• May 28, 2018

Why a Multi-Skilled SEO offers better value

A multi-skilled SEO can offer better value.

Sometimes simple things make a dramatic improvement to a website. Google tries to return the best matching sites for a particular query.
However there are some fundamentals that restrict sites from ranking higher.

There are approximately 400 measures Google use to rank a site.
Included in these measures are metrics about site performance like loading speed, quality of coding and a kind of snobbery like "is this site from a good neighbourhood"?
It can take some time and trial and error to improve a site which must at least show some response within a few weeks and a good positive response within 6 weeks.
If we get that initial site response we can immediately start working on search terms that can be successful, which in itself is an art. Progressively we work on more search terms as we gain success.
In some cases the top keyword only represents 5% of total search traffic. So a good SEO starts earning for you within weeks by finding diversified search terms as early as possible.

Paid Advertising is not SEO

SEO works differently than paid advertising, paid advertising has to make a case for a "sale" or action after you have paid. I can't get traffic by the quality of my content so I have to pay for it. SEO on the other hand has to make the best match for a query then generate a relationship with the user. Here is where an experienced coder with a good writing style works. We make finding information easy and allow the page to be scanned easily on any device.
Quality SEO requires pages designed for easy scanning and effective keywords -:

Your local paper is not going to hire journalists without a knowledge of local issues and command of the English language however websites are often created by OS Designers and SEOs who simply copy other sites without the core knowledge to present information well. Google penalises these copycats so you lose twice -:

• Slow site poorly made
• Poor rankings in Search Engines

Getting to the 2nd Page

A site must get to the 2nd page before it gets to the first - so it is very rewarding to find a site with potential move from a rank of 100 to between 11-20.

Clearly being on the 1st page is the goal. Numerous studies show the first organic listing to be ideal, however there can be a lot to be gained from any of the other sites in the results.

Be wary of self-promoters

Be wary of the typical self-promoting 'web gurus'. Look for the person with the most experience and efficiency working on your site. I didn't design my own business card, I get my graphic designer of extraordinary talent to do that and I happily pay the price.
Granted you will know your business better than anyone but you may not know how to present it and get it found on Google.

So called marketing gurus could be sending you down an expensive advertisng path with the first marketing pitch to convince you their web formula works. How does a paid advertising model that works as a bidding system that allows competitors to click on your paid links offer long-term value?

A multi-skilled SEO will include updates to your site as part of their SEO - there goes those expensive update costs right there. As an SEO we know Google favours sites that are regularly updated and or linked to from other genuine sites. So expensive "design agencies" with large update costs work counter intuitively to how Search Engines favour content

SEO is not set and forget. Regular quality new and updated content has a payoff. Generating more phone calls or contacts, delivering better quality leads can be measured with Google Analytics 4. Know which pages are performing. A simple example would be noticing a Gold Coast Mechanic also draws clicks from Google on Pre Purchase Car Inspections - content can be designed to draw clicks on both keywords. We know that there is a high likelihood that a parent organising an inspection for their daughters car will appreciate a mechanic with integrity.

We have many successful clients

We have many successful clients across various industries. Some have been innovative industry disruptere, some sites have pocketed owners over 100k others have generated 100s of 1000s of sales. Some have totally flopped, that is where we learn the lessons quickly and devise a better strategy.

How does server management enhance SEO?

We have found working with hosting companies on a specific server setup to be beneficial to our SEO clients. We can maximise the speed and reduce errors and maintenance substantially by having very specific setups that optimise performance and reliablity.

Having limited access to our servers, greatly reduces the chances for hackers. Hackers aren't always the cool dudes portrayed on TV. More often than not it is a script constantly looking for vulnerabilities. Often the issue is just database connections being used in failed attempts to find underlying data. Building defences for these type of attacks is easier with a homogenous private system.

We develop our own back-end systems. That consistency allows us monitor sites better. Analysing web logs can reveal issues. Having core code on multiple sites allows for effecient updates. Compare that to an SEO who is not a web developer - there are more channels of communication you end up paying for.

You do not need to worry about domain names, server setups, hosting fees even (if paying SEO) and importantly updates from a multi-skilled SEO.

Using Regular Expressions for SEO

A Regular Expression (regex) is a sequence of characters that specifies a search pattern. You can use it to create advanced filters to include or exclude more than just a word or a phrase or a character. Validation techniques use regex to specify certain characters or character patterns in input fields. Server logs can be analysed quickly and regex can also be used for server Unix commands.

The regex ^[ ]+|[ ]+$ matches excess whitespace at the beginning or end of a line.

Regex used in scripting and on servers add efficiency. Hence a multi-skilled SEO will have tools to quickly update and change information that is in text format.

SEO Uses for regex

1 Use with Google Console to filter searches and check results (clicks / impressions) eg refine searches for a specific location
Gold Coast | Southport

2 Use in your text editor to do advanced search replace eg you want to find a line starting with a specific word and append something to the end of the line or change a number of headings.

3 Analyse server logs for spam and errors

RegEx for SEO

Lines of Communication

To illustrate a common problem - imagine the person you are discussing your site with is not a programmer and needs to outsource that aspect of your site. In a very short amount of time you have multiple people who need to be informed of any change. Decisions made by a marketing person effect the code and the design. If it goes pair-shaped each blame the other. The overhead of multiple lines of communication is a formula N(N-1)/2

Even the best intentioned developer or marketing person cannot "know what they do not know"

Even the best intentioned developer or marketing person cannot "know what they do not know". Hence the smallest adjustment can have a ripple effect that ruins a project, not because of any malice but because the rules of lines of communication make variations to any project risky as more people are involved.

A good multi-skilled developer (SEO) does not have these issues. We can preempt a design issue that can cause a coding issue and make informed decisions. Refer to What Communication Style Do You Use

Just as accountants and bookkeepers use break-even analysis to help a business make informed purchases, maintaining cost-effective SEO (marketing expenses) is very important.

Does your SEO measure up? Check our SEO Bad Practices document.

SEO for a website redesign

Most website systems when requiring a design change completely wipe out the previous design and structure in the process. This can be disaterous for SEO. Consider an image, indexed in Google images. Along come the "digital agency" and wipe out content already indexed. So naturally, the site's rankings drop due to the site upgrade because key content is now gone.

A website page may look attractive, yet have a very different response in search queries.

Sometimes as little as a paragraph can make a massive difference to the performance of a site.

With a website design upgrade, if a page is not performing as well as the previous page did, we can adjust the new page appropriately.

We can do this easily because we still have a physical working copy of the old page.

Sometimes the structure of a site cannibalises pages making it difficult for Google to determine the main page for a query.

With advanced SEO software we can analyse which pages were regarded as the best fit for a query from your site.

We can also examine this information historically.

When the page Google chooses as the most appropriate page changes, it may indicate an algorithm change.

Website Migration Guide