SEO on the Gold Coast

SEO is a long term process and your results will grow over time.

Whatever results you're getting at six months should be considerably less than what you're getting at 12 months.

New websites can take at least 3 months before Google starts sending traffic.

Create helpful content that people search for.

Go in depth on topics, answer questions with data, it's less about selling your product or service, and more about providing the most helpful and informative answers.

You'll want to aim for topical authority. To cover all topics of your industry with content.

One method for creating content is to visit forums for your sector and sort by most replies to find the most popular or most asked questions to write about. Or use a service like People Also Ask.

Sites where you can find what people are searching for, to create blog posts from, are:

• https://answerthepublic.com/
• https://alsoasked.com/

If your marketing budget allows, SEO is an investment that should start sooner rather than later. It will take time but the intent should always be for your SEO provider to generate a return on your investment. Your SEO agency should be able to show that you've put in $1 and generated $2, $3 or $4 in revenue through sales, based on an agreed upon lead value. Typical SEO ROI is 200% to %275, so $1 gives a return of up to $2.75.

See Moz's article about the average return on investment in SEO.

Search engines are always changing and updating how they rank pages and how they deem which content is most important. It could be anything from Google changing the way it looks at a certain type of link, including a new major update to their algorithm, or recognising a ranking factor as the way the web is used evolves.

A lot of time is spent on keyword research, content creation, and analysing what your competitors are doing, to determine a pathway to take to compete with them.

Your website should also be built in a specific way for Google to more easily process your page content, this is called technical SEO.

Here's an example of good page structure:

Search listings are free, and no one can pay for a better organic ranking. The only way to appear higher in the result page would be to pay for advertising (Pay Per Click) through Google Ads.

Longtail Keywords

Targeting longtail keywords gives you the opportunity to rank faster and higher because they're more specific and have lower search volume. People know exactly what they are searching for so targeting longtail keywords can be effective in converting visitors.

Some steps toward becoming more visible on Google for relevant searches:

1. Write high quality content that answers questions.
2. Create a Google My Business Profile
3. Optimise your Google My Business Profile
4. Make your website mobile-friendly
5. Get listed in online directories
6. Use location-based keywords
7. Add location tags to social media posts
8. Keep your address and location consistent across online platforms
9. Publish locally relevant content
10. Get online reviews

1. Target a niche. Part of succeeding at SEO is understanding the competitive landscape
2. Choose realistic keywords. You can get to the first page of Google when targeting the right keywords
3. Optimise each piece of content naturally and for humans first, not machine
4. Add long-form content to your site if the topic deems it necessary
5. Acquire high pagerank and domain authority links to your site

Why Organic Google CTR Matters

High rankings don't guarantee visits to your site.

What really matters is how many people are clicking on your listing, and then staying on your site due to your high quality content. You want to attract more visitors who stick around and then convert.

It matters how often you get clicked on and then how often you convert those visitors to leads, sales, purchases, subscriptions. Look at your title, your URL, and your snippet that Google generates and see if you can find ways to improve that, because then users are more likely to click. You'll get more visitors and a better return on your investment.