When we say on-site strategy, we aren’t talking about your web design and choice of colours (though that certainly plays a role!)
No, we’re talking about your search engine optimisation – SEO for short.
Basically, SEO can be split into two different categories:
- On-site
- Off-site
Like the name suggests, one focuses on what you can do with your website to improve its visibility on search engines like Google, while the other focuses on links from other sites and directory listings.
Both are important from an SEO standpoint – if you ask our Melbourne SEO team however, one is significantly more effective than the other!
What the heck does on-site SEO involve, anyway?
The first thing you need to understand is that the perfect on-site strategy involves a lot of marketing work. To get the best results you’ll want to hire the best in the business (like our Melbourne SEO team – nudge nudge, wink wink!)
In all seriousness though, we’re more than happy to help you understand the basics of creating a good on-site strategy – one that will help you get the best results possible.
1) Start by keeping your SEO strategy specific to your target market
One of the main mistakes our Melbourne SEO team sees people making in their SEO strategies is straying from their original marketing strategies to chase after keywords.
For example, when businesses do their SEO research they get so caught up in the searches per month and the competition for the term that they stop thinking about the term itself and what it really means people are searching.
Now if you’re not super familiar with SEO that could be a little confusing. So let’s start from the top.
When you use SEO strategies, it requires you to start by collecting data regarding the searches run through Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines for specific key terms (mostly just Google though).
You’ll need to weigh up search volume and the competition (the number of other results for that search).
Here’s the problem: many DIY SEO-ers get tunnel vision and focus on the numbers. They try to optimise their site for terms with good search volume and a low competition rate…
regardless of whether or not these terms are really relevant to their business or customers.
Big mistake!
For example, say you run a high heels boutique in South Yarra, for example. Say the stats for searches like ‘women’s sneakers’ or ‘riding boots’ look good – what’s the harm in optimising for these? If the search rate is good and the competition is low, then it will drive traffic to your site. Right?
You’re not wrong. The number of visits to your site might go up if you optimise the site correctly.
The problem is that much of this traffic is going to leave immediately when they realise you only do high heels, and not what they’re actually looking for!
Learn about the difference between volume and search competition.
2) Keep it consistent across your site
Okay, so say you do high heels, sneakers and riding boots.
… and weight loss products.
… and baby seats.
… and novelty socks with sparkly toes.
By trying to include all of these in your SEO strategy, you run the risk of spreading yourself too thin and wasting time trying to optimise for niche products when you should be going for products or services with good sales numbers.
It’s marketing 101, really – and it extends to search engine optimisation.
If you ask us, you should build your SEO strategy around a specific group of closely-related products, services, locations, or problems.
Whatever you’ve settled on, just make sure it’s consistent!
Say the footwear is your best-selling range – in that case, we strongly advise putting the lion’s share of effort into optimising for that, rather than trying to rank for sparkly novelty socks.
In short, if it isn’t related to your core business, it should be put under “nice to have” rather than “must rank for!”
3) Everyone underestimates blogging – here’s why you shouldn’t!
“Mine’s a small site,” you think, “who’s going to be interested in hearing what I have to say?”
True, you may be a small fry in a big pond. However, that doesn’t mean nobody’s listening.
The first rule of search engine optimisation: “content is king.”
Specifically, Google puts greater emphasis on sites that demonstrate that they’re up-to-date, informed and active, using each of these as proxies for credibility and expertise.
Key to that is a constant, steady stream of high-quality and original content – something we in the biz call content marketing. Hopefully, the cogs are starting to turn now!
Blogging adds extra content to your site for search engines to crawl through – if you get the art of blogging right then you can position yourself as an authority in your field.
Of course, like all things SEO-related, it has to be done right.
As we’ve said before…you can’t trick a search engine. There’s no point trying to keyword stuff your content or create ‘filler’ content that has little to no value to your intended target market.
No, it needs to be:
- Regular
- Well-optimised
- Relevant to your audience and business
- Original (no copy+pasting here)
There’s a lot more that goes into it, but that’s the gist of it. Get it right, and you could soar up the results page.
4) Search engine optimisation needs a good base
For your search engine optimisation to succeed, it needs to be built on a solid foundation – specifically, it needs a strong website.
Part of that is ensuring that your site:
- Loads quickly
- Isn’t a buggy mess
- Everything works as intended
In addition to improving the user experience, each of these also improves your site’s performance on the search engines.
When it comes to on-site SEO however, it doesn’t end there.
As part of your on-site SEO, you’ll also have to look at the code that powers it and ensure that it’s formatted in a way that’s easy for search engine bots:
- Updated sitemap
- 404 error pages
- Properly configured Robots.txt files
- Site speed
- Internal linking structure
- Rich snippets, alt tags and metadata
The list goes on and on. While some of this stuff can be improved on your own, that isn’t always the case – just another reason to call a pro to look after all the back-end stuff you can’t wrap your head around on your own!
The perfect on site SEO strategy takes a lot of work
Too much effort for you? Our Melbourne SEO team makes it easy
Search engine optimisation can be a lot of work (and no, that isn’t us playing it up – each of our clients receives hours of work each month). As a business owner, you no doubt have a lot on your plate already.
So why not offload at least some of that to a specialist?
That’s where we come in. We can help you with both on- and off-site search engine optimisation Melbourne, driving traffic to your business.
Our team will:
- Devise a new SEO and content strategy
- Refine an existing one
- Improve site content
- Look after the back-end of your site
- Give your website a facelift
- Create well-written ongoing content
- Track performance and provide ongoing reporting
And all for a single flat monthly fee!
Are you a tradie? If so, we offer specialised tradie marketing packages that help get you found for the jobs you want, in the area you want, by the customers you want.