SEO can quickly level the playing field and help small businesses in Sydney compete against big name brands. At SEO Sydney Experts we can help you business go head to head against these mammoth brands by implementing a search engine optimisation strategy aimed at raising your brands awareness online and pushing your website up the rankings; especially when it comes to local search and your business listing on Google maps.
If you have ever dreamed or wanted to compete with these big guys but felt intimidated or overwhelmed by the prospects ahead, SEO is the technique to help you realise your goals. Are you unsure about the processes involved or where to start? Well, don’t worry; following are a few great ideas to help boost the profile of your business online onto a whole new level. That is the level where the big brands hang out and ideally where you want to be.
Customers Prefer Local Businesses.
You will be surprised how many people prefer to shop locally. They like the friendlier, personal touch and the good old fashioned customer service that only a small business can provide. If, for example I am wanting to find a mechanic or trades person, I am more likely to look up a business in my local area. I am happier to help and support local businesses over larger companies or corporations. I can say with certainty, that most consumers like myself, much prefer to shop locally and help support the local businesses.
This is where local SEO can really help small businesses in Sydney. If you are keen to attract a local market then we are able to easily optimise pages within your site specifically targeted for local search. Within a week or two your local pages will be well on their way to ranking and perhaps even showing up on Google maps. Just wait for the phone to start ringing and all those local customers start bringing in more new business. Google actually explains to you how to register your business for maps. Have a read of this and when your done, we will be able to optimise this listing so it appears here: https://support.google.com/business/answer/6174435?hl=en
So it is relatively easy to compete with big brands and names locally if you are willing to start a local SEO strategy. If your website is shoulder to should next to the big guns, guess who the locals are going to use? You! That’s right your going to get the calls, emails and all those juicy, hot new sales leads.
One thing that needs to be pointed out is that if you a local business then are really only going to rank locally. If for example your a plumber in Bondi, you are only going to rank locally for people searching plumbers when they are in the Bondi area or the Eastern Suburbs. Local search will not display your website if someone is searching for plumbers and they are in Parramatta. In this case it will deliver local plumbers in the Parrramatta area in the maps results.
Business Start Ups Can Compete.
Great, you have an idea and you want to go to market, but the reality is there are many businesses in this space and there are a few really big brands dominating the search results on Google. You know you have a great product and you feel that your level of service is better than any big corporation can offer. But, how can you let people know about you and your wonderful new business.
Relax, turn down the stress levels, and let us help you design a conversion focused website and then implement our proven and very successful SEO methods. Within 3-6 months if you let us do our thing your website will be rubbing shoulders with all those big names.
The magic of a great looking website combined with search engine optimisation means that you can now ‘ punch above your weight’. Look bigger, bolder and larger than ever before and compete online. I’m amazed by how many people tell me that they can’t understand how their competition, who might be a one man operation is ranking so high on Google. The answer is simple; they have a user friendly website, with great copy and a fabulous SEO team working behind the scenes.
Think Content, Write Copy
Website content is going to make a massive difference in the way search engines perceive your website. A thin, poorly worded, graphic heavy website is not going to rank as high as content driven web pages. In order to appear like a bigger company and for you to really stand against big brand names you should seriously think about publishing content on your company blog and make sure all your pages have been professionally written; including your main home page.
Ideally, you need to keep your website growing over time. Adding pages to your site is a good move and will grow your stature online and really help with your SEO.
Have a good look at your competitor’s websites that are ranking really well. One thing they all have in common is an abundance of pages, a blog as well as a healthy mix of social media and other pages throughout the site. You can see these pages by looking at their site map, generally located at the footer. You will actually be quite surprised at the number of pages and layers some of these sites have.
A point worth noting is that quality, on message content is going to work a lot better for your SEO than pointless dribble. Keep it interesting, write for your audience and never ever write copy that you think will benefit your SEO campaign. The search engines are now wise to these types of ‘spammy’ content methods and will in fact penalise your web pages for this type of behaviour. Be natural in your approach to writing copy and Google will reward you.
Bigger is Not Necessarily Better
Bigger companies with huge SEO budgets are just as vulnerable as anyone else online. They are susceptible, like any other company that relies on Google, to ranking fluctuations and penalties.
Quite often these big brands have become quite complacent, feeling that their company size will ensure they rank well. This is not true and if you (as the smaller Sydney business), are able to find a top SEO company, then you can easily slide under the radar and start ranking and taking your market share.
A point to note here: choose wisely when you are looking at SEO companies. Like anything the wrong decision could prove disastrous, but the right one will be one of the best moves you make for your business. I urge you, to look around and watch out for the ‘SEO sharks’; avoid nasty contracts, over optimistic time frames and rose coloured guarantees.
Diligently working on your SEO and understanding that the SEO process is an ongoing concern will ensure that you get noticed by the search engines and over time, begin to beat them online.
It’s not rocket science but it does take time and dedication to the task. If you put your mind to it, you will get there.
SEO and Graphics, The Perfect Marriage.
This is where big budgets come in handy. Corporations with healthy advertising budgets can afford to spend up big time and go with creative ad agencies to get a website that looks fabulous. As a small business on tighter budgets you can’t obviously do this. But, what you can do is have very specific landing pages, well targeted to your audience and have these optimised.
Instead of developing complex websites, you can get away with microsites; which are just as effective at converting customers and optimise these couple of pages. The advantage is you don’t have to spend a fortune but you can still compete. Heaps of businesses are doing this and it’s a great marketing method. There’s loads of literature out there and examples of great micro sites:
Here are a few examples to get you excited and to give you a clearer idea of what you should be doing; clean, crisp graphics that sell one message only is the way to go. Never over clutter pages and keep on message all the time.
Also, once the SEO kicks in and your site starts to rank it is much better having a page that looks ‘on the money’.
Visually creative web sites that have a well thought out interface are going to bring in the sales over sites that have a DIY approach or that have been put together with no idea about the end results. This is why small businesses should try to find a SEO company that has a strong focus on design and conversion rate optimisation. This can be hard, but if you do your research you will find them.
5 steps to starting your SEO
- organise your domain name – this can easily be done through sites like Crazy Domains or Go Daddy
- get a Web designer to design a site for you ( perhaps a micro site to begin with is a good idea) and make sure they have a copywriter as well that can write up the content
- register your business with Google My Business
- work out the local keywords you wish to target
- engage an SEO agency to commence their link building campaign while at the same time they can do a thorough audit of the site ta make sure it’s Google compliant.
Now you too can compete with the big boys online. Don’t sit there dreaming about it. Make it happen today, it’s a lot easier and quicker than you imagine.
