Digital marketing, also known as online or internet marketing, is fast becoming the number one way to advertise your business to potential customers. If you have a small or medium-sized business located on the Gold Coast, the rewards for investing in digital marketing are enormous. In a recent online survey, 75% of small business owners stated that internet marketing had proven very effective at attracting new customers. Another study showed that 30% of small businesses with a web presence generated more than 25% of their revenue online. As a Gold Coast business owner, your topmost priorities are to get more customers, grow your business, expand your reach, and ultimately, make a profit. If done right, digital marketing gives you the opportunity to achieve all four goals with one fell swoop. Nowadays, everyone is either buying or researching a product via the internet. According to Statista, in 2014, about 1.32 billion people purchased goods and services online. This number is expected to nearly double in 2021. So, as a business owner, if you’re not marketing your goods and services online, you are missing out on a truckload of profit.
SEO – an integral part of digital marketing and business growth
Whenever you hear the term ‘digital marketing’ being bandied about in a conversation or article, the acronym ‘SEO’ is not far behind. This is because the two terms are closely interrelated, you literally can’t have one without the other. SEO is undoubtedly one of the biggest forms of digital marketing. In fact, a digital marketing strategy that lacks SEO might not yield the desired results.
What exactly is SEO?
Let’s say Bill, a regular guy with a 9-to-5 job, is in need of an electrician. Do you think he’s going to stroll around his neighbourhood after a hectic day at work looking for one? Definitely not in this day and age! He is going to pick up his smartphone and search online for electricians in his area via a search engine (Google, Baidu, Bing, or Yahoo). According to Search Engine Journal, 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine and 47% of people click on one of the first three listings. Another researcher says that 92% of these online searchers will pick businesses listed on the first page of local search results. These statistics don’t lie. In his search for electricians, Bill would very likely not go past the first page of his search results on Google. What this means is that if you want to succeed in the competitive world of business, you must: A. Get your website onto the first page of search engines, and B. If possible, rank as high as one of the first three listings. And the opportunity to do just that is what Search Engine Optimization (SEO) offers you. As the name implies, SEO is the process of optimizing your website to rank high on organic listings of search engines, especially Google. For your site to rank well on Google, its content must be relevant and you must have an established and trustworthy reputation.
Your content must contain important keywords that customers search for. It must be written in a manner that engages and captivates prospective clients. For your SEO to yield desired results, quality content must also be backed up with quality backlinks. Link building is as important as dishing out engaging content. Having other websites linking back to yours portrays you as a credible source of information and adds a distinct touch of authenticity to your content. Online searchers get the impression that you are truly knowledgeable about the industry and can solve their problems.
Local SEO could turn your Gold Coast business around
Building your online presence worldwide through SEO is great, but as a local business in the Gold Coast, chances are your target audience are the happy people residing in your locality. In this case, local, rather than organic SEO, is a better online marketing tool. Local SEO is simply SEO at a local scale. You optimize your website to rank high for local searches on Google. To achieve this, your content must include local keywords that are designed to pull in a large number of customers residing in Gold Coast. Your location and address details must be a key part of your content and website optimization. Our case study, Bill, searched online for a local electrician and Hubspot says he is just one out of an amazing 46% of Google users searching for a local business to meet their needs. What’s more, 72% of these users end up either calling or physically visiting these businesses based on the information they got online. When it comes to local SEO, listing your business locally on Google My Business also plays a major role. It makes it very easy for people to find you and get the location of your business. In fact, a recent study showed that 86% of people look up the location of a business on Google Maps. Additionally, reviews from happy customers displayed either on your website or on Google Maps also help in attracting new customers and increasing sales.
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