A successful site is a great marketing tool and point of reference for your customers creating new opportunities.
Having innovative SEO can create quality websites at a great price. Quality is eye catching, attractive websites that get you customers attention while mirroring your company’s brand and image.
Many people use the same terms interchangeably but they do have different meanings.
Web design is the customer facing side of a website and governs how a website looks. Web Development is the back end to a website and governs the interactivity of a website for example the sending of forms, widgets, logins and storing data.
When it comes to search engine optimisation, a lot of emphasis is placed upon using both on-page and off-page techniques to help improve a ranking and propel your website on to that all-important first page of Google. But just how important is it to be on to be on top of the rankings?
A recent study by Compete.com looked at “tens of millions” of consumer-generated SERPs from Q4 of 2011 and revealed that the difference between first and second place can be very significant.
While some people would argue that paid links provide more exposure than organic links, this study proves once again that natural is the way to go. A massive 85 percent of all listings shown are organic, not only this, when it comes to clicks a massive 53 percent went on the first result. The second placed result seen 15 percent of clicks, while the third, fourth and fifth, received a dwindling 9, 6 and 4 percent respectively.
Focusing on organic
The research also showed that paid listings on the top of the page performed considerably better than those on the side or bottom of the page. 85 percent of clicks went on the paid listings that featured in the top ad block, although only 24 percent of ads appear there. 61 percent of ads appear in the right hand column, but these only receive 13 percent of clicks. As expected, ads at the bottom of the page performed poorly, with only 2 percent of total clicks going on 15 percent of ads. However, with paid links making up only 15 percent of total listings, it is clear that primary focus for SEO practitioners should be organic.
The top two places in the SERPs are way too important to ignore in terms of value and as a webmaster you should be looking to employ an SEO strategy to firstly get to the top of the rankings, and then stay there.
If this means employing an expert SEO practitioner to execute on-page tactics such as keyword rich content, search engine-friendly URLs and captivating meta descriptions, then so be it. The cost of hiring an SEO professional will be minuscule when compared with the benefits to be had from featuring at the top of Google’s listings.
Find someone that can help set-up and employ a diverse range of SEO tactics to maximise the potential of your site.
As the saying goes, ‘if you’re not first you’re last’ and employing an effective SEO strategy is the only to ensure you stay ahead of the competition.