The Value of SEO

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) combines technology + science + technique to boost the ranking or frequency of a website in results returned by a search engine, explains Glenn Millen of Maas Media. In the vastness of the world wide web SEO has become an absolutely essential tool for organisations, enterprises and individuals seeking to get their message out via the web. Without the aid of a proficient SEO program websites are at the risk of being, literally, lost in space.

The goal of any experienced SEO is to establish a strong foundation for a beautiful website with a clean, effective user experience that is easily discoverable in search with thanks to the trust and credibility of the brand and its digital properties.

—Search Engine Journal

Why is it so important for business?

SEO is a very powerful sales & marketing tool. It serves to bring more visibility to your website, attracting more traffic and engagement with your site, which provides for greater opportunities to establish new customers. If someone is looking for a service or product, their go-to is to search online, and if you’ve established a good ranking on a top search engine, the likes of Google, there’s a very high chance people will find you.

Search engine ranking success

Search is one of the main ways in which people find information/discover content online using a range of search engines such as Google, YouTube, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft Bing, Baidu, and Yandex. The higher your website ranks in these top search engines, can lead to increased traffic and more possibilities of leading to new prospects.

Search engine optimisation plays a conductor role in orchestrating search engines to understand and present certain content. Understanding how to influence this is the core of developing an effective SEO master plan. It is no longer only about having the right keywords interspersed in your content, it involves many different tactics and techniques. It’s an intricate process that requires a well thought out strategy and is informed by best practice. It’s also not just about attracting people to your website, it’s about engaging them once they’re there.

In our article People are the centre of digital transformation, we emphasised people need to be at the heart of our decision-making. Business models, methodologies, and processes are born out of the connection to human activity. A website needs to be designed with the same lens, built to benefit your online audience. It’s essential to understand who they are and any optimisation should be geared toward enhancing their experience.

SEO with purpose

By far Google is a clear-cut leader, being the most widely used search engine across the globe. We recognise this is the current trend, and with Google having the majority search market share, it’s one of the biggest areas of opportunity. There are many ways to approach SEO best practice, ultimately, trust and authority are key to creating a strong presence in Google search results. What it takes is a well-developed SEO plan of action as we touched on earlier. It’s not something that happens overnight, it’s a long-term strategy that integrates with business objectives and growth. A structured effort can deliver extended opportunities.

There are things you can initiate to help influence driving more traffic to your site - whether you are starting out with a new build, or reviewing existing website SEO performance. Keywords still play a vital role in effective SEO. Glenn shares the following series of recommendations which, when tuned correctly, he says, help greatly in achieving positive Google rankings for topical keywords while also aligning Business/Social Networks in search results.

Sourcing the Highest-Worth Keywords for the Business Sector
The first step in extending the reach of a website in Google search results is sourcing the very best keywords relative to your business and business sector. This information is available from Google Search Central (formally Google Webmasters) and Google Ads where every keyword used by the online audience to find both your website and websites in your business sector are listed. Each keyword in the list is accompanied by valuable information including the monthly search volumes, current Google Ranking Position for your website, the cost of Google Ads clicks via a campaign and overall Keyword Ranking Difficulty. This set of metrics will lead your website updates and determine which keywords should be used in applicable webpage fields and indeed the webpage article descriptive copy to create positive Google rankings. Google relies on the compound use of keywords to reconcile your website as relevant to a top 10 ranking position for searches of this nature.
Page Titles and Meta Layer Optimisation
Page Title, Meta Description, and Meta Keyword fields are available for each and every page within a website and carry positive weight in the Google indexing process. We have seen in the modern era website Content Management Systems (CMS) programs, which do not natively allow individualised Page Title and Meta Layer information to be input, relying instead on third party Plugins to open this important set of website parameters for editing (Yoast SEO Plugin / KudoSEO Essentials Plugin). Site-wide Page Title and Meta Layer optimisation is the first step into the SEO process and can deliver Top 10 / 20 search engine rankings when tuned correctly.
Regular News Articles and Blog Posts Additions to the Business Website
Writing and uploading News Articles and Blog Posts with well-structured information and optimised naming conventions will drive high-positioned rankings in Google search results. The use of topical keywords throughout the article/blog adds positive weight to the Google index. Ensuring the key areas of Author, Date Stamp and Geo-Location are in place across the News and Blog articles is as important as the article structure and content with regard to search engine rankings. When this page hierarchy is tuned over time, the ranking capabilities of the website are greatly enhanced. A well-developed article structure and continued, timed additions can deliver indented results in search engines where the Home Page and a relative Product, Service or News/Blog page appear in sequence within the search results page. This extended search result view denotes authority and trust to the online audience and increases the opportunity for click-through to the website.
Social Media and Business Network Optimisation
The role of Social Media Networks in creating increased Google search result opportunities is centred on synchronising the use of topical keywords which also appear in supporting News Articles, Blog Posts, and the website proper. Be it a hash-tag reference or pure backlinking to the source article or webpage from the Social/Business Network release, synchronising the unique language used in all instances will see Google add high Authority to each area. The output of this methodology can deliver a Google Top 10 results set where all of the elements discussed are displayed with priority. (YouTube Channel, Facebook, Twitter etc.) The successful synchronisation of these elements on a regular basis will drive the most positive outcome in Google search results.

Human handshake with digital hand protruding from laptop screen. — While every business sector has unique needs related to the field of SEO, there are common solutions to ensure positive results can be achieved.

Boost your business’ ability to be found

Other ways to boost your business’ rankings in search results is through Google My Business and Local Pack listings.

Google My Business Panel Listings
A Google search for a particular business offers the best opportunity to showcase business credentials to potential clients. Google My Business is a tool that promotes your business on Google Search and Google Maps as well as provides you with informed insights on how to enhance customer engagement for better results. It also plays a vital role in confirming a business as authentic. When a business name search is conducted, Google My Business listings are displayed confirming to potential customers that the business is a true entity with a terrestrial location. The listings are well regarded by the online audience and are often the final requirement for a qualified enquiry. The Google My Business listings are in place to be owned and controlled by the business proprietors through a simple process of ownership confirmation with Google.
Google Local Pack Listings in Search Results
The Local Pack was created by Google to showcase three localised businesses in Top 10 search results and is tied to the postcode location of the User conducting the search. I.e. Searches conducted from Port Melbourne will deliver a Local Pack listing of three businesses in the postcode area. The Local Pack listings are a competitive area of SEO and highly sought. By using the strategies described above where continued, well-tuned information is released via the website and supporting channels, a Google Local Pack listing can be achieved.

Small steps, big impact

While every business sector has unique needs and challenges related to the field of SEO, there are common solutions to ensure positive results can be achieved. There are small, immediate steps you can take to optimise being seen and increase dynamic engagement with potential clients:

Improve your indexing by creating content on a consistent basis
Share your business experience with your audience and create trust through consistent messaging from your website and supporting Social/Business Networks. From product/service offers through to showcasing the latest client success stories – An up to date, honest approach to informing the online audience of key aspects of your company and its activities entices potential clients to return to your website and, when ready, make an enquiry.
Up-to-date and fresh content
Offering continued content to Google for indexing keeps the website topical in the eyes of the search engine, leading to a priority status where Google continually visits the website to collect fresh content. The new content need not be pushed out each and every day. Weekly additions to the website in conjunction with Social/Business Network updates is recommended.
Dates and known structure
Date stamping and a consistent structure of article/blog paging is favored by search engines. Following a simple set of rules when creating new content allows search engines to easily understand and index the fresh material, leading to increased ranking opportunities in search results.

Summary

Search engine ranking success is now a known path. When the elements described in this article are tuned correctly over time, the output can generate considerable increases in positive website engagement. Trust and authority are key to this engagement. We understand many businesses rely on Social/Business Network channels to create engagement from the online audience in conjunction with the base website. The ability to group these channels as discrete entries in Google top 10 search results is what we consider to be the Gold Position in SEO. The aim of the exercise is to generate increased qualified visitation to the business website and new enquiry for the business products and services through the publishing of continued fresh content across all available online channels. Search engine ranking success can now be in the hands of every website owner through the application of a set of simple rules. Creating fresh, honest content for a website and the supporting Networks with aligned language and linking is the basis of creating positive Google rankings. And ultimately optimising a business’ ability to generate traffic and new leads.

About Maas Media

Glenn Millen, Strategic Innovator, and Mark Nuttney, Search Engine Pioneer, are the brains behind Maas Media, who provide search engine optimisation (SEO), web traffic analyises, and digital marketing strategies.

Maas deliver expert SEO services helping businesses of all sizes acheive optimal outcomes from their SEO activities - deploying an exclusive plugin of Maas' own design, KudoSEO. One of the aims Maas Media seek to accomplish through the development of the KudoSEO system is to quash the misconception that SEO cannot be effective without considerable investment and expert knowledge. This proprietary plugin uses standard web protocols applying Maas’s research-based algorithms to push clients’ websites ‘up the page’, to prominent positions on all leading search engines.

The Maas Media KudoSEO Essential and KudoSEO Extended tools were created to act as a connection point for Google to reconcile and index every aspect of a business' website and aligned Social/Business Network. In doing so, the Google search results related to a business, product, or service search can be enhanced beyond a simple website listing. In some cases, the Google search results can consist of multiple discrete entries in the top 10 space, being the website Home Page and a supporting article/blog page, a YouTube channel entry plus Facebook and Twitter feed listings. This compounded, positive search result leads to increased engagement from the online audience and, most importantly, a high level of trust and authority.

Image Credit
'Search' and Digital handshake' by Canva

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