Organic search is one largest web traffic generators for different sectors. Today, about 53% of web traffic comes from organic search.
Of this, 83% comes from SEO while the remaining 17% is from paid search. Going by these numbers, the importance of SEO in driving organic traffic cannot be emphasized enough. By far, SEO is the largest driver of organic traffic to websites and, therefore, a crucial component in the growth of companies’ revenues.
Businesses that have not learned the importance of SEO management services in 2020 are missing out big on quality traffic and increased revenue.
But what is SEO and what do SEO management services entail?
What is SEO and SEO management ?
SEO refers to Search Engine Optimization. It is the practice of optimizing your website to improve the quality and quantity of organic traffic through search engine results. The main intention of SEO is to enable your site to rank top of search engine ranking pages like Google.
SEO management , on the other hand, is the process whereby a company or agency is tasked with handling your SEO strategy. Among other tasks, the company will develop a strategy and modify it accordingly to ensure you meet your businesses’ marketing and sales goals.While you can choose to handle your SEO strategy, it is advisable to get help from an SEO management company. This is because such companies offer highly competitive SEO management services and can comfortably handle multiple responsibilities at a go.
SEO Reputation Management
SEO has many benefits to both small and big businesses. Investing in SEO helps your brand to get increased visibility and rankings. When people search for the products or services that you offer, your brand will be among the first results they see on Google and other search engines.
The result of that is more traffic to your site, increased sales, and as your brand gains more visibility, so does your reputation grow.
Growing your brand’s trust and reputation may take years. But on the flip side, it can only take minutes to ruin it. And what’s worse is that sometimes you cannot control your online reputation.
So whatever you have to do to protect your SEO reputation, just do it because poor SEO reputation management can result in;
- Loss of traffic
- Loss of brand value
- Loss of revenue
SEO Reputation Management Strategies
There are several ways of SEO reputation management. Some of these include;
- Pushing Down Negative Search Results
To knock out a negative search result from the first page, you have to improve the rank of 9 other results in the search engine. You will need to do a thorough keyword search and build backlinks to achieve this. When authority sites link to your positive search results, it builds trust and makes them rank higher. Eventually, it pushes the negative search results down.
- Use PR Content
One common strategy to deal with battered online reputation is putting out a press release to counter the bad reputation. You can also create content like news articles featuring the company officials addressing the issue at hand. When you leverage on this situation and respond with corrective measures, you will manage to control the damage.
- Run PPC Adds
Besides increasing visibility for your brand, PPC can be used alongside SEO for SEO reputation management. You can create branded ad campaigns that give you control to write what you want your clients to see. And since this comes at the top of the branded ads, clients are more likely to see these positive results rather than the negative search results.
- Sponsor Content
Another effective way to get a positive reputation for your brand is through sponsored content. You can do this through an influencer or popular local blogs in your niche. The blogger or influence can provide positive coverage that can enhance your brand trust.
What entails successful SEO management services?
Understanding SEO management is the core of achieving a successful SEO strategy. You need to know the intricacies of SEO and how SEO management is done.
Below are some services SEO management companies can offer and why they are crucial in helping you rank top on search engines.
- Audience Research
If you want to excel at SEO, you must have a clear understanding of your audience. After all, they are the main target of your goods and services. So research to understand your target market and their needs. What they need from your services or products.
Some of the guiding questions you should ask about your target audience include;
- What problem do I solve with my product/service?
- What problems do my target market face when dealing with competitors?
- Who is my target market in terms of demographics?
- Where does my target market seek help when they have a problem?
Through these questions, you can create marketing personas that will help your SEO strategy to succeed. You must, however, make sure your marketing personas are updated over time because the target market can change fast. And you know that using an outdated persona will only result in a flop SEO strategy.
- Competitor Analysis
Competitor analysis can be divided into two for better understanding;
- Direct competitors
- Indirect competitors
Direct competitors are companies that you compete with both online and offline and offer the same products or services. When carrying out analysis, you must have a list of all direct competitors. Analyse your direct competitors’ weaknesses and capitalize on that. You should equally look at their strengths to help you determine what SEO practices to prioritize in your strategy.
Indirect competitors, on the other hand, are those businesses that you compete to outrank on search engines. For instance, you may compete for the term, “local manufacturing companies,” with other manufacturing business that offer services/ products that are different from yours.
As part of your analysis, check what SEO strategies your competitor employs. To get an idea of the strategy look at their;
- Domain Age
- Targeted Keywords
- Backlink Profile
- Traffic Value
You may need technical SEO expertise and some SEO management tools for this task. This is where SEO management agencies come in. They have the experience and the right tools to carry out quality competitor analysis.
Thorough Keyword research is required to improve ranking. You must identify high-value phrases that are related to your business. These are mostly keywords that are closely associated with your products and services. You can do this by searching online to identify which keywords your target audience searches online.
Also, you have to find out who is ranking for your particular keywords. This research should give you an idea on the right SEO strategy to employ to enhance ranking for these keywords. For instance, if you find your keywords have low competition then you can easily rank by creating optimized content. However, if you have hard to rank keywords, then you will require an aggressive strategy like targeting keywords with link building and other methods.
Keyword Research Tools
Depending on your needs, there are several keyword research tools you can use. Some are available for free, while others require you to pay a small fee to use them. These tools vary in accuracy as well as the number of features they have.
Some of the common keyword research tools available in the market include;
This is a complete SEO software that besides doing keyword research, it allows you to audit your website and monitor all your links.
SEMrush is vital in keyword planning as it allows you to find key phrases related to your keyword. You’ll also see their search volume and information related to the keyword.
With this tool, you can find keywords that have low SEO difficulty as well as the statistics for each keyword competition. Also, the tools give you the option to refine your keyword search with a search filter as well as providing keyword suggestions.
It has a new keyword explorer that provides you with detailed information about each keyword. Besides telling you the keyword difficulty, goes further by telling you the number of backlinks required to rank top for a particular keyword.
These are just a few of the top keyword research tools that you may across. While you may be required to pay for these tools, the benefit exceeds their cost.
Once you’re done with your keyword research, you should use them naturally on your site. Overpopulating your text with keywords may attract penalties from Google.
- Site Optimization
Once you’re done with audience research, competitor analysis and keyword research, the next step is to optimize your website for search. Website optimization takes time and will require the utmost patience. Set out your goals and work towards achieving them.
Begin your optimization efforts with ensuring your website user experience (UX) and user interface are top-notch. Your visitors should enjoy going through your website. The site should be fast, and the typography should make it easy for users to find the content they’re looking for. Besides, there shouldn’t be too many distractions from pop-ups or too many colours.
You should also pay attention to your on-page optimization. Ensure the pages are well optimized for search engines. Besides looking at the HTML source code of individual pages, you also pay attention to the content.
You can use the keywords you identified and spread them throughout your website. Put them in strategic places where search engines can pick them up like on-page titles and the first few words of your content.
Other vital considerations to make when optimizing your content include;
- Page titles
Always create keyword-based titles that tell the search engines what the page entails. Well-optimized title tags should contain no more than 70 characters and space.
- Meta tags
The meta description gives the search engines an idea of what the content is about. While it is believed that Meta descriptions do not directly impact rankings, they at least influence click-through.
Ideally, well-optimized Meta tags should contain between 155 to 160 characters.
- Headings
You should divide your content into headers to make it organized. Well organized content will make it easy for readers to find the information they are looking for. Also, ensure you have keywords in some of the headings for better ranking.
Images have become very important in SEO. Images enhance readability and ranking. However, your images must be optimized to improve ranking. Ensure you reduce the size of your images without compromising quality. This will reduce load time and improve user experience.
- Content
Make your content highly informative and offer value to readers. When writing about your products or services, ensure you answer all the questions your customers might have. Besides providing value to readers, ensure you sprinkle keywords naturally in your content for better ranking.
- Site Errors
Site errors are among the reason some sites may fail to rank. These errors have a detrimental effect on SEO. They usually interrupt the user experience, which makes it difficult for visitors to see your content. An SEO agency can help you run a site audit to identify and correct all errors on your site, including duplicate pages, error pages and poor redirects.
If you’re not keen, you can invest in an SEO strategy that doesn’t provide results. With monthly SEO reports, however, you can avoid such losses. These reports are crucial to help you track your SEO strategy and analyze its performance. They can also help you identify areas that need improvement and make decisions based on available data.
Routine checking and measuring your SEO strategy can give insights and future recommendations on various things, including;
- Organic Traffic
- Conversion Rate
- Ranking
- Page Speed
- Time Site and Bounce Rate
There are several SEO management tools you can use to track your SEO strategy. Some of the common tools include; , Google Search Console and Google Analytics. If you’re a novice, you may find it challenging to use these tools. In such a case, an SEO management company can use the tools to track your SEO strategy and create an exhaustive SEO report.
Benefit Of Hiring SEO Management Services
Hiring an agency to handle the SEO part of your business is a wise decision. While an in-house team can do the job, agencies are well equipped and better positioned to provide satisfactory results. Here are some reasons why many businesses prefer outsourcing SEO management services.
- Accessibility to Resources and Free Tools
While most SEO management tools are available for free, there are other premium tools you need to pay for. Buying these tools may cost you lots of money. Besides, you need to train your team on how to use these tools which may take time and more money. You can cut on these costs by hiring a professional SEO management company. These companies have all the necessary SEO tools with qualified users at no extra cost.
- Diversified Skills
While an in-house team may only work on SEO, an agency will offer more services like managing your email marketing, website designing, and many more.
- Saves Time
- Tracking and Reporting
Understanding and dissecting Google analytics is not a straightforward process. While most people can understand the metrics, very few can create an action plan based on the analytics.
SEO management agencies specialize in navigating Google Analytics and implementing all the essential elements. They can help with tracking keywords rankings, checking and correcting bounce rate and split testing landing pages, among other overwhelming tasks.- Equipped with Latest SEO Techniques
SEO is extremely dynamic. Google is always updating its algorithm, and it can be difficult to keep up with the changes. If you are not a professional, you may end up using outdated SEO techniques unknowingly.
SEO agencies on their part are always updated with the latest SEO techniques. It is their responsibility to keep track of any evolving algorithm changes to stay competitive in their job.
How To Select The Best SEO Management Company
There are countless SEO agencies out there. And since SEO is wide, each of these companies is good in its own way. It’s your job to determine your goals and find a company that is relevant to your business goals.
By now I know you understand your SEO goals, so I’ll guide you in finding the best SEO management company for your needs.
- Defined Process of their Strategy
Having dealt with numerous clients, a great agency must have a battle-tested process that delivers results. The company should show prospective clients the unique steps that they use to achieve results.
Only a company with practical experience is willing to show its unique steps. The unproven companies with no results will tend to shy away from showcasing the steps for their SEO strategy.
- Read Customer Testimonials
Satisfied customers will always leave testimonials. Scan the company’s website and see what past clients have to say about them. Through the testimonials, you can get insights about the company’s strengths and weaknesses as well as their strategy. This way, you can decide if the company can meet your goals or not.
- Specialties and Services Offered
As earlier mentioned, you need to work with a company that offers services that align with your goals. So before you select an agency, look at the services that they offer.
Do they specialize in a particular industry or service line? If they specialize in your industry, the better. You should also ask if the company can offer any services besides SEO.
- Check the Clients Portfolio and Case Studies
Before hiring an SEO agency, you need to know what they have done for their clients. By looking at their portfolio and case studies you get to know their experience as well as the type of companies they have worked with. This will give you an idea of what services to expect and to determine if they align with your goals.
- Schedule a consultation
Once you’re left with the best three choices, you can schedule a meeting with those companies. During the consultation, ask as many questions as possible
Ask them to explain their SEO strategy and if possible, meet the person who will be in charge of your project. By interacting with them, you will decide which team suits you best and make a final decision.
Conclusion
SEO management is a crucial part of any business. Virtually everything is done online in today’s world, and it’s safe to say that any company that has not invested in SEO is missing out big.SEO is not something you can do in a day and expect results. You have to spend money and time to see the results. Besides, you must have an able team with a proven strategy.
Hiring a reputable SEO management company is the sure way to achieve your SEO goals. Such an agency will help in optimizing your site and growing your brand visibility online. Once they’ve grown your brand, they can help you with SEO reputation management to ensure your growing brand maintains its trustworthiness and visibility.
Published in: March 2021
Last Updated in 2022-12-28T11:49:03+00:00 by Lukasz Zelezny
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