SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is one of the most cost-effective ways for small businesses to grow their presence online. While that may be true, it can often seem like a difficult task with so much conflicting information. This is when most business turn to the SEO professionals like BRBD Marketing. But what do these SEO services entail? What does an SEO Agency actually do?
In this article, we are going to look at just that! We are going to look at how an SEO strategy is put together and all the bits and pieces that make your website rank.
Understanding The Brand
The first step with SEO services in South Africa, as with any marketing strategy, is to understand the brand. Before you can do any other planning or optimisation, you first need to understand who the brand is.
Understanding who the brand is, what they stand for, who they are targeting, and similar is crucial to developing and implementing an SEO strategy. Failure to do so could result is mistargeting and misalignment down the line.
We always like to sit down with my clients and have a long in-depth discussion about their brands before we get started. This includes identifying their unique selling points and their competitors.
Competitor Research
Now that you understand the brand, the next step is to understand what you are up against. Competitors research involves looking at some of the brands competitors to understand what they are doing and what they are ranking for.
Competitor research can help you to understand:
- Topics you need to cover
- Keywords you should target
- The amount of authority your website needs
- And other ideas for improving your brands visibility.
We like to use Ahrefs to do competitor research. The software allows you to easily compare your website to those of your competitors. It displays key data such as backlinks, keywords your competitors are ranking for, and the estimated organic traffic they are getting.
On Page SEO
On Page SEO is the next step in your SEO strategy. On Page SEO can be described as everything you need to do on your website to help it rank. This includes site speed, site optimisation, content development, blogging, content silos, and much more.
Often this is where the bulk of the work is done, so lets break it down.
Site Optimisation
If a site takes 5 minutes to load, you are unlikely to wait around to see it. Since 2018 (But likely earlier), Google has been focused on clearing the search engine of slow websites. It has announced on many of its updates since 2018, that page speed is a ranking factor as it directly correlates to user experience.
Since 2020, mobile page speed has also become a strong factor with some estimates saying as much as 30% of your ranking is because of speed.
Speed is one of the main focused of SEO optimisation and as you can see, it is an important one!
Other factors include your site layout, internal link structures, and website design.
Majority of what Google looks at in terms of site optimisation is how easy is it for a user to navigate through your website. The harder it is, the lower your score and thus ranking.
Keyword Research
Keyword research involves the finding of relevant niche keywords to include in your content. Keywords tell Google what it is that you do, write about, and what type of people should send your ways.
Search queries are when you type something into Google search, e.g. “Where to buy beer near me?”. Keywords are directly linked to these search queries and help Google to match your website page to the person looking on Google.
Finding keywords is easy when using keyword research tools like Ahrefs, SEMRush, SEOsurfer, or Ubersuggest. While Google Ads keyword tool was useful in the past, we have not found it relevant anymore. Ubersuggest would be our pick if you are looking for a free tool, with SEOsurfer or Ahrefs as our premium choice.
The most important point to remember is you should never write to include keywords. Keywords should be included in a natural way, otherwise Google will ignore your page altogether.
Use keywords to plan your content and to get great content ideas that match what people are actively searching for.
Content Planning & Development
Content is King! There is a reason all SEO agencies have killer copywriters on their teams. Content is the backbone of 90% of SEO strategies. Why? Because Google wants to answer a search user query with the best answer possible. An answer shown in your content.
Planning your content is crucial. Ensuring you plan out your topics to suit what keywords users are looking for and ensuring each piece of content adequately covers the topic is paramount to the success of your website. Don’t skip on planning as it will improve your results and help you to create better quality content.
Once your content is planned, then you can get in to writing it. Be sure to include relevant links to authoritative sources, images, videos, and internal links in your content.
Off Page SEO
Off Page SEO is one of the most debated topics in the marketing world. With so much disparity over what’s right and what works, we’d rather not get too deep into it. So here is a basic guide on Off Page SEO.
Off Page SEO is everything that is done off of your website. This is the part you often don’t see, the part that makes all the difference.
If everyone is talking about you, off of your website, it sends a good signal to Google that your website is something to look at. Brands with strong social media presences often see a stronger SEO presence because of this.
Here are some other ways to work on your Off Page SEO:
Guest Blogging
Guest Blogging is when you post an article on another blog that is not yours. Guest blogging is a great way to build your website authority through natural backlinks to your website included in your guest post content.
Finding guest blogging opportunities can be difficult, but if you have a good product and a website filled with good content, the you can find bloggers willing to mention your website or give you’re a guest blogging opportunity.
Public Relations
Similar to guest blogging, Public Relations can increase the off-page noise sending good signals to Google. Doing a PR blitz or interviews with local and national news outlets where your business/ website is mentioned can help increase your brands visibility from an SEO perspective.
If you are looking for SEO services in South Africa or are looking to grow your business in the online world, then we may be able to help you!
BRBD Marketing is a cutting-edge Marketing Agency based in Cape Town. With a low-cost base and extreme drive, we work with our clients to deliver a results-based strategy. This ensures that our clients pay for results and not “likes”.
Let’s discuss how SEO could fit into your business: