SEO, or search engine optimisation, is all about making your website more visible in search engine results by making it more appealing to the algorithms from Google and others that evaluate their content. It drives organic traffic – visitors that arrive on your website through unpaid portals – and is one of the most valuable areas to focus your digital marketing efforts. Here are the benefits and drawbacks of SEO so you can make informed decisions about when to optimise content and when to pay.
The good stuff about SEO
- Affordability – Over the long term, SEO is much more affordable even if you are using a digital agency or other external resources to develop your content. Once that content is created and uploaded, it’s free – you don’t pay each time a visitor clicks through to your website.
- Stability – Once you’ve paid for your SEO content, it will keep delivering as long as you have it online. This means that it will continue driving traffic for years to come. You essentially own this traffic pathway rather than renting it for a set period of time, and this means it’s easier to predict and forecast.
- Authoritative – SEO is more than a simple ad. In fact, best practice SEO content is about solving your customer’s problems, showing them how to utilise solutions and services, and informing them on relevant industry news. This builds credibility with your audience, helping people get to know your brand as a trusted source, not just another sales pitch.
- Flexible – Paid ads have a very limited target – the people who are at the very top of your sales funnel. SEO content, however, can target consumers at any stage of the sales funnel, helping to pull people through the process and make those all-important conversions. You can create content that helps newbies get to know what your brand is about, show brand-aware people that you have a service or product they can benefit from, and pull return customers in to show them how your brand can help them further.
So, what are the downsides?
- Slow – SEO is all about consistent volume over time. You can’t publish a blog a week for a month and expect your rankings to shoot to the top of every search results page. It’s a slow burn that drives long-term results because it takes time to meet all of Google’s 200 ranking factors to the algorithm’s satisfaction.
- Expertise-driven – Not all content ranks well and some can even get you penalised, so you need people with the right stuff to develop your content. There are no shortcuts in SEO, and it’s best to have experts develop and implement your strategy if you want to stay on Google’s good side.
- Evolving – Google regularly updates its algorithm in line with its strategy, which means that your SEO strategy needs to keep evolving too. Since 2021, for example, Google has been working on punishing websites using spam linking, and now they’re rolling changes that utilise AI technology, that impact product reviews, and page experience.
SEO made simple
Digital Freak is an end-to-end digital marketing services provider in Melbourne, and we don’t mess about when it comes to SEO. With talented writers and strategists who know Google inside and out, we’re all about helping your customers find you. No blackhat tactics or hacks, no eye-watering consulting fees, just simple and effective SEO that makes your customers sit up and take notice. Chat to us today and see how we’ve helped businesses large and small across Melbourne!
