If you are reading this article, you are definitely interested in your business's long-term success. And nowadays, a consistent turnover is closely related to the digital marketing options you have access to. The best way to streamline your content and get new people accessing your website is by implementing SEO practices that improve your ranking in the SERPs.
SEO services are numerous, and today's market is flooded by a suite of firms advertising their solutions in various ways. So, how can you be sure you are choosing the SEO services company your business needs? In the following pages, we will try to present the importance of SEO practices, go from A to Z on what SEO means, and introduce you to some aspects of digital marketing that can contribute massively to the success of your business.
What are SEO Services?
SEO, if we try to speak in simplified terms, is nothing more than processes that, through the use of various optimization strategies, both in terms of content and functionality, try to improve a website's ranking on the first pages of the search engine, which automatically translates into a higher number of visitors and a more significant profit. But there are several steps to consider when using the professional services of an SEO services company.
First and foremost, SEO is a versatile set of procedures that can be tailored according to the client's needs and expectations. SEO can be implemented locally and internationally, and the complexity of the operations required ultimately determines the final price charged by the SEO firm. But why would I choose local SEO over international SEO?
A Problem of Costs and Scope
SEO services are similar when it comes to the procedures used, but what differs instead is the complexity and duration required for the changes to be implemented on the site. The final cost of an SEO operation will be influenced by the client's field of activity, the size of the website being worked on, as well as the final goal of the SEO strategy.
Suppose the client's services are locally focused. In that case, the SEO strategy operation will focus on local promotion, where the ultimate goal is for the client to appear at the top of the search results in the geographical area to which they belong. If, on the other hand, we are talking about a client with a larger site that wants to compete with players on the national or international market, then the complexity of the operations required will be more significant, and the costs will be higher.
The price charged by most professional companies for local SEO operations is usually no more than $1500-2000 per month, while the cost can double for international SEO operations. What is important to remember is that SEO services are the surest way to get a positive ROI when it comes to digital marketing operations. And although the results will not be visible for several months, they will eventually make their presence felt in almost all cases.
How Long Does the SEO Process Take?
The answer to this question depends on many factors that a professional SEO services company must thoroughly analyze. What is the field of activity of your business? What was your turnover in the previous year? How competitive is your local market? What competition do you have? However effective it may be, an SEO strategy will take a minimum of three to six months to produce noticeable results that can be seen in the analytics data of SEO programs used by experts, so you will need to be patient and temper your expectations, which is a good business practice in itself.
Generally, a website that enjoys a particular relevance in the field before the start of the optimization activity will register faster results than one that has not taken the minimum content and keyword analysis strategies seriously. But how can a company figure out the current state of a website and know what changes are needed to take it to the next level?
The SEO Audit Process
The process of optimizing your website will always have to start with a complete website audit performed by a professional SEO services company, which will analyze your competitiveness against rivals, analyze the technical performance of the site on both desktop and mobile, study the internal links available in the descriptions or articles on the site, and last but not least explore ways in which specialized content can be created for you, taking into account the keywords found during the analysis.
On average, the SEO audit process takes about a month, although the duration may differ depending on the complexity of the website. Once the analysis is complete, the professional SEO services company you have contacted must provide you with a work strategy, an estimated price for the necessary changes, and a quarterly forecast of the initial success you can expect from the optimization process.
The SEO Process Itself
Once the audit is complete, the actual optimization of the client's site can proceed, and this is usually divided into three distinct stages—namely, on-page, off-page, and technical optimization. On-page and technical optimization are often used together to refer to the same types of processes, but some aspects differentiate them.
On-page optimization refers to content changes that can be implemented on a website to improve its ranking in the SERPs. For example, optimizing the formatting of existing articles on the site with a focus on the internal links between them and creating new content that takes advantage of the keywords obtained from the audit process falls under on-page optimization.
At the same time, implementing breadcrumb navigation options, creating a site map, analyzing dead links, analyzing indexing issues in search engine pages, resolving duplicate or orphan articles, and optimizing the site for desktop and mobile browsing, all fall under the scope of technical SEO optimization. But what about off-page SEO?
The Importance of Obtaining Backlinks
The off-page SEO process refers to actions that cannot be taken directly from the pages of your website but can still have a significant impact on the visitors you attract. Off-page SEO operations can refer both to the use of social media to attract an influx of visitors, and it can also refer to the link-building strategies that a professional SEO company must implement if it wants to compete in today's market. But what does a link-building system consist of?
In short, link-building strategies are how you can attract backlinks from other sites that refer to your written or promoted content. Backlinks, for search engine algorithms, act as highways that can link one or more audiences together. For Google, if a site links its content to another one, then that site is most likely of sufficient quality to merit that promotion, and thus the search engine gives it a slight boost in the SERPs. And an excellent link-building strategy goes hand in hand with an on-page one in which the creation of quality content relevant to the client's field of activity is implemented.
Gaining the Right Audience
Getting a boost in search engine analytics is great, but what matters, in the end, is that the audience that finds your content also interacts with it. For example, have you received backlinks from a site that compiles listings but is generally unrelated to your business? Then most likely, the audience coming from that site won't interact much with your website, which won't translate into substantially increased profits. Do you instead get a backlink from a site that operates in the same field of activity as you and is considered a reference in the area? Then most likely, the influx of visitors, in this case, will interact a little more with the services you offer, which will result in a higher profit for your company.
If, for example, you are the owner of a website that specializes in the distribution of car parts, and you get a backlink from a site where the target audience is young teens, then most likely, this influx of users will not help you much, because they are probably not old enough to be in a position to buy a car. SEO is a complex process with many variables, and your company's success may lie in adjusting these variables to your interest.
What Can I Expect from the SEO Process?
The SEO services offered by a professional SEO firm are your best bet regarding your business's long-term success. SEO can be quite an expensive process, and it can take several months for the results to be visible, but digital marketing today means playing the algorithm game properly, and with a well-implemented strategy, your ROI will always be more than satisfactory.
Compared to other digital marketing methods, turning to an SEO services company is a sure way to see tangible results that can ultimately prove invaluable to your firm's ongoing success. You are most likely a person who is aware of the value of a dollar spent, and that’s why turning to an SEO company can be a good strategy, as there are not many ways to promote yourself in the market right now that can surpass the results offered by search engine optimization. And where there is efficiency, there is also a significant profit for you, which in the end, is one of the most important aspects of a business.