SEO or “search engine optimisation” is the practice of increasing the quality and quantity of traffic to a website and, to a lesser extent, building brand awareness through organic search engine results.
SEO is important because most web traffic is driven by search engines. Indeed, in Australia, most (95%) web traffic is driven by Google (source: Statcounter.com).
It’s been around for two decades yet there’s still a lot of mystery surrounding SEO and it’s not helped by Google regularly changing and updating its algorithm.
Richard Eaves is a SEO expert who has worked in-house and with agencies in the UK, India, Philippines, and Australia. I invited him to demystify SEO and explain how businesses can optimise their SEO investment.
JB: Voodoo, black magic…what is this SEO trickery all about, Richard Eaves?
RE: There’s nothing magical about it. SEO is a science. It’s basically reverse engineering how Google views your website’s relevance (to the keywords being searched) and overall authority.
JB: What’s the most common SEO mistake made by businesses?
RE: Whether engaging a third-party provider or hiring in-house, too often there’s a misalignment of expectations. It’s difficult to explain SEO because there are so many factors that go into how a website will rank on Google. Business people often expect a quick return on their SEO investment, but results take time to achieve, and improvements are incremental.
Telling a client it could take two years to deliver a return on their SEO strategy is a very difficult conversation to have. And while plenty of SEO agencies might claim it will only take six months, that’s rarely the case. This is why the SEO industry has a bad reputation. It’s so easy for clients to be given false expectations.
JB: There are 1,000-odd SEO providers in Australia. If the SEO industry has a bad reputation, what should businesses look for when choosing a SEO agency or expert?
RE: It’s true – SEO providers vary widely in quality and ethos. Ask for case studies. In SEO, there should be data to back up every claim. And don’t be concerned if a SEO agency has worked with one of your competitors. Industry experience can be highly valuable. A lot of SEO knowledge is niche, and it takes time to understand how an industry works.
JB: What do you say to businesses that would settle for being on page two of a Google search?
RE: I tell them the best place to hide a dead body is on page two of Google. <laughs>
Google is essentially a league table. In SEO, it’s almost winner takes all because the click through rate drops off substantially as you go down page one. Be wary of SEO providers that extol the virtues of gaining a position on page two.
JB: I’ve heard SEO experts talk about “informational” and “transactional” keywords. What are they?
RE: Informational keywords help you to find information about a particular topic. Let’s say you’re researching running shoes. ‘How to’ and ‘what’s the difference’ are informational keywords – they’ll help you locate what you’re searching for. Transactional keywords, on the other hand, indicate the searcher has intent to buy something or take decisive action on a website. Again, using the running shoes example, you might add transaction words such as ‘buy’, ‘sale’, ‘cheapest’, or ‘near me’. Transactional keywords signal the person is ready to make a purchase.
JB: I find there’s still a lot of confusion about the difference between SEO and PPC. Can you explain it to me?
RE: PPC (pay per click) is paid traffic so your Google presence will be clearly labelled ‘paid’ (“Ad”). According to Moz, on average only 2.6% of searchers click on a Google ad result.
In contrast, SEO is organic and tends to deliver much higher click-through rates (28.5% average for a page one Google search result). With SEO, you build equity in your website. Therefore, if after a while you were to stop SEO, the equity you’ve earned will still work for your business whereas the second your stop spending on PPC, it’s switched off.
JB: What’s more important: Google rankings or conversion rates?
RE: You need both. Ranking high on Google means little if no one is clicking through to your website. And driving a lot of traffic to your website is pointless if visitors aren’t then making a purchase or subscribing to your newsletter or downloading your whitepaper or doing whatever else it is you want them to do. The goal is to convert, and you need the Google ranking to achieve that.
JB: Richard Eaves, how do you persuade businesses to engage your SEO services?
RE: Sometimes I don’t. Sometimes a business would be wise to invest their marketing dollar in some other channel. I’d rather be honest about that as it shows I have an ethical approach and builds trust. I’d rather preserve my reputation by saying “You don’t need me but maybe one day one of your friends will in which case you might give me your recommendation.”
