How much of Search Engine Optimization can Happen by Accident

For many people, the idea of search engine optimization is a hard one to grasp. More specifically it is hard to know where to begin with something that is so new. In the old days, if you ran a butchery and you wanted people to be able to contact you, you would list your company in the local phone directory and yellow pages. Prospective clients would either find you listed alphabetically according to your name or under the butchery section along with all the other local butchers. A lot has changed in recent times though, and now, instead of the phone book, discovery tends to happen through the internet, and through Google specifically. But just how easy it to be discovered online? To what extent do you have to plan for it and to what extent does it just happen?

Don’t put your head in the sand

You could argue that the incredible skills and SEO services Australia and New Zealand companies offer are all smoke and mirrors, but you would be fooling yourself. For sure, there are certain things that you can do to help your search engine optimisation, and, if you are a keen blogger you may well find that you are doing these things by accident. But that would be the same as suggesting that doctors are not really necessary, in many instances it is quite possible to treat yourself. This is true indeed, and in many instances, it is possible to treat yourself. But in the same way that you would perform an appendectomy on yourself, the same applies to SEO, it is often best to get the experts involved and let them provide the guidance needed. 

Direct traffic is different

Don’t for a second mistake direct traffic for search traffic. If a user knows your website’s address and types it into the search bar on Google, then it will almost certainly be your company that is returned first in the results. But that is not good SEO, that is just somebody who knows your URL and who has typed it in a search bar instead of the browser. To use the earlier butchery example again, you want to be coming up first in the results when people in your area search for keywords like ‘butcher,’ ‘organic meat sales’ or ‘butchery in Hobart’, etc. If you are a butchery in Hobart and somebody searches for that phrase you can’t afford to be placed eighth or ninth in the search results.  

You can definitely help yourself

The more fresh and original content that you produce the better it will be for your SEO. So, if you have a blog keep putting content out there. If you have a corporate site, make sure that you either have a blog component to the pages so that you can post regularly or keep the site alive with new specials and calls to action. Also, find companies who align well with you and do link swaps – in other words, get your website address onto their site and get theirs onto yours. Google likes this type of thing and it will help your rank. And it doesn’t take an expert to make this happen.