Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO In The UK, Online & Offline

Business success in 2010 requires a clear, professional Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) campaign.

How do we know? Let's take a look at the numbers:

• 92% of people in the UK use the internet, at broadband speeds^*
• Of that group, c75% use search engines to navigate online.

^{* Source:}  BMRB Internet Monitor (May 2009)

That's a lot of potential customers online right now. Since we're looking at stats, you also might like to know that, of all those people making searches online in the UK, c89% of them are using Google.

That's a staggering reach for any advertising channel. But the best news is that all of those users can be better targeted than any offline channel could ever hope to achieve.

It's also the reason why, despite the UK's recession hit economy forcing a slump in advertising spend, online marketing is still yet to see contraction. In fact, 2009 saw advertising spend for online marketing overtake television spend for the first time.

Those advertisers who reinvested their advertising spend in online - and especially those who invested in SEO - have comprehensively outperformed in their marketplace, typically seeing higher ROI for SEO than any other advertising channel.

What we can take away from the industry stats, is pretty simple:

• It is no-longer possible to ignore online, either as a customer group or a marketing space.
• SEO works. And the best part is: it's simple. No, really.
• If you invest in SEO now, you've still got a chance to get an edge your marketplace
• If you've already been running SEO, congratulations! You've been ahead of the game. Now ask yourself: how effective is my SEO?

So How Effective is My SEO?

One of the greatest benefits of SEO is that once you've sorted out all your technical issues, you'll suddenly find your other online marketing efforts are becoming more effective. How?

1. You'll save on PPC costs thanks to better Quality Score matching.
2. Your CPA will improve, meaning your email, display & affiliate landing pages will all convert better.
3. You'll have a comprehensive keyphrase map you can use to better target your niche audiences.

Where Do I Start?

When QueryClick kick off an SEO campaign, the first thing we do is schedule our tech team to run through your site, pull it apart & work out everything causing problems for you in the search engines.

We then make a list, prioritising everything by the SEO impact it will have Vs the time it will take to implement.

Voila! We have the touchstone for every decision made about delivering your content & your sales message online.

BTW, if you'd like a taster, don't forget to request your free SEO Audit right now!

You'll also be pleased to hear everything is written in plain language, and that we are big fans of images with nice, clear annotation.

If you don't understand our recommendations, then we'll make it even simpler & try again. We'll also work directly with your developers should you prefer, and even communicate communicate in binary if we have to!

Regardless of the level of detail however, the technical SEO audit will be the first step in an SEO education programme, helping you & your co-workers to understand what we're doing, and how to think like an SEO expert.

Get Targeted, Get into your Customers' Heads!

Everyone knows about keyphrases, hardly anyone stops to think about their customers before mass generating long lists of keyphrases from the many available tools offered online.

You know your business better than anyone. Your business is also unique.

Why would you want us to tell you what your customers are like? More importantly, why wouldn't we just ask your customers?

With customer insight, we can:

• Look at relative SERP competition more effectively.
• Build URL maps which reflect your service offerings as much as high interest areas in your market.
• Construct call to actions onpage which support both paid & organic SERP call to actions to best turn your audience into a customer.

QueryClick's keyphrase & marketplace research is designed to deliver a comprehensive strategy to achieve SEO & PPC success that delivers profit to your bottom line. If you want to know more, just ask us to get in touch!

Measuring Success: Data is Dangerous!

So we've built a technical foundation, segmented our audience & refined our keyphrase map to bring in more & better quality traffic.We've set the wheels in motion to revamp site content & kicked off our linkbuilding strategy to attract more external links.

How do we know if it's working?

If you're asking most other SEO agencies, the answer will be: improved rankings.

But improved rankings for what? And what's the value of one ranking over another? And just how can a ranking mean anything amongst personalised search results, enhanced listings, multimedia results, mobile search & localisation?

In fact, given everything equal for a single SERP over one day, you'd see significantly different results depending on where you are, if you've seen the page before or not (yes: even if you're not logged in), previous searches from the same IP, real-time updates, breaking news, & so on.

That's why rankings are not sufficient to determine success. It's also an example of how data can be dangerous. Instead, you should always look to measure the value of SEO to your business in business terms:

1. Number of Sales Closed
2. Number of Qualified Leads Generated
3. Increase in Enquiries & other Engagement Metrics

Doing that requires robust web analytics are implemented and set up to track your agreed goals - a simple exercise for qualified Google Analytics professionals like ourselves.

You should also segment your audience to ensure your website caters for the different activities your customers will be performing when they encounter your website for the first time.

^*Harris Interactive (July 2005)

• When shopping, most people (80%) are comparing prices
• In entertainment, the majority (61%) are looking for event times or reviews

Remember: The only metric that counts is your success as a business. So take the time to understand your audience and you'll reap the benefit in your keyphrase strategy.

Finally, Remember: SEO is Easy

Doing it right however, takes commitment, support, and knowledge.

The SEO industry has matured over the last decade. At QueryClick, we have experts boasting 10 years experience at the very highest level, knowledge of what it takes to get things done, and confort working with clients from blue-chip to local, family-run businesses

In short: we know what it takes to succeed in any market. And we understand that a consultant's job is to make your business succeed.

We're not afraid to spell out the truth if you can't target the very top terms, but we will guarantee you'll get better SEO results from us than any other agency in the UK.

Why? Because we care about our clients and we're driven to make online the core of their business success.