In 2008, search engine optimization services were great to have. You were ahead of the curve. Now, however, if you don’t have them working for your business, you’re lagging way behind.
You’re doing more than just a disservice to your company and your brand. You’re actually doing a massive favor to the competition.
It doesn’t matter what sector you are in, from business-to-business (B2B), to business-to-customer (B2C), to not for profit, nearly all purchase decisions begin online.
Still not convinced? Here are 10 reasons you need search engine authorization services for your business. Like, today! Right now.
1. You Don’t Have Time to Do it Yourself
Search engine optimization services aren’t something you dabble in. There is way too much to know today, and much of today’s information will be obsolete in 2019.
Search engine optimization is a full-time job, and you need to stay connected to it seven days a week to be able to survive. Or you need somebody like that working for you.
2. Hiring an SEO Expert is Inefficient
The classic debate is to build it vs buy it. Should I hire a team to keep my search engine optimization services in-house, or should I outsource to an agency? There are certainly arguments that can be made for either side.
You may want to hire somebody so you can literally have them in the building. You can manage them, you can train them, you can ensure they’re entrenched in your company culture and understand everything about you.
However, that logic starts to fall apart when you look at the numbers.
When you hire a full-time employee, you have to pay for a lot of “extra costs.” You have to pay for this employee’s benefits, sick time, bonuses, taxes, and much more.
In fact, the average employee will cost you anywhere from 25 to 40% more than their annual salary.
Or, if you go with an outside firm, you’re eliminating these hidden costs and all of your SEO budget goes to actual SEO performance.
3. Mobile is Now Everything
Google recently announced a major shift towards mobile-first indexing.
This means your mobile site is now officially more important than your desktop site. Mobile-first indexing means we need to move to mobile-first planning when it comes to optimization.
How is your mobile site?
It needs to be amazing. Because 60% of people surveyed have said they won’t recommend your business if you have a bad mobile site. And 40% of those people will leave you and go right to your competition.
The key takeaway here is that a bad mobile site hurts your business and funnels your traffic directly to your competition.
4. Keyword Optimization is Changing
Again, it’s not 2008, so there’s no reason to write your website or blog using tactics or search engine optimization services that worked 10 years ago.
Are you still focused on exact match keywords? Don’t be. Google doesn’t want to see them anymore. They are now focused on rewarding sites that use keywords in a natural and organic way.
This also means you can stop tracking your keyword density. Again, Google doesn’t care. They are more focused on how you are using your keywords, not how many times.
In fact, if you are currently awkwardly trying to wedge exact match keywords into the middle of your blogs or web copy, this comes off as really transparent.
The reader knows what you’re trying to do, and will leave you. This will drive up your bounce rate and hurt your SEO score.
5. Siri and Alexa Need to Be Reckoned With
Speaking of keywords, longtail keywords are the new search engine paydirt.
People are asking Google, Siri, and Alexa complete questions and expect a complete answer. Leveraging search engine optimization services and organic content are how you position your business as the answer to these questions.
Depending on what sector you’re in, the long tail keywords you want to focus on could be anything from:
- Where can I find a calzone?
- I need a personal trainer
- How much does a divorce lawyer cost?
- Can I change my own winter tires?
Locking into these questions is the first step in succeeding in today’s search engine optimization landscape.
How to Find Your Longtail Keywords
There are actually a lot of places you can turn. First of all, you already probably know several of them.
Pull from the real world. What words do your customers use when they are describing their pain points? Ask your sales and customer service team for the exact verbiage.
Don’t get hung up on whether or not they are using the proper terminology. These are the words people are using, so they will be the same word googling. You want to optimize what they search for, not what you think they should search for.
Next, turn your attention online. Again, pay close attention to the exact verbiage people use when asking questions about your industry in places like Quora, Reddit, or even Yahoo Answers.
Free Social Research
Take that same approach and look at the conversations happening on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And finally, take a look at your online reviews, both good and bad.
The bad ones can be a bit humbling or jarring to read, but this is information you need to know. These are the words that people are using when they’re frustrated so these are the words you need to use to position yourself as a solution.
Take this a step further and peek at your competition’s reviews. Their complaints and pain points there are also very valuable to you.
Now, if you really want to focus on these keywords as effectively as possible, work with a search engine optimization services company who can study the search volume for these questions and let you know where you should focus your efforts.
6. Facebook Zero Has Shifted the Social Landscape
Recently, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook’s main focus for 2018 will be making sure that users see more of their family and friends in their newsfeed, and less from Business Pages.
Prior to this, Facebook had shifted its model to make it very difficult to get organic content in front of your target customers’ eyes without paying to do so. Now that is darn near impossible. Facebook is now a 100% pay to play application.
This means you have to start paying for Facebook ads, and running them like any other ad campaign. Or you can focus more of your attention on free or affordable social media like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Instagram is not necessarily for every business, but we will say it is for most businesses. It provides amazing reach and engagement numbers, without the limitations of Facebook.
And the recent addition of Instagram stories has pretty much made Snapchat irrelevant. If you were thinking about investing in Snapchat, you’re better off to put that money into Instagram and a solid search engine optimization services compay who can help yo make the most of your social media strategy.
And if you’re in the B2B sector, do not forget about LinkedIn. Linkedin traffic has steadily climbed over the years, and it now has over 530 million users.
It did this by becoming one of the world’s biggest publishers, and an amazing place to share and view blogs or videos.
7. Good PPC is Really Hard
Most companies are frustrated and bewildered by the PPC advertising aspect of their search engine optimization services. They expected a magic switch that they could just flick, and it would send traffic in qualified leads their way. It’s far more complex than that.
PPC ads take time and TLC to reach their full potential. And when they do, that’s when the magic happens. Suddenly, your site reaches record levels of traffic, and qualified leads start filling in your inbox.
However, there is definitely an art and a science involved. You need to be 100% strategic and deliberate in everything from the verbiage used in the actual ad, to the landing page you send traffic to, and any other steps along the way.
Any potholes in that journey result in a leaky hole in your sales funnel.
8. Link-building Has Changed Forever
One of the most important parts of any search engine optimization services firm is their link building or digital PR team.
A few years ago, you might have gotten away with getting some link building “juice” by spending a little bit of money to promote your business at “Link Farms” or depositories.
However, Google figured out that these websites only benefitted the businesses involved, and provided no actual value to the searcher. So the Google Penguin update put an end to this.
The Penguin Update ensured that only relevant and organic links were rewarded, while spammy links would be ignored. This resulted in an almost overnight shift to the link-building landscape.
Suddenly companies that were already doing link-building the right way saw their keyword rankings skyrocket.
Meanwhile, companies that used spammy link building practices saw their keyword rankings plummet.
9. Intent-Based Marketing is a Game Changer
This is such a simple science, in theory. When somebody comes to your website, give them the exact thing they’re looking for, in the exact way they expect to find it.
However, doing this is incredibly difficult. The real danger is thinking you know the answer when you’re actually way off base.
But you may say, “We know who is coming to our website. We have detailed demographic data and have used that data to construct detailed buyer personas.”
Fantastic. But that is only half of the battle. Less than half, actually.
Understanding intent-based marketing takes that a step further and shows you how these buyer personas want to interact on your website.
And if you don’t know the intent, you don’t know half of the story. In fact, Google has said that simply relying on demographic data can cost you as many as 70% of your mobile buyers.
A search engine optimization services team can help you take a deep dive into intent-based marketing.
10. SEO Work is Never Actually Over
The real reason you need to hire a search engine optimization services team is that success in this world is never actually achieved. It is only maintained. The work is never done.
Your customers are constantly getting smarter, and changing the way they want to browse, and Google is constantly evolving to keep up with this.
These changes will present both challenges and opportunities along the way. We already outlined how the Google Penguin update was an opportunity for businesses already doing things the right way.
But what if something happens and you don’t have the search engine optimization services to understand it, or why it is hurting your company?
Bit By the Hawk?
Let’s take the Google Hawk update for example. The hawk was Google’s way of cracking down on businesses cheating Google maps by creating two or more listings of the same business in very geographically close locations.
The update did crack down on this, but there was an unfortunate side effect.
If you were geographically close to your competition, say a pizza shop across the street from another pizza shop, Google may see one of your businesses as a spammer fabrication.
You might find yourself literally disappearing off of the (Google) map.
If you have a search engine optimization services team on your side, you can anticipate these updates before they happen, or deal with any fallout quickly and professionally.
If you don’t, you’re completely in the dark when it comes to the world of SEO. And now your pizza parlor will disappear from Google Maps, your foot traffic is going to suffer greatly, and you will have no idea why.
Take Your Search Engine Optimization Services Further
Are you ready to talk about how your company can make the most of search engine optimization services?
We can launch your ranking sky-high with our proven-to-succeed strategies that consider both your business niche and your competition. You can start today by clicking here for a free consultation.
