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SEO

What is keyword research & why do you need it?

What Is Keyword Research?

Keyword research is the process of brainstorming, researching and choosing which keywords to target in your business. Usually, keyword research comes in three parts:

  1. Selecting your main niche and keywords
  2. Selecting keywords strategically to help your target market find you
  3. Developing a content strategy based on your keyword research

Why Keyword Research is Critical

The cornerstone of any website or marketing program is good keyword research.

Without adequate research many products and businesses fail. The same is true for SEO. Unfortunately, the majority of websites we see have poor foundations and poorly chosen keyword search terms. As a consequence, they don’t achieve the results they require or attract the wrong types of customers.

Keyword Research needn’t be that difficult but it can sometimes be time consuming. You can save time by outsourcing all the hard work. This leaves you free to focus on running your business.

Use specialized keyword research tools to:

  • Analyse the competitive landscape and develop strategies that help you improve your visibility in search engines.
  • Gain insights into which keywords drive profitability using proven market research techniques
  • Understand whether there are any pitfalls in the site design and learn how to fine tune the site structure and make it search engine friendly
  • Understand how to develop relevant links which improve your specialist authority

Use Keyword Research to Develop Content

Once you have completed your keyword research, you can use it to help you develop content. Ideally, you should have several content hubs with content focused around specific topics. This should be organised into long-form cornerstone content articles and 6-10 shorter articles that include sub-topic keywords. The shorter article should link to your cornerstone content. Your cornerstone content should link to your main service page.

“Secret Sauce” To Make Your Website Successful

If you’ve heard the proverb “He who fails to plan, plans to fail”, know that this absolutely applies when it comes to keyword research. Good keyword research and content will help form the foundations of a solid SEO strategy.

Most businesses don’t become successful overnight. Most become successful as a consequence of careful planning.

If your brick-and-mortar business doesn’t have a big shop front or a network of sites that sell your product, planning for success on the web is critical. Not doing the right planning upfront will most likely mean that you will have to start over again. Keyword research should be done right the first time.

5 Key Tips To Optimise Your Business For Voice Search

In the first episode of our Swoop Scoops Video Series, hear from our Digital Marketing Manager, Elise Draper, who takes you through 5 key tips to help you optimise your business for voice search.

Video Highlights:

00:19 – Voice Search has landed – what does this mean for businesses?
00:39 – Google My Business
00:58 – Page Speed
01:14 –  Content, content, content!
01:49 – Mobile Optimisation – Is your website mobile friendly?
02:20 – Don’t Panic – Traditional search will still be around…

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Want to know more? Speak to Elise today about how she can help improve your experience and get results for your business.

Transcription

Hi everyone, my name is Elise Draper I’m a Digital Marketing Manager here at Swoop Digital. Today, I’m here to talk to you about how you can optimise your website for voice search.

If you haven’t heard already voice search has landed, and although it has not taken over traditional search, it is certainly becoming a popular medium for consumers to find what they need and in the fastest way that they can.

So for businesses, what does this mean? This means that you now start to have to consider voice search and traditional search for SEO. Here I’m going to take you through five key steps to help you get started in that process

Tip #1: Google My Business

Google my business is so important for the Google world, so first and foremost, make sure that you have created and claimed your Google my business listing and make sure in that listing that you’ve got all the most relevant and up-to-date information as you can.

Tip #2: Page Speed

Page Speed will be vital for voice search queries moving forward. Just to give you an idea, the average voice search loads in just 4.6 seconds – so be sure that your website is loading as fast as it possibly can.

Tip #3: Content

Content, content, content! Start writing down all of the key questions that your consumers are asking you about your products and/or services and then really start to build it out from there.

Make sure your answers are easily digestible and can and will be found on your website. I don’t think you need to start building new landing pages for each question because you need to actually still consider good user experience, however to start this process off my best recommendation for you would just to be start with an FAQ page and really start to build out your long-form content strategy from there.

Tip #4: Mobile Optimisation

Is your website mobile-friendly? If not, then we need to make it friendly. Just to give you an idea according to comScore 50% of all searches by the end of 2020 will be from mobile devices, so be sure that your site is mobile friendly and is running as fast as it possibly can.

Tip #4: Traditional Search isn’t going anywhere

Traditional search will still be around. Things like rankings, backlinking to authority of domains and increasing social engagement on your content will assist voice search queries to find what they need.

Conclusion

That’s it from me – all I want to say is be relevant, be concise and be there when your audience needs to find you, thank you very much.

voice-search-image

Other Resources To Help Your Business Grow:

Make it easy for customers to find you with Google My Business
The Need For Speed. Why You Need A Fast Website

How to be found in Google Maps

The need to get exposure online is important for many businesses.  One quick way to be discovered online is to get your business listed in Google Maps.

If you type in a search term, such as “Plumber Melbourne” you will notice that 3 local businesses will be featured prominently on the first page of Google along with a location map.

Improving your local business visibility will:

  • Help you get more targeted traffic to your website
  • More traffic = more sales
  • Give you an advantage over competitors who are not listed
  • Help you appear in local searches

Getting listed here is an easy thing to do using Google My Business. All you need is a google account to get started. You’ll also need to verify that your business exists.

The easiest way to do this is to verify your website in Google Search Console (formerly Webmaster Tools). This requires you to upload a small HTML file to your website’s hosting account. Be sure to use the same google login address as your Google My Business when you verify your website in Google Search console.

By doing this, you will find that you will be able to bypass the process of waiting for a postcard with a verification code to arrive from Google. With delays in mail delivery, it could take several weeks before you receive the postcard. You can learn more about verifying your business here.

Once you have a Google Account and are logged in, you’ll see a map asking you to locate your business. This is so Google can check that the business is not already listed in maps and connect you as the business owner to your business. Don’t worry if your business it not listed, you will have the chance to add it later if it does not exist.

googlemybusiness1

Once you enter in your business address or name, Google will try and find locations that match. If the businesses and addresses are incorrect, click on the “Add your business” link at the bottom to proceed.

googlemybusiness2

From there, you will be able to complete a form and provide important information about the business as you can see in this example below. It’s important to note that if you don’t have a physical location, you can still list in Google Maps – just tick the box saying that “I deliver goods and services to customers at their location.” If you do have a physical location, then do not click the box.

googlemybusiness3

Once, you hit the continue button, you will be given the opportunity to preview the details. If you are happy with them, tick the “I am authorized to manage this business and agree to the terms of service.”

googlemybusiness4

If you haven’t verified your website in Google Search Console or used a different email login to verify your site, then you will need to verify your business by mail. This involves waiting for a little postcard to arrive. That postcard has a pin number on it and you will need to use that pin when you log back into your Google My Business account to verify your listing so your maps listing can be live.

Be aware that the business listing can take a few weeks to arrive. It’s a good idea to let whoever picks up your mail to know you are waiting on it – otherwise they might accidentally throw it out. This can stretch out the time it takes for the business listing to be approved. And its a key reason why we recommend verifying the website first in Google Search Console.

googlemybusiness5

Once your website is verified, you will start appearing in local Google Search and you have the opportunity to feature in the premium listing on page 1 of Google for your key search term.

Getting that all important listing will propel your local business forward and help you generate a higher number of enquiries.

Directories that offer free online listings for Australian Businesses

If you are not an established brand, it can be a little more difficult to improve your visibility online.

That’s where listing your business on free directories can help.

The best one is Google My Business. It’s Google’s entry level product and it’s free. It gets you listed on Google Maps and makes you searchable across the web and in our mind is the most important listing you should get.

Some of the other free directories worth exploring include:

  • Hotfrog – http://hotfrog.com.au
  • True Local – http://www.truelocal.com.au/
  • Start Local www.startlocal.com.au
  • Aussie Web – https://www.aussieweb.com.au/
    • This is a great free listing service where you can add your business. It’s a relatively straight forward process to get a listing. They will contact you though and try to upsell you into other packages.
  • Yelp – http://yelp.com.au
    • This is more of a review site than a directory listing. You can’t just list your business here – someone who wants to review you adds you. So if you have a happy customer, it’s a good idea to encourage them to review you.
  • Yellow Book – http://www.yellowbook.com/
    • This is free but this is more relevant for businesses that have a presence in the United States.
  • White Pages – https://freead.yellow.com.au/signup
  • Yellow Pages Online – https://freead.yellow.com.au/signup
    • Some categories are competitive so you may not be able to get a free listing. You won’t know until you try. It’s a good little lead generator for Yellow Pages who will try and upsell you into their paid online packages and also sell you Google advertising services using their Click Manager. It’s an entry level product and they get commission of sorts from Google. If you want access to your data (and we believe you should), then it may not be the best product for you.
  • White Pages – https://freead.yellow.com.au/signup
    • Like Yellow Pages, White Pages also offer a free listing. You’ll probably have a similar experience to Yellow Pages. It’s worth considering.
  • Brown Book – http://brownbook.net
    • This directory is simple enough to use. Australian businesses can list there so it’s not a bad option.
  • Yahoo – http://add.yahoo.com/fast/add
    • There’s no guarantee your free listing will appear as they get an awful lot of submissions every day and don’t have the resources to keep up. Yahoo also offer a paid listing which will set you back US$299.00.

A word of warning.

Getting yourself listed on some of these listings mean some of the larger businesses with an established salesforce will try and upsell you into their online advertising packages. Yellow pages and Aussie Web are two such companies.

If you don’t to be hassled by a sales rep, consider avoiding them. Otherwise expect a call tying to upsell you.

More directories

Other directories worthy of consideration include directories in your local council or any business networks you belong too that have directory listings.

Some local councils here in Melbourne that offer free directory listings include:

  • Glen Eira City Council http://www.gleneira.vic.gov.au/Connect/Business/Business_directory
  • Kingston City Council – http://www.kingston.vic.gov.au/business/Business-Directory

So it’s worth visiting your local council website and seeing what they offer to businesses.

It’s also worth considering listing your business on directories related to your market. For example if you are in the building industry, consider getting yourself listed on directories like:

  • Home One http://www.homeone.com.au/
    • Home One charges a fee of $220 for 13 months. Whilst it’s not free, this may be worth considering if you are the right market.
  • Home Improvement Pages. – https://www.homeimprovementpages.com.au/advertise
    • Whilst this is not a free listing, at the time of writing the fee to advertising started from as little as $69. That’s pretty cheap advertising in my book.

Above all, look for directories that are reputable and trustworthy.  Quite time back now, some directories got caned by Google.  Your objective is not to be listed on every single one of them. Go for the most reputable and trustworthy sites only.

When you do list, please ensure the information you place on them is consistent across all the directories. There are many reasons why. The main one being that consistency helps improve local SEO.

If you decide to pay to advertise in some vertical specific markets, we recommend using the Google URL builder so you can measure where your traffic is coming from and which ones give you the best results. You can find a handy tutorial for it here along with some other tips on how to measure your marketing effectiveness.

Finally, if you are a small business and a member of the Flying Solo community or serve start ups and small businesses, why not get yourself listed there.

If you need help putting all this together, contact us. We have a lot of experience in helping businesses of sizes grow.

Make it easy for customers to find you with Google My Business

At the heart of every business are customers.

More importantly, having a way where potential customers can find you online.

Google have helped make the process of customers finding you a little easier with the launch of Google My Business in June.

Google My Business combines all the benefits of Google Places and Google maps but brings everything together in one place. So now you can have one dashboard where you can access and manage everything in place. This includes:

  • Your Google Business Listing,
  • Google AdWords Express
  • Google Plus Business page
  • Customer Reviews
  • Analytics for your business listing and Google Plus page
  • You Tube

Like the former Google places, Google My Business allows you to update your business info, add photos and virtual tours of your business and stay on top of reviews, however with the integration of Google+, it now enables you to share news and events with your fans.  Your business will also show up in search, maps and Google+.

If your business has multiple locations, you can upload a spreadsheet with all the location information.

An added benefit of the integration is that you may now potentially be able to change ownership and management of your Google places listing. This was previously almost impossible to do.

Many businesses have different Google accounts and logins for their places listing and Google+ page.  It was a massive pain.

The problem was there were no way to change ownership of the Google local listing and merge the two different platforms together easily.

Now you can.

The trick is to change ownership of your Google+plus page to the same email address as your Google+ local page.

Once both platforms share a common owner, you will be able link your Google+ page with your Google+ local page and delete the old account. Any reviews you have accumulated over time will also be merged making the transition seamless.

Now if you don’t to retain that old account that now houses all your Google Business page and listing, it is just a simple matter of changing the page owner back to your preferred Google account and deleting your old account if you no longer use it. It sure beats having to login into multiple Google accounts all the time.

Managing your information on the go is also a lot easier with the addition of Android and iOS web apps.

So why has Google places changed?

According to a recent Google Partner hangout, a key driver of the change was mobile.

Previously, it was difficult to manage your business on the go via mobile. Now its a lot easier.

Another major pain point was that it was not easy to transfer ownership of your Google listing to a new owner without surrendering your Google logins or starting a new listing by scratch (thereby compounding the issue of inaccurate and difficult to update listings. Now its a lot easier to transfer ownership and merge accounts.

If you have ever had the heartache of trying to change your business address details in the past, this integration may provide an opportunity to clean up and resolve any issues once and for all.

Have you made the change yet?  We have and are thrilled with the ability to have one login to manage everything in one place.

Why Your SEO Strategy Needs to Evolve

Search engine optimisation has changed significantly over the past few years. So much so, that old SEO techniques have put many businesses at risk.

This has lead many to claim that SEO is dead.  The fact is, SEO still exists and it still is important – it’s just the form of SEO has changed.

What has changed is that it is harder for people to trick search engines into making them rank. Old techniques no longer work. Below is a recording of a webinar we ran that uncovers what has changed and how you can succeed today.

SEO now encompasses other forms of marketing and a customised strategy is required for different business. Different approaches are required for local business versus businesses that serve a much wider geographical area. Key points in the webinar are:

  • What has changed
  • The history of SEO and why what worked in the past no longer works now (this helps gives context to what works today)
  • The strategies you need to adopt today to future proof your business
  • How to protect your business from risk
  • New metrics to measure success

A copy of the presentation is included  below:

The 3 Pillars to Being Found Online – What Every Business Needs to Know

SEO has changed. Irretrievably.

It’s no longer about keywords, rankings or even back-links. Those days are long gone.

Here’s what you need to know:

There are 3 key pillars to being found.

  • SEO  – which includes the foundational aspects of having a good site structure as well as the technical aspects of understanding meta data, keywords and schema data.
  • Content – providing written and visual content that adds value and is visually engaging (even enticing)
  • Social – a way of syndicating out content and amplifying it to attract back-links naturally (as opposed to artificially)

These 3 pillars are a triage that helps bring lifeblood to your website and your business. Together they work as a system to increase your visibility, build your brand and grow your customer base and profit.

As anyone who has ever been burnt by a manual penalty from Google would know, relying on backlinks alone is foolhardy. It can take a long time to recover and some websites never recover (depending on the type of penalty).  

It’s a high risk game.

Credit companies know it – in fact they restrict credit for SEO companies because they know there is a high risk that the SEO provider may need to provide refunds to their customers. So SEO companies mitigate this risk by providing meaningless guarantees and watertight contracts for things they can’t control. 

The fact is, SEO is risky business – for you, the bank and also some SEO providers.

Google are simply becoming increasingly good at detecting bad links. Period. If you want to have a restful nights sleep, then don’t put your business at risk. Would you give your bank account details to a robber? 

Doing things the right way means you get to sleep well at night.

Get your foundations right before you build your next website.  SEO can help with site structure and ensuring your website has a good chance of being found it if has the right foundations.

You then need high quality content that appeals to your target market. The content has to be great, well written, and well researched. It could even provide unusual or industry specific insights and visually appealing images.

Once you have great content – you need to share it. Syndicating it on appropriate social media networks that are relevant to your target markets can be effective for this.

Cynical? Not convinced about social?

I know it can be hard to see the link between social media and SEO.

You may have tried social media with limited success.

Google has also publicly stated that Twitter shares and Facebook likes are not part of their ranking algorithm (Google+ is another matter).

This may be true but that is not the point of social media. The point of social media is to make your content discoverable and build relationships with your customers.

Your content needs to be great to be discoverable. Ideally it needs to generate shares, likes, comments so people can get to know you and trust that they wont have a negative experience if they buy from you.

Once discoverable, you put strategies in place within your sales funnel to generate sales, leads, engagement – whatever your goal.

Underpinning it all is a strategy.

Thought, planning and time need to go into the process.  Sadly most of us lack the time to put enough thought and planning into a process to make it effective.

Often, business owners think that they will write the content, share it on social media and do everything themselves.

Doing it yourself is a recipe for failure.

Too often they start with the best intentions but lack the follow through or knowledge to do this well. I’ve seen a lot of businesses try this and fail.

Doing this well requires a team with the following skills:

  • Copywriting (good headlines are a must)
  • Graphic design
  • Editorial
  • A  deep understanding of each of the social channels and how to make them work for you
  • Keyword research
  • Website optimisation
  • Data analysis
  • Project Management (helps consistency)

If you think you can do all this, then I salute you.

Most businesses will find this difficult and if so, they should consider outsourcing it.

Should You DO Google Ads or SEO: The Answer Depends

Why Google AdWords is essential for marketing your business online?

In this video, we cover off why we recommend starting off with Google Ads and how much budget you should allocate towards it. There are also some free tips and tricks that will come in handy while running your Ad campaigns.

Watch the video to get answers to the following questions:

  • How to drive quick traffic to your website using Google Ads?
  • How much time does your campaign need to be refined?
  • When can you expect the best results?
  • How much should you invest in your Google Ads campaign?
  • What are the benefits of tracking?
  • How can you improve your bidding strategy?
  • How should you be measuring success?

Liked it? Don’t forget to share your comments with us below.

We’ve also included a transcription of the video below:

Hi. My name is Carol, and I am from Swoop Digital.

I prepared this short video today to talk about Google Ads and why we often recommend it. It’s the first point of call for many businesses.

The first reason is that Google Ads has an immediate impact. The ads can show straight away and can get traffic to your website very quickly. So, that would be the main thing. Unlike SEO which can take quite a long time for it to work, and you don’t even know if it’s working straight away.

But with a Google Ads campaign, there’s a couple of important things to really understand.

The first thing is that it can take about eight to 12 weeks to really refine the campaign.

Of course, that is going to be limited by your budget as well, but really in that first, especially in the first month, we’re really trying to refine the campaign, discover what works, develop a bid strategy, and really focus on what words are going to convert best for you.

So it can take a bit of time to find that out, particularly if you are on a lower budget. So we find that the best results with Google Ads generally happen after that three-month period or within that three or four-month period. Then, of course, we just refine from there as well.

Now, the other thing is, it’s one of the questions people often ask me is, how much should I spend on budget?

Well, the problem with having, you can spend as little or as much as you like. If you had a small budget, it might mean that you have to run your ads on fewer days because we need to have an appropriate amount of ads streaming on a certain day for it to be able to work and get to see what works. You can always do Google Ads on a really low budget.

Having said that, this is why we recommend it as well but the beauty of Google Ads is you can spend as little or as much as you like. You want to be able to go for … You want to be able to have enough data to be able to make decisions on what is happening. It is really about using the budget, understanding what’s working, and really getting research and insight into what is working, why it’s working, and really understanding that.

And apart from that, you can use the data to improve the content on your website as well because you’re getting insight into how people are searching, what they’re looking for, and you can work out strategies on how you can actually help them. So that’s a really great benefit of Google Ads.

Now, the one important thing and this is the crucial thing that with Google Ads, it’s really important to have proper tracking in place. And That can be done in a number of different ways. It can be done by a contact form. It can be done by tracking telephone calls, but really the important thing when you’re using Google Ads is to get an understanding of what is driving that conversion. And If you don’t have tracking measures in place, it’s really hard to refine the campaign and to really understand what is working and what isn’t.

Otherwise, without tracking, it becomes all about getting clicks to the website and getting people to your website, but it’s actually not telling you what is working, what isn’t, and that’s the important part because it’s one thing getting traffic to your website but it’s quite another thing to actually get someone to pick up the phone and call you, and you want to know what drives that and what causes that because that is the only way that you can improve.

Once we understand that, we can really focus on the things that work and really focus on then reducing the cost per click, increasing your click-through rate, and increasing that conversion rate. And you know conversion rate is going to be the most important measure of how and the number of leads you get because you really need to be able to … The whole point of it is to get business unless, of course, your goal is brand awareness. Then That’s a different matter, but really it’s not just about getting clicks to your website. It really is about measuring what’s working, repeating more of what’s working, and doing less of the things that aren’t.

I hope this helps understand a little bit about Google Ads, but if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at SwoopDigital.com.au.

Surviving in a World of Keyword (Not Provided)

Noticed a lot of keyword (not provided) in Google analytics?

You are not alone. Here’s an overview of why keyword (not provided) is increasing and what you need to do be less reliant on keywords and rankings.

NotProvided1

In October 2011, Google announced it was moving to secure search.  As a consequence, searches became encrypted and concealed when users searched on Google while being signed in to their Google accounts.

So if a user was signed into any Google account – be it Youtube, Gmail, Analytics, AdWords etc, the search query data from organic searches is hidden in Google analytics.

Since then the number of keywords (not provided) in Google analytics has increased significantly to a point where in many cases very little data is available.

In September last year, Google quietly switched all users over to secure search (SSL) regardless of whether they were logged into Google accounts or not.

So in the future, no keyword data will be provided for organic searches within Google analytics.  Nada. Zip.

How this impacts SEO?

Keywords have traditionally been the lifeblood for SEO.

With Google’s recent Hummingbird algorithm changes, personalised search and the increase of keyword not provided, the shift from focusing on keyword rankings to other metrics is becoming mandatory.

The measures may vary depending on your website and your objectives.

However, some of the possible measures may include website traffic, engagement, conversions and even revenue. We’ll cover off some more measures later in this article.

What the loss of keyword data means to you?

It’s time to have a conversation with your SEO provider about the goals you want to achieve and how these can be measured.

The way SEO has been done in the past has changed and keeping things the same and expecting them to work simply won’t work.

Other impacts are:

  • Differences in the measurement and reporting of SEO
  • You won’t be able to differentiate visitor traffic between brand / non branded queries meaning the contribution SEO makes to your bottom line is less clear
  • You will also get less insight into keyword opportunities from organic search queries
  • A different set of metrics will be required to effectively measure SEO performance
  • PPC data from Google AdWords is critical to validate which keywords actually drive conversions

What can you track and measure?

  • Total organic search visitors – did your traffic go up or down over a period of time?
  • Conversions from organic traffic – did your revenue increase or decrease over a period of time? Did the number of leads increase or decrease over a period of time?
  • Increases in website traffic at a URL level – are there some pages which are more strategically important to get traffic on than others?  Did the more important ones go up or down?
  • Webmaster tools data – did your average keyword positions increase or decrease?
  • Google AdWords data – this is a great source for mining data and understanding user queries. Data from Adwords can help give you an insight into your best converting keywords and can also be used to help develop a content strategy.
  • Historical data and trends – if you are fortunate you have sales data where you can compare your sales history, including any seasonal trends.
  • Search rankings – data can still be obtained for now but there is a question on how reliable this data might be in the future in since browsers like Firefox and Safari also moving to secure search.
  • Non Google keyword data from Bing or Yahoo.

A few caveats:

  • Traffic differences over one month are much less noticeable than traffic differences over three months. Therefore, it makes sense to not only provide monthly reports but also quarterly reports so you can gain an insights into trends.
  • Ensure you take seasonality into account when comparing previous periods. For this it makes sense to measure not only quarter on quarter results but also year on year.

Where else can you get data for researching keyword opportunities?

  • The new Google Keyword planner tool which replaced the Google Keyword Tool in 2013
  • Google AdWords & other paid search data
  • Developing buyer personas and understanding the customer journey from research to purchase and then developing a content strategy around that journey
  • Analysing your competitors websites in the Google Keyword Planner tool or other 3rd party tools
  • Configuring “site search” within Webmaster tools where user searches within your your own site are captured (obviously you need to ensure your search box is highly visible)
  • Using third party tools like SEM Rush and Wordtracker) – although data from third party tools will become increasingly distorted
  • Google Trends
  • Google Related Searches
  • Speak to your sales and customer service teams – ask them what questions they are frequently asked – create content that these faqs

Have you noticed that the number of keyword data in analytics has significantly dwindled?

Why Tracking Keyword Rankings Is Useless

For a long time, SEO providers and businesses and have used keyword rankings to evaluate the success of their SEO campaigns.

However, reporting on keyword rankings alone is often a poor measure of success.

Here’s why:

1. Keyword data is no longer being provided in Google Analytics

If you have looked at Google analytics lately, you may have noticed that up to 80-85% of your keyword data is obscured with the label (not provided).

keyword-not provided

This means it is increasingly difficult to know what keywords are driving traffic to your website.

In addition, the number of keywords (not provided) entries in Google analytics has been steadily increasing over the past year. In fact, some people suggest that eventually, you will not be able to get any keyword data at all.

This means that over time you will lose the ability to understand what keywords are your most valuable.

Your most valuable keywords are not the ones you think they are

Valuable keywords are the ones that actually increase sales and leads – not website traffic.  These are the ones you want to rank for.

Trying to rank for high traffic keywords without knowing if they actually help drive sales means you might find you waste a lot of dollars trying to rank for keywords that simply don’t work.

Therefore, focusing on rankings without understanding what revenue you get in return is pointless.

2. Rankings on keywords vary from person to person – search is now personalised to the user

For a long time, Google has been providing personalised search to all users.

What this means is that if you and another user on another computer type in the same search query, you both might get different results in the search engine ranking.

The result you see is personalised to you and are based on your browsing history and whether you have been on the site before.

Therefore focusing on rankings which can and do from person to person, may not be the best way to evaluate your campaign.

Personalised search is not new, but surprisingly very few people are aware of it. It was first introduced in June 2005 and initially impacted people who were signed in to Google accounts. It was extended to all users in December 2009.

3. Rankings vary by device

We live in a multi-channel world. No longer do we use only one device to surf the web.

The fact is, search results on different devices can vary quite dramatically.

This is because Google’s aim is to provide users with the best possible user experience. If your site is slow to load or is not optimised for mobile, there is a chance it may not appear in the search results for mobile phone users (even if it is ranked on page one of Google when you use a desktop computer).

Instead, a searcher using a mobile device might see those websites that are better optimised for a mobile experience rather than one that they might see on their desktop computer.

The issue here is that ranking reports don’t differentiate by device and because the search is personalised, it is not an accurate reflection of a businesses rankings in Google.

Instead of showing results to users based on keywords, Google now shows results based on the type of query they have.

Pre August 2013, if a user typed in where’s the best place to buy an iPhone 5, Google would have looked for a website optimised for “buy iPhone 5” and might have shown stores where you can buy an iPhone 5.

However, with semantic search, Google is more likely to deliver a result more similar to the user’s query.

Instead of showing several stores where you can buy an iPhone 5, it might show things like a blog article about where the best place actually is to buy an iPhone 5 based on a user review.

Similarly, a search for “acid reflux prescription” used to list a lot of drugs, which might not necessarily be the best way to treat the disease. Now, Google says results have information about treatment in general, including whether you even need drugs, such as this as one of the listings.

The change recognises the fact that our searches are becoming increasingly more complex – many of us do not type keywords into Google anymore – instead, we type questions and we expect Google to deliver the answers.

Focusing on keywords alone, therefore, is not useful unless we can use the data to help understand our customers better. The more we understand our customers, the more you can deliver a better experience to them on the web and increase the likelihood they will buy from you.

With this in mind, you may find you need to increase the number of pages on your website to capture the wider variety of searches in Google and at different stages of a users decision making journey.

How to measure success?

Success with an SEO campaign needs to be measured on several levels besides just keyword ranking.

Some key metrics to consider include:

  • Has my website traffic from organic search increased
  • Have my sales (or number of leads) from organic traffic  increased
  • Has the number of enquiries or newsletter sign ups increased
  • Increased website engagement – has the average time on site improved
  • Has my position in search results improved over time

What time period should you track?

Search engine optimisation takes time and is subject to daily swings.

Therefore while it is good to look at keyword rankings & organic traffic at a monthly level, you should also see if your business results (i.e. sales/leads) are improving on a quarter by quarter basis as well. This is because some businesses are quite seasonal and business results at a monthly level can vary substantially.

What you need to do now?

Because of all the changes occurring in search, we recommend adopting the following:

  • Ensure you have goals set up in Google analytics so you can accurately measure success against business goals
  • Focus on several metrics to evaluate success – not just keyword ranking positions alone
  • Start writing content on a blog – post valuable content that captures the richness & diversity of things your customers might what to know or type into Google to find you
  • Make sure your website loads fast
  • Have a mobile optimised version of your website
  • Use paid search advertising to work out your most valuable keywords and then use the data to optimise your website
  • Ensure webmaster tools is linked to your Google analytics account – this will help give you a rough indication of what search queries people have typed into Google to find you

Common Issues

On a final note, you might find you have been blogging and adding content to your website without much success.

This is entirely possible and often comes about due to:

  • lack of strategy and planning about the content on your website
  • Content that is not focused around your customers and what they might type into Google during the decision making journey

Make no mistake, having a sound content strategy is a must. If you are finding limited success, then it is worth considering getting professional help.