Wicked Cow Marketing

Open NavigationOpen Search
You are here: Home / Resources / Concepts / Search Engine Optimisation

Search Engine Optimisation

Search Engines look at hundreds of factors when ranking websites but they fall into two basic categories;

  • Website relevancy (mostly concerned with on-site factors)
  • Website authority (mostly concerned with off-site factors)

When someone makes a search query on Google (or another search engine), they first determine which sites in their index are relevant to the query then they rank the websites based on a combination of their degree of relevancy and their level of authority or trustworthiness. The higher ranking websites have the best combination of high relevancy and high authority.

Website Relevancy

Increasing your website relevancy involves determining which are the best keywords to target (keyword research) then incorporating them into your webpages in the right places (website optimisation), namely;

  • Page Titles
  • Page Headings
  • URLs
  • Content
  • Img names and alt tags

If your industry, or the keywords you choose to target, have very low competition then working on your website relevancy (on-site SEO) may be all that you have to do. If a search engine finds that several websites are relevant for the same search query (keyword), it needs to decide which website it should rank higher and which lower, it does this by looking at the ‘authority’ of the different websites. The more competitive your market is, the more you have to work on increasing your website authority.

Website Authority

Search engines look at many different factors to determine a website’s authority but the most important ones are the quality and quantity of incoming links from other websites.

Once you have your website relevancy under control, its time to start trying to get links to your webpages (link building). There area many techniques and strategies for link building. We’ve tried to categorise and explain many of them in our link building section (particularly in the articles linked from this bottom of this section).

Common SEO Questions & Answers

Here are some common SEO questions and their answers.

What is SEO?
‘SEO’ stands for Search Engine Optimisation and is any activity that increases the number of organic (unpaid) visitors to your website from search engines. Learn more about SEO here.
Is SEO right for my business?
If your customers use search engines to find services like those that you offer then you can potentially benefit from SEO. SEO is most valuable for businesses with a high value per customer in industries where expertise and information are valued by customers. If you’re still unsure, feel free to contact us and we’ll ask you some simple questions to figure our if SEO is likely to benefit you (free of charge).
Is SEO ‘dead’?
People have been predicting the ‘death’ of SEO for many years but we can assure you that it is still very much alive and will continue to be for as long as people use search engines to find what they are looking for. SEO is changing all the time though and over the last few years some of the pet ‘black hat’ tactics (this is where people try to trick Google rather then building better websites) have become less effective or obsolete.
Why aren’t we number one on Google?
Google wants to rank the best web pages for any given search query. If your website (web pages) doesn’t rank in the number one spot it means that Google doesn’t recognise it as being worthy of that spot. Our services tackle this problem from two different directions;

  • We add content to your website to improve the quality and usefulness and make it worthy of a higher ranking
  • We optimise and promote your website in the right way to help Google recognise the worthiness of your website and therefore award you with a higher rank
How come when I search we rank in one spot but when my friends search we rank in a different spot?
Google believes they can deliver a better search experience if they tailor their search results to each person by taking into account their personal search history, location and other information. This means that different people in different locations will see different results.
Will I need to make changes to my website?
Changes will need to be made to your website but we recommend that they are made by your web developer following our instructions. The changes will include;

  • Website Optimisation changes – such as changing your page titles and headings and adding new pages
  • Adding new content – we’ll be creating new content every month to go up on your website. This should go on a blog or in a resources section
How many keywords can we target?
Technically you can target as many keywords as you want but we suggest only targeting one or two of the most important relevant and high traffic keywords on each page of your website. A content orientated strategy will result in your website receiving traffic from many additional keywords, known as ‘long tail keywords,’ which don’t need to be specifically targeted but will be incorporated into your website as a natural part of the process.
If I stop doing SEO will I lose my rankings?
That depends on what type of SEO you are doing. None of the content, links or promotions that we build/do for you are rented so they won’t disappear if you stop our services. However, there will be degradation over time as content gets old and outdated and pages linking to you are removed or edited. Also, if your competitors continue to invest in SEO they will eventually overtake you (providing they are doing the right things). Some SEO services offer ‘rented’ links which sill typically be removed when you stop paying which will probably result in a drop in rankings.
Do I need to do anything?
You can have as much or as little input as you like. Here are some examples;

  • Website Optimisation Report – for the best results we will seek your guidance on the popular search terms (keywords) for your industry, your closest competitors and other info. Alternatively, we can determine this information through research and educated guesses
  • Content Creation – our copywriter can call you to get ideas and extract your expertise, this will usually produce more insightful and accurate content. However, if you would prefer not to be involved we can write the content using research from external sources only
  • Content Approval – we can send each new piece of content to you for approval before we send it to your web developer to be uploaded to your site. Alternatively, we can send the content to your developer directly
Can anyone guarantee Google rankings?
No. Nobody knows exactly how Google works and therefore no one can guarantee Google rankings. Some marketers might be tempted to offer a ranking guarantee as a marketing ploy but you should be weary of this because there’s a high chance that they will be using shady tactics to get you there. Read more about ranking guarantees here.

Have a question that isn’t covered here? 

Call Us: (08) 8121 8122 | Email Us

Back to top ▴

Business Information

About Us

Privacy Policy

Contact