SEO Marketing for all local businesses.The internet has evolved over the years. And the idea of not keeping up with the trend will prove to be detrimental to any business aiming to thrive in the ever-competitive market. One of the trending topics of our time is Search Engine Optimisation, also known as SEO. It’s no wonder — according to The 2011 Social Shopping Study, 50% of consumers spend 75% or more of their total shopping time engaging in product research.  The number one starting point for the online shopping experience is with a search engine. This means that optimising your website for natural search is a critical success factor for your business. It’s not enough to have a website, you also need SEO marketing. It’s important to make sure that your website is well structured and contains content that is relevant to your visitors as well as the search engines. Optimising the structure and content of your website will help you grow your business and increase sales. Don’t be fooled by agencies that “guarantee” top rankings in search results and put their focus only on keywords. What is SEO Marketing? SEO marketing also referred to as Search Engine Optimisation marketing is the process of increasing the visibility of a website on search engine results pages. There are many factors that need to be taken into consideration as a part of your SEO strategies. A solid strategy considers more than just keywords. It should include detailed consideration of how search engines work within the context of digital marketing, which search engines are being used by your targeted audience, and what keywords or key-phrase are used by your customers during their online searches. The goal is to improve the relevance of your website so that it is indexed and well positioned by the search engines. Search engine optimisation is not just having a lot of content. You also have to make sure that your website design is well structured for your audience’s usage as this can affect the development and design of your website. The digital marketing game has changed over the years, Google now doesn’t only favor you for your multitudes of your website content, now Google wants to know that the content you are providing on your website is well written and contains necessary information that’s helpful for your readers. In a nut-shell, Google wants your website to have the right content. Search engines take the quality of content and the structure of a website into consideration when “ranking” a website. SEO marketing isn’t something you do once and then you are done. The playing field is constantly changing as the search engines refine the way they work. The goal of a search engine is to deliver the most relevant results possible to the searcher. Therefore if your website has been properly implemented within an SEO Marketing plan with relevant content, it will be displayed for the relevant searcher. What is the Importance of SEO? When we were putting this article together, we decided to research the percentage of Australians who shop online. By using a certain keyword, we got over 39,000,000 results from Google, guess what we did? We clicked on the first three results leaving the rest untouched. Well, that’s the importance of SEO Marketing, when your customers search for your niche and your website is not flashing at the top of the Google results, they will choose from the top (your competitors) and forget the rest. Nine out of ten people use the internet to shop. The number one starting point is online search. Gone are the days of bookmarks and customer loyalty. Today’s consumers are in charge. They know what they’re looking for and they know how to find it. If your company’s website isn’t on the first page of results, it’s practically invisible. Three out of four Australian internet users shop online. 70% of all click-through traffic on Google’s search results go to the #1 position on the page (Google & Bing Study: 2011 Study by SlingShot SEO). 2016 is the year you want to take your SEO marketing very seriously by doing the following: Improve search engine position. Drive qualified traffic to your site. Increase conversion. Reduce bounce rate. Engage customers with your website design. Be recognised as an authority in your niche. Promote your local business through SEO marketing. My Business is Local – Is SEO Marketing still Important? According to Google’s research, 90% of Internet users use search to find local businesses. People used to use the Yellow Pages to find local businesses – today they use the internet. Every business should have a website and every business owner should have a basic understanding of how search engines work and have a SEO Marketing plan in place. The statistics speak for itself: 74% of online users perform local searches (Kelsey Group); 20% of all searches are related to location (Google); 43% of search engine users are looking for a local business; 61% of local searches result in a purchase (TMP/comScore); 82% of local searchers follow up with an offline contact such as a phone call, a visit to the store or a purchase (TMP/comScore). SEO Marketing is critical to the success of your online presence. Having a website is a start, but it’s not enough to compete in today’s online world. We offer personalised SEO Marketing consultations and hands on training to equip businesses of all sizes on how grow their online presence, increase traffic and generate more leads. One time or ongoing consultation sessions are designed to provide guidance and identify opportunities to improve your search engine optimisation and social networking strategies. We also provide website design evaluations which include both quantitative and qualitative feedback and actionable recommendations. Our training services are designed to empower individuals within a business to create and execute a sustainable SEO Marketing plan internally or to select the right external partner. We specialise in creating and supporting businesses with the creation of content that provides value to your target audience and increases your traffic from organic search