Our Foundational Checklist for SEO
Often, potential clients come to us with a preconceived idea of which services are right for their business. While it’s great to have a few things in mind, it’s important to maintain an open mind.
Often, the services our clients think they need are not the ones that are going to have the greatest effect on their bottom line.
At Distl, we focus on unearthing the nitty-gritty. We home in on all the details that make your business unique, and curate a laser-sharp strategy that’s designed to build a resilient business.
But how do we do it?
Our Process
We’ve seen a lot of change at Distl over the years. One thing that has continued to grow and develop is the way we onboard and meet with new or potential clients.
Rather than go straight from sales meeting through to inception and subsequent strategy, we’ve developed an in-depth approach that allows us to get to know our clients on a deeper level before we dive into work.
Our onboarding process is two-fold:
- General workshop to understand the client and their industry,
- Post research, a second meeting to recommend which services we believe are best suited.
This is just one of our many processes that allow us to go further, dig deeper and focus on the bigger picture.
Recommending Additional Services
We get it – no one wants to feel “sold to”. But that’s not how we look at it.
When we recommend services, it’s because we’ve noticed an opportunity that could yield some promising results. All services have synergies with one another. We like to educate our clients on any opportunities and allow them to make an informed decision before they proceed. We empower them, not push them.
Where It Usually Begins – SEO
Every client can benefit from SEO, because it exists to improve the bottom line performance for any business’ online property. Creating a strong foundation will can prepare your website for other services like Google Ads or Paid Social media campaigns.
That’s why we like to start here.
Your website is your business’ digital storefront. The key difference to Its physical counterpart is that thanks to search engines, it exists on a street with more foot traffic than ever before, but you share it wall to wall with all your toughest competitors. That is why we want to make sure your open sign is always up, and your lights are shining onto the street. Potential customers looking for a service you offer, need to feel enticed to come through your door and motivated to navigate your site to make a transaction; be it in the form of an inquiry or direct purchase.
Good User Experience (UX), clear and informative content, and fast website speed make an enormous difference and keeps Google happy.
Once we have addressed these foundational factors, we are more confident that other channels will be more effective.
So, how can you be sure your website is in good-nick SEO-wise?
The Foundation Checklist for SEO
If you’re currently managing your own website, here’s a quick checklist to help you check your website:
1. Check your website load speed.
Make sure your website loads quickly, we like to see a score of 60+ for mobile and ~90 for desktop. Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to see where you can improve: https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/.
2. Make sure your Metadata (Titles & Descriptions) are optimised and up to date
Meta data is the sales pitch for each page, using a tool such as SEO Meta in 1 Click will allow you to see whether your site has meta data input and whether it could be improved. Using a WordPress plugin like Yoast (https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo/) can help you take control of your metadata and tell Google which keywords are applicable to your site you want to optimise for.
3. Make sure you have a logical menu structure
Is it clear and easy to navigate? Does it outline your service offering? outlines your service silos?
4. Have a clear and easy to understand URL structure.
Keep it simple and not too long! Let’s take one of Distl’s core services as an example:
Yes: .com.au/services/google-ads/
No: .com.au/our-digital-marketing-services/google-ads-sem-ppc-in-perth-australia/
5. Setup and use Google Analytics & Tag Manager
If you’re not sure how to setup Analytics, here is a useful walkthrough: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1008015?hl=en
Once setup, make sure your goal tracking is setup properly (Calls, Emails, Form Submissions).
Can you clearly identify attribution to your enquiries? (Where have they come from).
Are you physically receiving the same amount of phone calls, emails, or form submissions as your tracking suggests?
6. Setup and use Google Search Console
You can access Google Search Console through the same account you setup Google Analytics with (They’re part of the same suite of tools). Within Search Console, you’ll be able to identify which keywords people are searching to find your website, as well as which pages gain the most traffic.
7. Check your front-end
Look at the visual elements of your website and your copy.
– Are the engaging?
– Is the copy easy to understand?
– Have you included call to action buttons?
When to bring in PPC / Paid Social / Content
It can be hard to know when an appropriate time is to start adding on additional services to SEO.
First, let’s quickly breakdown how to view each service:
SEO
Great for attracting users entering with broader search terms. SEO tends to be a longer game as you’re trying to outrank your competition.
PPC and Paid Social
This opens the door for us to niche down our targeting. We can target quality, qualified traffic that is further down the customer journey and ready to convert.
Display Ads and YouTube
Great for raising awareness and nurturing users further down the customer journey if they’re not quite ready to convert.
Organic Social
Also, an excellent channel to raise awareness. Often the first touchpoint and fantastic for building brand loyalty and engage with your audience.
EDMs and Automations
Nurture. Nurture. Nurture. Helps to keep you front of mind with your audience when they’re still in the awareness and consideration phase of their buying journey.
So, when do we need to bring in another service?
Well, it depends.
We need to align your business, industry, and current state with the service which will best reach your audience.
Once we’ve completed the foundational SEO checklist, we can start to branch out and investigate which additional services may best suit your business.
What are your short- and long-term goals? Have we either met your short-term goals, or is there still more to be done?
Often, this can come down to budget as well. Do you have the marketing budget to start advertising in new channels such as Google Ads or Paid Social?
Every strategy is different. Every client is different. There is no “one-size fits all” approach. Recommendations are based on what we see will achieve the best results for clients and deliver the most value.
What’s next?
If you’ve been working on your own marketing and hitting roadblocks or worked through our checklist and need help with the next steps of your strategy, Get in touch with us today and start your digital marketing journey with Distl.