There’s a misconception in the marketing world that Search Engine Optimization is something 95% of us can do by simply reading a few articles or books. It’s also perceived as not so much a marketing practice as it is manipulation to game the search engines into ranking your website higher for various search queries. All you have to do is change a few title tags here, stuff some keywords there, buy some links over there, and all will be well with the world, right? No. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Search Engine Optimization, otherwise known as SEO, is a finicky thing. It requires rigorous research, targeted experimentation, continuous monitoring and the ability to understand numerous metrics in order to be successful. It’s ever changing and ever evolving. It’s not a “set it and forget it” practice that can be left untouched and thought to keep performing into the future. My friends, SEO is a combined art and science that ties targeted marketing, development, and PR into one forward thinking and flexible strategy. It requires expertise and experience. It requires an SEO professional.
Here are the reasons why...
You Don't Know What You're Doing
Let’s face it, if you’re reading this article, then chances are you may not be the most well versed in SEO or have the technical know-how to create and sustain a successful SEO campaign. That’s totally fine - really, it is! SEO inherently has an ongoing learning curve that requires constant monitoring and tweaking in order for your campaign to be successful. There are numerous moving parts that work together to make your SEO campaign achieve its goals and having an experienced SEO professional monitor these moving parts ensures success.
SEO campaigns require continuous monitoring of:
- Analytics
- Site errors
- Rankings
- Backlinks
- Website listings
- Content opportunities
- Competition
And more. SEO professionals are able to take raw data from numerous sources and use it to create comprehensive SEO strategies. This means that we are able to make prioritized recommendations that would have the most impact on your organic visibilit. This all equates to better organic insights, better organic strategies, and better organic results.
You Lack In-House Resources
You have a business to run, meaning you need your team to be focused on the internal tasks at hand to maintain your growth, not on creating and running a DIY SEO campaign. Researching, setting up, and monitoring a well oiled SEO campaign takes many resources, including the following:
- Time
- Expertise
- Money
Keeping up with SEO trends and applying learnings is an investment that is best made with professionals who have made SEO their livelihood. Let us handle driving more qualified organic traffic and leads to your website by doing the research, analyzing, and moving SEO strategies forward. You and your team can focus on what you do best - serving your customers and growing your business.
Avoid Costly Mistakes
Google and other search engines have gone to great lengths to ensure the quality and integrity of their search results are not compromised. In fact, over the years, search engines have gone through numerous algorithm changes to stay on top of tactics used by marketers and site owners to manipulate their search results, decreasing guilty party's search rankings or removing them from search results altogether. Even worse, these algorithms are now thought to work in real time, meaning black hat or careless SEO tactics are being noticed more quickly.
Lots of marketers and site owners want results fast and often make mistakes in taking SEO shortcuts to increase their organic visibility. A few of these costly SEO mistakes include:
- Buying links
- Keyword stuffing
- Irrelevant content building
Over time, these mistakes and shortcuts have costs business substantial sums of money and resources through massive amounts of onsite and backlink cleanup. When Google or other search engines notice these common mistakes being made, it means your website loses valuable organic search rankings and real estate by way of penalties, missing it's opportunity to appear in front of target audiences or potential customers conducting searches.
SEO professionals avoid these mistakes and build an honest, targeted SEO campaign that builds links organically, uses keywords and queries naturally on your website, and builds content that your target audiences values. When you hire an SEO professional, you don't take shortcuts. You build something bigger and better, something search engines, but most importantly your audience, value.
Granular Research
SEO professionals use best-in-class tools to gather what we at Marcel call “So what?” data and turn it into “A-ha!” data. Anyone can get data from Google Analytics, but the real benefit is turning that data into actionable insights that can then guide your ongoing strategy and SEO work. As SEO professionals, we take the data a level deeper and focus on how it applies to the demographics and psychograhics of your target audience, ensuring that all work moving forward is prioritized within strategy, budget, and scope. Data is the single source of truth for an SEO campaign, and when you know how to properly analyze and apply data from multiple sources, you give your potential customers and target audience exactly what they want while staying miles ahead of your search competition. A professional SEO does exactly that.
Get Real ROI
SEO is more than just driving traffic to your website. It’s about driving the right traffic to your website. A professional SEO agency like Marcel Digital focuses on driving more qualified traffic and leads to your website for a higher return on your SEO investment. When you have SEO experts running your campaign, they're able to track:
- Branded traffic
- Non branded traffic
- Inbound links
- Rankings
- Revenue
...and more in a detailed and precise manner that gives your team real insights as to how their work is impacting your bottom line. If you're having difficulty tracking the performance of your current SEO campaign, it's best to seek the help of an SEO professional who can show the real ROI of their efforts with customized reports and analytics.
Marcel Digital Can Help
Since 2003, Marcel Digital has been impacting our client’s bottom line by increasing their organic visibility and driving more qualified leads to their inboxes. Not only are our SEO professionals Google Certified, but we also staff a Moz Oracle, who happens to be the most endorsed Moz member, which means we’re recognized, sought after and respected amongst leading industry peers.
If your website is not appearing for key search queries or is simply not generating quality leads from search, reach out to the SEO professionals at Marcel Digital. Our years of experience and expertise are second to none and we’re consistently on the cutting edge of SEO. Our team provides consulting to in house marketing teams giving them a fresh voice and a fresh perspective on some of their immediate challenges. Your success is our success, and our years of SEO results prove it.
SEO
About the author
Tom Kelly
Tom has worked in digital marketing since he started his career over a decade ago, working across the project and account side of the business.