Tom Vaughton, Director of digital marketing company, Varn, based in Bradford on Avon, explains why SEO needs to be an essential part of your marketing mix if you want to find new customers.
“There are a great many people running businesses out there who have heard of SEO, who might even know a little bit about it, but have no clue how to approach an SEO strategy and what the benefits are of doing it,” said Tom. “It’s only when you explain to them the results a campaign can produce that they get excited.”
A study by Weebly showed that 45% of entrepreneurs don’t know what SEO even means, despite 98% of them understanding that it’s important to be found in Google searches.
“Research shows that the close rate of SEO leads is around fifteen percent. That’s good and compared to outbound marketing like Direct Mail, which is under two percent, it’s really impressive.”
Play the long game to win
SEO strategies encompass hundreds of methods from trying to use the right keywords, to creating good links from reputable websites and improving how people navigate around your website. Improving your ranking in search results means leveraging blogging, PR, paid search and website design. When someone looks for a business service online, good SEO will help propel a company up onto the first page of results when they use the most appropriate word to search for that service.
“SEO can be very competitive,” confirms Tom. “It’s important to know that SEO isn’t dependent on one thing but everything you action online, that’s why it’s a strategy. Like all good things, SEO work usually pays off when there is a comprehensive, consistent and long term approach that ensures a business builds its presence across a number of platforms, such as Google Maps, other reputable websites and a host of places. You have to continuously monitor analytics software because the marketplace is always changing and so if people stop visiting your website for a reason, you may need to adapt. However, it all begins with your website build and how well designed and labelled it is.
“If someone comes to us and says ‘I want to be at the top of page one tomorrow’, we have to sit them down and guide them through the intricacies of a process that takes more time than they may think is necessary but it is worth the investment because it works.”
Original research for accurate data
Varn also regularly conducts its own research to discover the truth about online search behaviour. Recently they concluded from their survey of over 1,000 men and women in the UK, that 57% of people can’t tell which links are adverts on a Google results page.
“Our research is done to find things out for ourselves. We don’t always want to rely on data sourced from third parties. Our latest survey revealed that over half of online users don’t understand that the top of the Google results page has adverts. This is surprising but it’s potentially good news for advertisers because customers won’t be put off clicking in any way. We think by conducting our own investigations, we can really get to know how people use search engines and what businesses can do to acquire an edge.”
Varn, formally Varn Media, works with a wide range of clients locally and nationally and sponsors the Bradford on Avon Rugby team as well as managing the flood monitoring camera for the town. Visit them online at: www.varn.co.uk
Pictured above: Varn’s Tom Vaughton
