Business Capability Workshop – 25 September 2020
Gregor Jamieson, Alla Lvovich, Dale Folland of Pure SEO and Digital Popcorn.
The extraordinary events and circumstances of 2020 have highlighted the importance to a business of a strong online presence. Indeed, Digital Enablement is a sub-category of COVID-19 Support training services offered through the Regional Business Partner (RBP) network and is eligible for 100 per cent funding. The presenters of today’s workshop encouraged attendees to investigate which services could benefit their organisation.
According to searchenginejournal.com: “Organic search is the digital marketing channel with the highest ROI.” 30 per cent of internet users click on the first organic (i.e., non-sponsored) search result. This drops to 17 per cent for the second result, and 11 per cent for the third.
It is important to recognise that SEO is a long-term investment. Acting today will see results in three to six months. This lunchtime session focused on three key elements of SEO (search engine optimisation):
- Content
- Technical
- Backlinks
and included numerous practical tips:
Content
Make it “super easy” for Google’s bot to crawl your website, analyse the content and assess its relevance. Carefully consider your keywords and map three for each page – and always write for your human reader. If you are not sure what your keywords should be, investigate what other people are searching for, using a tool such as Google Keyword Planner, or take a look at the related searches.
Make full use of Google My Business, logging in regularly to check for new categories. Be consistent with the business name, address and phone number, fill every available data point, and acquire genuine, quality reviews.
Technical
Ensure that there are no broken links on your website. Google Search Console can help you check that Google can “see” all your web pages, and submitting an XML sitemap will further assist Google to understand how to crawl your site.
Check your site’s response time too. Users “have no patience” and will simply click away if, for example, images are too slow to load.
Backlinks
Think of backlinks as references; they support your claims and verify your usefulness in Google’s eyes. When your website is linked from another website, especially one that is extremely popular, such as NZ Herald or Yellow Pages, this may boost its reputation with Google.
