When it comes to search engine optimisation (SEO), the size of your business does not matter. Be it big or small, your company should include SEO in its overall marketing strategy or else it would lose to its competitors.

What Is SEO?

It is a digital marketing strategy meant to drive traffic to your website from organic search engine results. This entails making changes to your web design and content so that your site will rank high on the results pages of search engines like Google.

Do you need SEO?

The answer to this is a resounding YES!

Nowadays, it is not enough that you have a website. If you do not optimise it, then it is not going to serve its purpose – generate more money for you.

You see, having a website is not tantamount to having a strong online presence. Unless the site is optimised, people won’t know about it. Hence, you would not be able to get more clients and consequently, fail to grow to your business.

Simply put:

For your company’s online presence to be formidable, your site must appear on organic search results. To be more precise, it should rank high on the list.

According to a report, a search engine is the starting point of over 90% of online experiences.

Furthermore, organic search is still what drives relevant visits to websites. In fact, it is the primary source of website traffic, with 94% of site visits coming from organic queries.

Studies also reveal that what matters most to online users are the non-paid search results. Around 70% to 80% of them pay attention only to organic search results.

This sends a clear message that, when it comes to digital marketing, solely focusing your efforts on paid search like Google Ads is not a smart decision. In one report, it was stated that this approach only brings in 10% of the overall total traffic.

This is not to say that you should not invest in paid search. The truth is that using Google Ads and the like are highly recommended because these channels have high conversion rates.

Paid search is very effective in targeting customers who key in transactional queries. People who use these types of search terms already have the intention of taking a specific action like purchasing a product or service.

However, not all users make transactional queries. In fact, a huge percentage of online queries are so-called informational searches. The user-intent behind “know” queries is to gather information about a specific subject.

Those making informational queries are usually at a stage in their search journey wherein they are still not ready to take action. However, you’d still want to capture this group of people and direct them to your site.

Why?

When your website gives these users the information they want, the chance of them eventually asking about your products or services increases. Even better, they may end up buying from you.

Paid search won’t make this happen for you; it cannot send these users to your site. This is one of the many reasons why you still need SEO even if you are already using Google Ads and other paid search channels.

What Are the Benefits of Optimising Your Website?

An optimised site that ranks high on search engine results pages (SERPs) is a powerful lead generator. It can improve your company’s visibility and continuously bring in numerous sales leads. Eventually, this can translate to more earnings for your business.

Again:

The goal is for your page or content to consistently rank high for your chosen keywords.

It has been noted that 50% of users are more likely to click sites that have repeatedly appeared on SERPs.

Ideally, your site should show up on the first page of search results. This is because 75% of searchers only check the first page.

In addition, it is best if your site or page is amongst the first five on the list. This is to increase your site’s chances of getting visited.

For Google, those occupying the top spot on organic search results have a click-through rate of around 34% for desktop and 35% for mobile. Hence, failure to secure a spot at the top can mean loss clients and sales.

Here’s the deal:

When your site is optimised well, widening your reach won’t be a Herculean task.

You can expect to get visits and/or queries 24/7. Think of it as your best sales executive that’s always hard at work all the time, all the days of the week.

SEO can also help create brand awareness which is very important for new businesses. Appearing on search results is like advertising on traditional media such as newspapers and billboards minus the hefty fees. Plus, there is also the fact that the Internet has a wider reach. So, you get to target more people.

It also enables you to build your credibility. Why? Users deem websites which rank high on SERPs as trustworthy. Hence, when they are ready to purchase, they do not think twice about transacting with these sites.

Lastly, SEO helps you have an excellent website. This matters because a well-designed and easily navigable site creates a positive user experience.

Keep in mind:

Internet users have very short attention span. They want to see the information they are looking for immediately. When this doesn’t happen, they exit the website.

Of course, you do not want to lose visitors quickly as this can be very bad for your bounce rate.  This is why it is important that your website is user-friendly. This means allowing visitors to find information they need in fewer clicks.

Now convinced that you need SEO? Then, the next step is to act!

You can go the DIY route or you can get the services of trusted SEO company in Dublin. Trust us, the latter is the smarter choice.

Creating an effective SEO strategy requires technical knowledge and skills as well as experience. It also necessitates time, a lot of it, since this is an on-going, laborious task. Unless you have the know-how and the time, it is best to let experts optimise your website.

There are several SEO companies based in Dublin and other parts of Ireland. So, you shouldn’t worry about not being able to find one. However, make sure that you carefully select the firm that you are going to work with.

Choose a company with a proven track record of delivering results for their clients. In this case, this means a firm that has successfully helped businesses rank high on SERPs.

It is also important that the company has experienced SEO specialists. With experts at the helm, you can be confident about hitting your targets.

What SEO Services Are Available in Ireland?

When you hire professionals to optimise your site, one of the things you’ll have to decide on is the kind of SEO service you’d be getting.

Below are the optimisation services companies in Ireland offer:

Keyword Research

This service is all about identifying the most popular search terms that are relevant to your industry and product or service.

Its purpose is to give you (and the SEO specialist) an idea on the terms people use on search engines to look for products or services similar to yours. Another relevant information gathered here is the search volume for each keyword, specifically how often the terms are searched and how competitive it is.

The data gathered from the research serve as guide in determining what keywords should be used on your site.

Take note:

Non-SEO practitioners think that the most logical course of action is to pick the most popular, short tail terms. This is not always the right way to go. Since the search volume for these keywords is high, it can be extremely difficult for your site to be on the top 5 of the search results.

So, instead of using popular search terms, what’s recommended are highly specific, lower competition keywords or what’s popularly called long tail keywords.

Competitor Analysis

A successful SEO campaign is not just built on data about your website but also those of your top competitors. Knowing what you are up against is key to identifying the right optimisation goals for your site.

The three main objectives of this service are: identify your top competitors, what they are doing SEO-wise and what you can do to one-up them.

Who are your top competitors? They are the companies that appear on the first page of the search results for the keyword you are targeting.

Aside from determining the competitors’ domain authority and alexa rank, expect your optimisation specialist to find out how much traffic their sites are getting, what keywords they are using and ranking high in and how extensive their backlink profiles are. An analysis of on-page optimisation and content is also an integral part of this process.

All the information derived from the analysis provide insights on what should be done for your site to keep up with or outrank its competitors.

Technical SEO

As the name suggests, this service is all about the technical stuff – crawlability, indexation, and security.

Its focus is to fix all technical issues that can prevent your site from being crawled and indexed by search engines.

Remember:

If your website is not crawled and indexed, it won’t appear on search results pages at all! Similarly, if it has technical issues like too many dead links or duplicate content, it won’t rank well on SERPs.

Site security also falls under this category. It is a must for websites to be on HTTPS these days, otherwise you would end up getting penalised by Google. So, if you haven’t switched yet to HTTPS, your SEO specialist is going to work on this.

This optimisation service, when done properly, should result in a “technically” perfect website.

On-site SEO

Also referred to as on-page SEO, this service tackles all elements on the website – content and HTML source code.

What’s the end goal? It is to ensure that the website is optimised for search engines and users.

When search engine spiders crawl the site, they should immediately understand what it’s for or what it’s about. Furthermore, they should be able to determine which page is relevant to a specific search query.

Similarly, when users go to the website, they should be able to quickly find what they are looking for. In addition, they should be able to navigate the site with ease.

In short:

The website needs to be user-friendly! It should meet the required page-loading time. It also needs to have a responsive design. Most importantly, the website must have high quality content.

Did you know that content is the heart of the on-site SEO process? It is what turns visitors into customers. Hence, it is imperative that your site has well-thought-out, excellently written content.

Some of the essential materials that should appear on your site are your products/services, company information and client testimonials.

Google Penalty Removal

Being penalised by Google has one dire consequence – it can jeopardise your entire SEO campaign.

The penalty can prevent your site from moving up in the organic search results. Worse, it can altogether lead to your site being deindexed from Google.

Even if you intensify your optimisations efforts, nothing will happen if this penalty is not removed.

Truth be told, there is no straightforward or easy way of lifting these penalties. In fact, sometimes, you are not even informed why you are getting penalised. This makes things even more challenging, since you cannot resolve the issue without knowing the reason behind the sanction.

It is important that these Google penalties are removed immediately to avoid a significant drop in rankings as well as website traffic. So, make sure you enlist the help of an SEO specialist right away.

Link Building

Link building is all about getting other websites to agree to place a link to your site on theirs.

Why is this important?

Google, the top search engine, confirmed that one of its three most important ranking factors is links. Hence, without link building, your site won’t rank high on organic search results.

This task is not just a numbers game nor is it a case of quantity over quality. The objective is not to solely get many backlinks but also to build high quality links.

Having a lot of backlinks won’t do your optimisation efforts any good if these are coming from low quality or spammy websites.

Ideally, you should link to authoritative and trustworthy sites like those with .org and .edu extensions. Other options include online business directories, non-profit web directories and websites of partner companies.

Which of those services above should you get? It depends on the state of your website and your goals.

Nowadays, some companies specialising in website optimisation offer consultations for free. You can try out this service to get an idea where your site is at in terms of SEO.

It is also important to note that there are firms that offer different SEO packages to meet the unique needs of businesses. Some are specially designed for small and medium enterprises; others are meant for big organisations. So, don’t forget to ask your chosen company if they have a package that caters to your needs.

For more information on SEO services in Dublin, visit our website or call us today at 019609023!

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