Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

What is SEO and how it can work for your business

“If you build it, they will come.” - is probably the worst advice anyone has ever heard of when starting a new business and website.

The most important currency these days is ATTENTION. We currently live in a world of short attention spans and if you don’t capture people’s attention within 2-3 seconds, they scroll past and are off to the next shiny object. With millions of websites competing for user attention, it’s crucial that you work on getting your business noticed for its relevant service and product offerings when users are searching for it.

So what does this mean for you?

It means that if you’ve got a website for your business, you need to be constantly optimising your website so that search engines can find it and show it when users are searching for keywords that are relevant to your business. This is what we call SEO or Search Engine Optimisation.

SEO is the key to boosting visibility in the search results for your product or service.

What is SEO?

SEO is the process of taking steps to help a website or piece of content rank higher on Google. Simply put, SEO means taking a piece of online content and optimising it so search engines like Google show it to the top of the page when someone searches for something.

As an example, when someone types “SEO Agency Brisbane”, they’re likely looking for an SEO service provider based in Brisbane. If you are an SEO Agency based in Brisbane, you’d want people to find you when they’re searching for your service.. But in order for you to be found, you would need to rank above all other websites that are also ranking for SEO Agency Brisbane.” That’s in a nutshell what SEO is all about. It’s getting you to rank for a keyword or set of keywords so you can get to the top of the page and get the volume of the traffic for that keyword.

How does SEO work?

There are two crucial elements to SEO: On-page SEO and Off-page SEO.

On-page SEO is about building content to improve your rankings. This means writing content that the user needs. It includes incorporating keywords into your pages and content, writing high-quality content regularly and making sure your metatags and titles are keyword-rich and well-written.

Off-page SEO is the optimisation that’s happening outside of your website such as earning backlinks. This involves building relationships and creating content people want to share.

SEO Strategies: Black Hat Vs. White Hat

Black hat SEO refers to sneaky tactics that are against search engine guidelines like keyword stuffing and cloaking. These tactics are not legit and while it might work for the short term and get you some traffic, it won’t be long before Google catches it and ends up penalising and blacklisting your website so you’ll never rank.

White hat SEO is the opposite of Black hat SEO and is a sustainable way to build SEO for your website. White hat SEO strategies are all about focusing on your audience and writing content that are relevant and useful for them.

At Banana Digital, we focus only on White Hat SEO strategies for your business.

How long does it take for SEO to work?

SEO is not a fast track to success. This is a long-term strategy that you need to be constantly investing in. It can take between six months and a year to rank for most keywords. This timeline will consider the age of your domain, your current rankings, any previous SEO activity, how competitive your keywords are and the scope of work required to rank.

Every campaign is different, and some keywords have more search volume then others, which means they are more competitive and harder to rank for. It takes anywhere between 6 to 12 months to start seeing rankings for competitive keywords.

As there are thousands of factors influencing your ability to rank on certain keywords, it’s important to manage your expectation and understand that it requires continued efforts over a long period of time in order to gain success out of it.

If it takes a long time to rank for certain keywords, why would I want to invest in this, when I can easily get results from direct response marketing through Facebook Ads or Google Ads?

We’re glad you asked. While you can definitely get immediate results from Facebook Ads, Google Ads or any other platform through direct response marketing, the truth is, you don’t want to rely on paid traffic forever. Advertising costs are on the rise and unless you have a product or service that gives you high profit margins, you really want to reduce the cost of advertising so you can maintain profitability and have a sustainable business long term.

When you build your website’s ranking, overtime, you will no longer need to pay for ads (unless you want to, as part of your overall marketing strategy). You can acquire new customers through free and consistent, organic search traffic.

What is the most important factor in SEO marketing?

There are many elements that can help you succeed in your SEO efforts but if we had to pick one thing you should focus on, it would have to be providing quality content to users. Quality content is what will attract people into your business so you should write with that end in mind. Write about a topic that your ideal customer actually wants to know about.

How do I rank faster on Google?

The best way to rank is through regular, consistent effort. If you want to rank faster, you will want to create new content regularly, update previous content and steadily build backlinks to your site. Doing these day in and day out will yield you the results you’re looking for. This is why we recommend an ongoing monthly SEO service subscription so your website can be regularly optimised by experts while you focus on your core business.

How much does SEO cost?

The cost of SEO depends. You can do everything yourself or you can hire someone to do it for you. Doing it yourself will take a lot longer, and you’ll have to account for the learning curve. However, for the most part, you could do it for almost free if you do everything on your own.

Of course, the real question is, how much do you value your time? Are you willing to spend your time doing it all yourself or would you rather hire someone else to do it for you so you could free up your time to do something else that’s more important or more productive use of your time? If you want to grow your business and ensure your website is optimised for Google search ranking, you’d probably want to consider hiring someone else to do the job. If you want to hire us for our services, you may view our packages here: SEO Packages

Which keywords will you be targeting?

We will work closely with you to determine the best keywords to rank for that will generate your business new bookings, clients and customers. We will then work with you on a strategy and timeline.

Can you guarantee rankings? Will I be first on Google?

Unfortunately, we can’t. No one can ever truly guarantee rankings as we have no control over the search engines and their ever-changing ranking criteria. While we certainly offer a high quality local SEO service, we are still at the mercy of the search engines algorithms.

What results can I expect?

You can expect a noticeable increase in search visibility for keywords related to your business. We cannot give an exact timescale for these results and the variables differ hugely between clients, however we strive to bring measurable results in 4-6 months.

What are the benefits of this SEO service?

With SEO, you can:

Appear for local searches directly related to your products and services.

Build your brand awareness and improve consideration in your local area.

Guide customers to your business premises with Google's 'Directions' feature, which means more customers for you!

Do we support existing SEO campaigns?

Yes! We’re happy to transfer and take over management of an existing SEO campaign. Whether you want to change the direction of your current SEO campaign or simply improve the results you’re seeing, we’re here to help.

Will the setup take a month on its own?

Yes, the initial SEO setup process will take place in the first month. This includes Site Audit, Keyword Research, Competitor Research and Sitemap setup.

In the second month and every recurring month after that, regular SEO monthly optimizations will occur. This includes SEO technical fixes on the website, optimisation of your meta tags and title tags, broken link audit, toxic backlink audit and disavow and internal and outbound linking.

What kind of content do you write for me every month?

We write blog articles. Our team will provide some options for relevant topics you can choose from.

Will you post the articles on my website as well?

Yes, our team will post the article to your website along with licensed images to make it look professional. Then, our SEO specialists will optimize those articles to get the best engagement and rankings.

Will you create a Google My Business Listing?

No, we will only be responsible for gaining access and optimizing the existing Google My Business Listings. If the listing is suspended, flagged as duplicate, or has any verification issues, it is your responsibility to resolve the issues.

Do I get reports?

Yes, you will be provided monthly reports to view your rankings for the keywords we are tracking.

From Basic to Elite packages, you will also get real-time, email notifications every time our team completes a task on your account. You can also view the Google Analytics metrics through the analytics section of your dashboard. Aside from dashboard reporting, you will also receive progress and rankings reports every month.

Do you provide backlinks with my SEO campaign?

Our main strategy is to build backlinks organically by creating captivating content pieces which can be shared and linked to organically. However, we have included in our SEO packages directory listings, which is considered citation link building. We will also work on getting you backlinks from high domain authority websites (DA30+), the number of which depends on the package you’ve subscribed to.

How do I know which SEO plan is right for me?

Our SEO campaigns are built on different tiers based on the website’s page size. For example, if a website has 1 to 10 pages, they should be in either the SEO Starter or Basic plan. If the website has 11 to 20 pages, they should be in the SEO Plus plan. If the website has 21 to 30 pages, they should be in the SEO Premium plan. If the website has 31+ pages, they should be in the SEO Elite plan.

As a guide, our Starter package is for those looking to appear in search results in a local town. Our Basic package is for those looking to appear in search results in a large town or small city. Our Premium and Elite packages are for those looking to rank in a large city or in a high competition area.

You can still sign up a 30-page website for the SEO Basic plan, but it will just limit the performance and speed to rank for keywords. The SEO basic plan only covers 10 targeted keywords, so we will optimize 10 of the main focus pages. That’s why we recommend sticking to that tiered structure for the best results.

How long is the contract?

We don’t sign you up for a long term contract. At Banana Digital, we believe in building relationships long term with our clients. We want you to stay because you want to, not because you’re forced to.

When you sign up as a client, you only pay for the month you’re subscribing to.

We take upfront payment before service starts and we only request that you give us at least 2 weeks notice so we can complete the work that needs to be done on time and ensure there are no overlaps. If we don’t get a 2-week notice in advance, you will be billed for another month and work will be completed for that period. After that your service will stop and so will your billing.

How do I get started?

Simply Contact Us today or Book a FREE 30 minute Strategy Session to get started.