.
Jeff Knight is managing director of Tonic Marketing
