Organic Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a foundational element to any business.  If 60% of the buying decision is made by the customer before they pick up the phone to speak with you and you are not easy to find online, how much business are you missing out on?

There are many types of Professional SEO Services available.  Often I hear clients telling me they have had their SEO done or they are currently paying a company to do their SEO so they “rank on page one.”

When I ask them what they have had done they often stare at me with blank faces and fumble around for their latest report to show me what has been done.  Which usually is nothing.

Pretty much the only thing that can guarantee you page one results is Google.  And if you don’t work for Google or own it, how can you make those claims?

There is a lot of confusion out there.  Many business owners appear to be caught up in this mysterious black hole called SEO.  How do you get out, or better still how can you tell the difference between a “good” SEO company and a not so good one?

Because this industry is so new there seems to be a lot of confusion about what SEO is and how it can help a business.

I’d like to clear that up.

If the “SEO”company you are working with does any of the following:

1. Not clearly state what they are doing for your business
2. Ranking you for your company name
3. Not showing you any reporting or measurement evidence
4. Doing on page SEO and charging you monthly
5. Doing off page SEO and not showing you how they are doing it

It’s time to go.  These are the signals of companies that might not have your best business interests at heart.

SEO is actually very logical and makes sense when you break it down.  Yes there are some very technical components to it which we won’t go into today, but you can do some simple things to help your business be more “findable” on line.

On page SEO is actually very simple. (Albeit time consuming depending on the number of pages on your website)

It’s a good idea if you can dedicate a keyword phrase or search term to each page on your website.  So if you have 100 pages on your website and each page has its own keyword phrase associated with it, then effectively you have 100 “minions” out there on line working for your business.

Here is an example:

If you run a shoe shop in Sydney and you have a page that is focused on women’s bridal shoes you might choose a keyword such as “women’s bridal shoes.” And so that page would look like this:

Title: Women’s Bridal Shoes | Bridal Shoes & Accessories

Meta Description: Sydney’s leading Bridal Shoe store & accessories.  The latest brands & styles in women’s bridal shoes. Check out the range online.

Alt text the image i.e. women’s-bridal-shoes

Women’s Bridal Shoes for spring (Image description)

Another great strategy is to state what the image is about.  An image description is helpful as the search engines search for the text closest to the image for more information.

You could also create a headline for the page which includes the keyword.  Such as “Women’s Bridal Shoes & Accessories for your special day.”

Then throughout the content on the page you could use the keyword 2-3 times.

It makes a lot of sense when you break it down.  I have highlighted the keyword phrase so you can see it in all of the different elements on the page.

Make sure when you engage in Professional SEO Services that your provider clearly states what they will do, shows you a before and after report, explains it to you and can measure the results.

If you would like to learn some more of the basics of SEO please download the Free eBook The Ultimate Beginners Guide to SEO.  Then you too can come out of the dark and shine the spotlight on your business.