Congratulations! You are most probably here because you have completed your website and are about to launch it. It wasn’t that painful to work with us I believe! Nonetheless, our Account Manager most probably have spoken to you about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to you and you have no clue about what it is. So this article is really to break down in simple layman terms what SEO is and why you should start early to see a rise in traffic.
We will use a fictional example of a Singapore interior designer company – WDS Interiors Pte Ltd with the domain name www.wdsinteriors.com.sg. The founder’s name will be called Peter.
So Peter engaged Web Delegate to build his website and he completed it in 10 days. He was very excited and told all his friends, partners, customers etc about it!. He most probably look like the picture.
However, when he searches his company name online, this is what it shows.
“Wah, how come like dat?”
The reason is when we build your website, we are like a construction worker building up a new launch condominium. When the condominium is built up, it requires the property agents to do the marketing to sell the units. In digital marketing, there are predominantly 2 ways:
1. PPC – Pay Per Click Advertising (Similar to giving out flyers in the nearby MRT station to sell your condo unit)
2. SEO – Search Engine Optimisation (Similar to doing interior design works to your unit first and then sharing on Facebook to get buyers)
The graphic below illustrate what is PPC and SEO in the Google Search Result page. You can see the Pros and Cons of PPC vs SEO here. But we let’s focus on SEO for this article.
“You mean when someone searches my company name, no one can find the website?” Peter asked.
Yes, that’s right. Unless this was already an existing website, it is unlikely that anyone who searches your company name is going to be able to see you website in the beginning.
Google is technically an advanced algorithim sieving through millions of websites and recommending the most relevant website to the user based on his/her search term. In the first place, every website needs to be updated and be indexed by Google.
“WAH, then how?” Peter exclaimed. That’s why we feel that SEO is pretty important for a website in today’s climate. Afterall, what’s the point of creating a website that only your close contacts know about? The whole purpose is to market your company and get leads online. In that way, the website generate money for you.
There are more than 200 factors involve in determining a website ranking in Google.
Google updates its algorithims every 1-2 years and everyone’s SEO strategy changes according to that but in a nutshell, SEO can be classified into 2 categories:
1. On-site SEO – This refers to optimizing the elements on a website to tell Google what this page is all about. (This is what Web Delegate Basic SEO Package is all about)
2. Off-page SEO – This refers to actions taken outside of your own website to impact your rankings within the search engine results pages. i.e. Backlinks, PR press releases, blog etc.
Just remember Google wants to show webpages that are relevant, authoritative and popular to the users who are searching.
“Wah! so how can I start SEO?”
To kick off , you will need what we call in the industry a Site Audit. This audit will tell the us what is the online health of your website. It doesnt mean that you have broken links but it gives us an overview on how your website is performing in the eyes of Google.
This will give us an overview and then we will fix the issue one by one till we get a healthy score.
The next step is to do some keyword research. What are the keywords you want your website to appear in the search results page. It is important to choose keywords that are relevant to your field of work but not keywords that are very difficult to rank for. As with most industries, popular keywords are already taken up by the veterans of the industry. It would be easier to rank for keywords that are quite “Green” for example ” Interior design trends for HDB in 2021″
Once this is done, we will do the following to optimize the on site SEO:
- Website Speed – reduce large amount of HTML on the page , redirect chains and loops. uncompressed Javascript and CSS files, installation of Content Delivery Network (CDN) to optimise speed and images delivery. etc
- Website Server Optimization – Develop sitemap to tell Google about the website and submit it to Google directories. Update Robot.txt file to allow search engine to index your website.
- Title Tag – Addition of keywords so that Google knows what this page actually means.We will also setup Google My Business (GMB) for you.
- Meta description – Further illustration on what this page’s content actually is. Installation of schema markup.
- SEO Friendly content – Optimise each page on the website to be SEO friendly and targeted at the selected keywords.
We will also run the following tools to provide data on the usage rate:
- Google Analytics
- Google Search Console
- Google Optimise Setup
- Cloudflare CDN
The above has to be done on a monthly basis to ensure the website is properly optimized.
“So what happens after all this? What’s the result for SEO”
After about 6 months, when people search your company name , this will appear.
“Ah…what about ranking for like”interior design Singapore”?”
Well, with the above efforts, you might actually start ranking for some of the less competitive keywords. At this point of time, it is good to do a SEO audit again and keyword research. Then you can see where you stand and where you want to be. From this stage on, alot depends on off site SEO. Off site SEO involves any activities that drive awareness and referral traffic to your site from other sites. Some of the elements that are part of off-site SEO:
- Link Building
- Guest Blogging
- Social Media
- Blogging – Generating High Quality Content
- Influencer Marketing
Just remember, Google wants to show the most authoritative website as a top search result for its user. You got to portray that you an industry leader for your website to be recommended at the top of the list.
The good news is that as long as you put in effort in SEO/Adwords etc, you can be #1 in the eyes of digital savvy consumers even though you might not be offline.
Still confused? Just speak with our Account Managers and they will be able to share more with you.
Enjoy digitalizing your business! Check our SEO package to kick start or contact us for free consultation.
